Blood at Yellow Water (8 page)

P.M. Murray tossed a coin, Koshi called
heads and lost. Murray said,

“O.K., we hit off first, shall we make it
match play. Would you like a small wager on the game?

Koshi shook his head in agreement.

“Great, shall we play for $500?”

“O.K.” said Koshi, a slight smile on his
face.

Anna Sentoro went up to the ladies red tee,
had a few practice swings, teed up the ball and hit the ball
sweetly, a little to the left of the fairway about 150 metres. She
was applauded politely by everyone.

Prime Minister Murray strode up to the men’s
tee, did a few stretching exercises, took out his driver and
thumped the ball 250 metres straight down the middle of the
fairway. He beamed with pride as everyone clapped.

Then it was Koshi’s turn to tee up. He
pulled out his drive and hit a long low drive perfectly but a good
40 metres short of Murray’s ball. Once again everyone applauded
politely.

Jake feeling extremely nervous and out of
his depth, pushed his tee into the ground and tried to place the
ball on the tee. His hand was shaking so much, it took him three
tries before he could get the ball to sit firmly on the tee.

“Here goes nothing,” he said to himself as
he took a deep breath and swung his three wood mightily at the
ball. The ball took off skimming just inches above the ground but
to Jake’s dismay it smacked into the concrete red mound on the
ladies tee and took a huge lob backwards. Everyone scattered as the
ball plopped back on the tee a metre in front of Jake’s feet.

There was amusement all round and Neville
Murray guffawed at Jake’s predicament saying, “I’d love to see you
do that shot again Jake. Let’s make the stakes $1,000.”

Shame-faced and not prepared to take the
risk of using the wood again, Jake took out his four iron,
carefully addressed the ball and used a slow backswing to hit the
ball. This time the ball flew some 150 metres and finished in the
rough on the left side of the fairway. Not a great outcome but he
heaved a sigh of relief as he walked to his cart.

Koshi murmured encouraging words to Jake as
they drove off in the cart to take their second shots.

Jake improved with his third shot but put
his fourth into the bunker beside the green. He managed to blast
out of the bunker at the first attempt and landed on the green, two
putted and finished with a seven. In the meantime, Murray had hit
the green with his second shot and two-putted to finish with a par
four. Sentoro and Koshi each finished with a bogie five. First hole
to Murray and Sentoro.

The next few holes went quickly with Jake
starting to grow in confidence as his play improved and he started
holing a few long putts. After the first nine holes they were three
holes behind.

The tenth hole was a difficult par five
taking a dog leg to the left with lagoons on both sides of the
fairway and deep bunkers surrounding the green. Koshi hit a solid
tee shot but drove his second into rough on the side of the lagoon.
Jake descended from the cart to help him look for the ball. There
was no sign of his ball and they poked their golf sticks into the
reeds on the edge of the lagoon.

Koshi let out a sigh of relief as he spotted
his ball just a few centimetres in the muddy water and took his
stance with one foot in the water and the other on the bank. Jake
was about ten metres away when he sensed rather than saw a ripple
in the water. He hurled himself at Koshi in a flying leap knocking
him sideways onto the bank just as a huge crocodile launched itself
at Koshi. The crocodile just missed his leg but managed to grip his
golf stick in its jaws. Jake hauled Koshi up the bank dragging him
through the mud as the crocodile angrily tossed the golf club from
side to side.

A bewildered Koshi gradually picked himself
up not quite realising what had just happened. Then he saw the
crocodile swimming away with his golf stick in its mouth and
suddenly gasped as the horror of the situation struck him. Jake
brushed him off just as the bodyguards arrived in their cart
wondering what the commotion was all about. Jake gave him some
water and sat him down in the cart to allow him to recover from his
shock. After drinking the water, he calmed down and thanked Jake
for his quick action.

Prime Minister Murray and Sentoro drove up
and were horrified at Koshi’s near miss. After checking that Koshi
was unharmed, Murray said,

“You can’t continue on after such an ordeal
Koshi-san. We will just to have a call it off. Of course that means
we win the match and the money,” he continued half-jokingly.

Jake couldn’t help himself and whispered in
Koshi’s ear, “That’s a crock of shit Koshi.”

Koshi got the joke and started laughing. His
laugh was infectious and soon they all started laughing. The
laughter rumbled on and each time they stopped someone would tell
another crocodile joke and they would start up again.

Eventually, Koshi took a penalty drop and
continued playing, still chuckling to himself. His game seemed to
have improved after the near-miss with the crocodile and they won
the next two holes.

Coming up to the 18th hole, Koshi and Jake
were still one hole down with one to play. The 18
^th
was
a 220 metre par three with the huge green ringed by bunkers. All
four players hit their tee shots. Anna hit from the ladies’ tee and
her ball fell short of the green by about 30 metres, Murray’s shot
landed on the green about 15 metres from the flag. Koshi hit his
shot into the back bunker while Jake’s ball hit the edge of the
green but rolled back into the front bunker.

Murray looked triumphantly at Koshi.
“There’s going to be some pressure on you now Koshi-san.”

Koshi just smiled and said stoically, “After
facing a crocodile, I can handle any pressure.”

They walked up the fairway. Sentoro played
her second shot but over-hit it, the ball landing on the back of
the green, leaving her a 20 metre putt. Jake took out a sand wedge,
walked into the bunker, swung at the ball, connected it too cleanly
and it went sailing across the green and landed in the bunker on
the opposite side of the green.

