In comments to the Australian, Keating, who of all the Labor leaders forged the most intimate ties with Suharto, described him as a close friend and key strategic ally, brushing aside his crimes as “missing the point”.

Keating’s presence at the funeral was not a personal or spur of the moment decision. The Rudd government’s delegation included Attorney General Robert McClelland, standing in for the Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, and the Australian ambassador to Indonesia, Bill Farmer. Keating’s apologetics are part and parcel of the longstanding relationship that successive Australian governments, Labor and Liberal, had with the Suharto dictatorship for more than three decades.

An editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald on January 15, when it appeared that Suharto’s death was imminent, urged Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to attend the funeral. After noting Rudd’s presence would be seen “as conferring some kind of forgiveness for the dark side of Suharto’s rise to power”, the newspaper elaborated on the critical role played by Suharto for Australian interests and called on Rudd to go—“as a mark of respect for the office [of president] and as a sign of our involvement with Indonesia.”

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