WHALING

If East Timor had once been a pebble in the shoes of Indonesia and Australia, in the Australia- Japan's bilateral relations, the whaling issue is the pebble. Both countries have different national interests in the presence of whales in the Southern Ocean waters. Over these past eight days, the Australian and Japanese media have paid bigger attention to the whaling issue especially after two activists of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) were “detained” by the crews of the Japanese whaling ship, “Yushin Maru No 2” on January 15. Benjamin Potts and Giles Lane were detained after they illegally boarded the Japanese ship in their effort to give a letter of protest to the Japanese whaling activities. This incident has forced the Australian government to approach Tokyo to help release the Australian and British nationals securely to their ship, “Steve Irwin”. Despite the good will of Tokyo, the releasing process is not smooth as expected because the SSCS ignores the call for an end of harassing the Japanese ships during their whaling activities in the Southern Ocean. The SSCS completely rejects any conditions for the release of its activists that the Japanese ship crews call the modern pirates. The Japanese government has consistently defended its whaling activities because they are internationally recognized as part of its scientific whaling program. However, Canberra refuses it with an argument that it is not purely for scientific but commercial purpose. If the objective of the whaling activities is purely research, why then Japan needs around 1,000 whales to be hunted during this summer? That’s the basic argument of Australia. Of course, Japan has its own argument: international legality. Canberra cannot easily push its want beyond the international law if it does not want to spark any international dispute with Japan owing to the fact that the Japanese scientific whaling activities are internationally recognized. In conclusion, the release of Benjamin Potts and Giles Lane on January 18 that Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith claims as a diplomatic victory will not end the harassing activities of the SSCS’ ship towards the Japanese ships in the Antarctic waters. This is clear. Thus, the whaling issue will remain the pebble in the shoes of Australia and Japan’s bilateral relations. The maturity of governments and people of Australia and Japan is highly demanded in order not to jeopardize their relationship. With regard to the whaling issue, they have actually had different national interests from the beginning. For Australia, whales are enough for being watched only, but NOT for Japan. If Australia preserves them for supporting its whale watching industries, Japan hunts the mammal for “other purposes”.