Australia's enthusiastic embrace of Indonesian democracy overlooks the bleak truth that sweeping political reforms in Jakarta falter when powerful vested interests stand in the way.
Nowhere is this more tragically apparent than in the remote, resource-rich Indonesian province of Papua. Despite repeated promises of political autonomy, an end to military repression and a fairer share for the local people of Papua's considerable natural wealth, it's business as usual.
Credible reports of a recent military build-up and continued threats against Papuan activists suggest far too little has changed since the collapse of the abusive Soeharto dictatorship in 1998.
An extensive research project by Yale University concluded in 2003 that systematic and horrific human rights abuses at the hands of Indonesian troops, resources-stripping, environmental degradation and the destruction of traditional agriculture were "calculated to bring about the destruction" of the Papuan people. That is tantamount to genocide.
The landing this week of a group of Papuan asylum seekers on Cape York should focus the Howard Government's attention firmly on this forgotten conflict on Australia's doorstep.
The decision to make the perilous trip across the Torres Strait in a large, dugout canoe would not have been taken lightly. Australia has never supported Papuan activists seeking independence from Indonesia, despite the rigged referendum which incorporated the former Dutch colony into Indonesia in 1969.
But that does not mean ignoring the plight of the Papuan people. The with Indonesia's majority Malay Muslims and have been fighting a sporadic guerilla war for independence since Indonesia assumed control. The Indonesian military uses the conflict as a pretext to make tens of millions of dollars a year from logging, extortion and in "protection" money at the giant US-operated Freeport copper and gold mine.
The Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has put the armed forces on notice that their extraordinary Soeharto-era business privileges are coming to an end. Plans To hand autonomy to the Papuan people are already on the table In Jakarta.
It can be done. International pressure following the 2004 tsunami highlighted similar longstanding grievances in Aceh, resulting in a peace treaty. Reform in Indonesia's remotest corners is every bit as important as a fine, new parliament in the capital. And Australia needs to tell Jakarta so, in the frankest of terms. Real friends tell each other what they need to know, not what they want to hear.