Shooting the deputy sheriff

Reports out of Papua New Guinea (PNG) are claiming that John Howard is making the big push for his status as South Pacific policeman.

He actually verbalised the dream a few years back, styling himself the US's deputy sheriff in Asia. That went down like a lead balloon and he quickly pulled his horns in.

New plans to boost Australian Federal Police and troop numbers to strengthen up the Pacific role are seen as the re-birthing of the petty despot's dream.

PNG's Post-Courier said Australia could play a vital role in boosting regional security by helping to strengthen the PNG Defence Force (PNGDF), rather than assisting in its downsizing.

It said the tone of Howard's announcement seemed to be that Australia did not want to have any joint role with Pacific Island security forces in maintaining regional security.

"In other words it wants to play the role of a regional sheriff, taking pre-emptive strikes against the smaller nations of this region as and when it sees fit."

In a coup for diplomacy Howard also called PNG "inherently unstable", triggering even more vitriol from the Pacific neighbours.

Howard's reasoning that Australia was seen as the responsible nation in the region was not far removed from accepting the "role of South Pacific policeman, a sort of pale imitation of [US President] George Bush's image of his country's global role", the editorial said.

UPDATE:

So what does the Deputy Sherriff do? Well it’s more the posse -

An Australian federal policeman allegedly demanded that a senior East Timorese police officer take off his uniform in public in an incident that has angered Timorese MPs and may lead to a diplomatic protest.

The head of the East Timorese police academy, Julio Hornai said that he was humiliated by the incident, which, he said, "violated the dignity of East Timor".

"I don't have a problem with the Australian police who came to help solve our problems," Inspector Hornai said. "But it doesn't mean that they can come here and not respect us."

Yes, they blunder about annoying everyone they come in contact with. Howard is going all out to emulate George, it seems.