INDONESIA
CONFIDENTIAL UKEA
27 a,ced
5. John Ford managed to visit the detention centre at Buru before leaving but conducted himself with such aplomb that his relationship with the senior Indonesian leadership was not affected. lle made the headlines in the British press, which quoted him to the effect that life on Buru would be bearable provided there were enough women to go round. Our old correspondents in Tapol were much exercised. Their most recent campaign has been to secure the cancellation of a recently signed contract to sell the Indonesians eight Hawk aircraft; Tapol contend that the aircraft could be used to suppress the "freedom movement" in Timor, or (a place I had never heard about previously) West Papua, New Guinea. Ministers have so far responded robustly, even when faced by an intervention from a lady styling herself Information Officer of the West Popus New Guinea Government.
THE PHILIPPINES
6. We followed with interest President Marcos' efforts to preserve his own position while going through the motions of running à Free
Understandably, he seemed a bit rusty on procedure.
election.
Somewhat
to our surprise, judging from the absence of MPs' letters or bus, there has so far been no interest among the public in the various newspaper accounts of electoral malpractice. Lord Goronwy-Roberts, who was not long back from a successful visit to Manila, summenn The Philippines Ambassador in order to get the elegant but idle Mr Stilianopoulos to seek his Government's views on the reports. Mr Stilianopoulos took refuge behind the complaint that the British press was incorrigibly biased against The Philippines and that it was for the FCO to rectify the matter. There was no evidence that he himself had tried to do anything on his own behalf since the time when the BBC television film "Collision Course" aroused his ire in 1977. He then loftily turned down two invitations fron Bir Charles Curran to discuss the issue.
MALAYSIA
7. The relationship has been bedevilled by the Malaysians' refusal to allow Concorde to overfly a few miles of their territorial waters supersonically. The Malaysians have not tried seriously to
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