By David Crowe
Security and secrecy were essential to the fate of the final five members of the Bali Nine to be brought home to Australia – and their families knew it.
Parents and other family members were told over the past few days that the five men would be on a commercial flight from Bali on Sunday, but they were also told they could not be in Darwin to greet them when they landed.
Australian and Indonesian officials on the tarmac before the commercial flight bringing the remaining Bali Nine members home.
After months of negotiation over the transfer, the Australian authorities were adamant there would be no celebration to mark the return of the convicted drug traffickers who had served almost two decades in prison.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did not meet them at the airport. Their parents could not be there for a reunion on Australian soil.
Instead, the five men were quickly taken from the flight to a bus and then to the Howard Springs detention facility. Their families, who had been patient for so long, understood they would have to wait a little longer.
This was about showing respect to Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto after he had shown his friendship to Australia by deciding the men could be sent home. The transfer was only possible because he had made the unilateral decision to let them go.
“This was about compassion,” says one Australian government source who declined to be named due to concerns about diplomatic protocol. “It was not a transaction.”
The last thing the Australian side wanted was blanket media coverage at Darwin to show the five men walking free – an image that might cause trouble for Prabowo among Indonesians who remain deeply uncomfortable with the release of the convicted drug traffickers.
The sensitivities were so great that one intervention almost stalled the release. When news broke last month about the potential release, Coalition shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash demanded answers on November 24 about what Albanese had done.
“What has he extracted in relation for the deal?” she asked. “What is Australia giving up in relation to the deal? How much is it going to cost the Australian taxpayer? Who’s paying for it?”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto held talks in Peru during the APEC summit.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The Australian government worried her message would only stir up more objections within Indonesia to discourage Prabowo from going ahead with the release. It was unhelpful when so many in Indonesian politics were aware of her comments.
It has taken years to bring the men home. Two Liberal prime ministers, Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull, had sought help from Indonesian leaders to make it happen.
But it was the “bicycle diplomacy” of June 2022, when Albanese had just become prime minister and went cycling with then-president Joko Widodo on an official visit to Indonesia, that took the discussions to a higher level.
Albanese asked Widodo to agree to the request and repeated the request at several later meetings, but the prospect of this year’s Indonesian presidential election slowed down the decision.
Anthony Albanese and Joko Widodo during the June 2022 visit.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Things changed after Prabowo, a retired army general who has visited Australia several times, won the election in March.
Albanese and Prabowo had dinner in Canberra in August. The prime minister raised the fate of the Bali prisoners once again. It was a direct, personal request, but it could not be rushed because any decision would have to wait until after Prabowo’s inauguration on October 24.
While some media commentators criticised Albanese for not attending that inauguration, government sources say this was never an issue for the Indonesian leader. He accepted Albanese had to be in Australia for King Charles and Queen Camilla’s visit. There is no sign of any ill-will in Jakarta over the inauguration.
As with the release of journalist Cheng Lei in China and Sean Turnell in Myanmar, the prime minister used direct talks to seek to bring Australians home. It was the same approach for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who came home in June.
The next step came on November 14 when Albanese and Prabowo held a formal meeting at the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in the Peruvian capital of Lima. The Indonesian side knew to expect the Australians to raise the Bali Nine once more. And the president made it clear he was willing to allow the transfer.
This was meant to remain quiet until the formalities were arranged, but word leaked in Jakarta. Indonesia’s coordinating minister for law, human rights, immigration and correctional institutions, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, said the president had “approved the steps” to settle the matter but made it clear there were further steps to go.
There appeared to be complications when Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke visited Jakarta on December 3 to meet his Indonesian counterpart, mostly to discuss border security and asylum seekers crossing to Australia by boat.
But Prabowo continued with the approach he had set out in Lima – to show clemency.
Crucially, the comments from Albanese on Sunday did not talk about the personal freedom of the last of the Bali Nine to come home. The prime minister said they would embark on “rehabilitation and reintegration” in Australia. He emphasised they had committed serious offences, and he backed Indonesia in its hard line on narcotics. As with the other arrangements, this was about showing respect for Prabowo and Indonesia.
In the end, the outcome matched the high hopes set out last month when the Australian side thought they could get the five men home by Christmas. One of those involved says officials were worried for days that it might not work out, adding: “What’s incredible is that we got it landed.”
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