With Murray watching with a smile on his
lips, Koshi walked into the bunker, also took out his sand wedge,
calmly lined up the ball and swung easily. The ball flew out of the
bunker too high but to everyone’s amazement struck the flag near
the top and fell straight down into the hole. Koshi threw his arms
up in triumph and received a huge high-five from Jake as he walked
over the green to pick his ball up out of the hole.

Murray watched grim-faced as Sentoro lined
up her putt but missed to the right of the pin. Then he lined up
his 15 metre putt carefully, aware that he needed to sink the putt
to even the hole and win the match. He struck the ball firmly and
held up his hand triumphantly as it appeared to be going in the
hole, only to see it lip around the edge at the last milli-second
and finish two centimetres past the cup.

The match was a tie. Koshi beamed with
delight as he congratulated Sentoro and Murray, then turned around
and gave Jake a huge bear hug. Such a show of emotion was most
uncharacteristic of Koshi.

After freshening up, they walked into the
club dining room where a light lunch had been set-up on the
terrace. Jake was invited to join them. They had a panoramic view
of the golf course which was ablaze with multi-coloured tropical
plants surrounding the lush green fairways.

They ordered drinks and chatted
enthusiastically for a time about the golf match.

Murray downed a beer and leaned over towards
Koshi.

“Koshi san, I hope we can come to some form
of agreement in the next couple of days but my advisers say they
are not making any progress on some of the key issues, especially
market access for some of our key agricultural exports.”

“I am getting the same advice from my own
officials, especially on the investment issues,” replied Koshi.

They talked about some of the unresolved
issues while eating their entrée.

Eventually, Murray looked towards Jake.

“You’ve been heavily involved in the
officials’ talks Jake, but I’m advised they are at a stalemate on
trade and investment. Anna tells me you have some ideas for
breaking the impasse. Please speak frankly.”

“Yes that’s right Prime Minister, we seem to
be going over the same issues but not getting anywhere. However, I
have suggested some solutions to Minister Sentoro,” replied
Jake.

Koshi sipped his beer and said, “Yes, I am
also concerned about the slow pace of the discussions. I would be
interested to hear your suggestions, Jake.”

Jake drew a deep breath and thought to
himself “What the hell, here goes nothing!”

“Well Ministers, I think the only way to go
is to take a holistic approach, include everything in the trade
provisions so that it is truly a free trade agreement (FTA) with no
exceptions. Nearly every FTA in place around the world, excluding
the Australia-New Zealand Agreement, has a long list of exceptions
and conditions. We should make this a trade agreement with no
limitations. I realise this would take a lot of political goodwill
and some major compromises from both sides.”

Jake expanded on his ideas while the three
listened attentively. Murray looked at Jake.

Koshi interposed, “I am not sure what
advantages there would be for Japan? Our farmers would take a lot
of convincing that such a deal would be in their interest.”

“A compromise solution would be for
Australia to remove all barriers to investment from Japan. There
would be no limits on Japanese ownership of investments in
Australia. Japanese investment would not be subject to controls by
the Australian Investment Review Board. Japanese companies could
buy Australian land and properties which would help them develop
minerals and food production for the Japanese market. And we could
also include provisions for settlement of disputes on
investment.”

“That would be a positive outcome Jake but
I’m still not sure it would be enough for me to sell the package to
my people,” said Koshi.

Jake took a deep breath. “Well we could look
at the submarine contract, perhaps as a joint venture.”

Koshi looked surprised at this because to
date the Australian Government had been reluctant to talk seriously
about including the submarine contract in the negotiations.

“That would be of great interest to Japan,”
he said emphatically.

Murray quickly intervened, “You have some
interesting thoughts there Jake but what you are proposing would be
difficult politically for both sides. There would be a lot of
senior people in industry and government who would have to come on
board. Could you prepare a paper outlining how this would work and
what concessions each side would have to make?”

“Yes, I have already prepared a broad sheet
listing the issues and concessions to be made for each side and
proposing solutions.”

“I would be interested in seeing your
document Jake,” said Koshi.

“I’m happy to pass this on to you with the
permission of my Prime Minister,” Jake replied.

“That’s fine by me Jake,” Murray concurred.
“Can you translate it into Japanese and pass it on to Koshi-san? If
we both see merit in Jake’s proposals, we can make that the
centrepiece of our talks, rather than go through the detail of the
issues again.”

They finished up their lunch and Murray
turned to Koshi and said

“Well, it’s time to get down to work,
Koshi-san. The ministerial talks start at 2 pm.”

As they broke up and set off towards the
resort, Jake asked Koshi in Japanese if he enjoyed his lunch.

“Yes, I did Jake, but what type of meat was
it that we had for the main course? It tasted a little like
chicken.”

“Oh no, Koshi-san, that wasn’t chicken. It
was crocodile meat,” Jake chuckled.

Koshi burst into laughter, bowed to Jake and
went off to his room.

Jake rushed back to his room, pulled out his
notebook computer, worked furiously on refining his proposals and
then translated them into Japanese. He advised Jenny Antrim that
the P.M.s had agreed on a different approach and gave her his
broadsheet. He sought out Saito and gave him a copy of the version
in Japanese.

Promptly at 2 p.m., both delegations sat
down for the introductions. Prime Minister Murray welcomed Prime
Minister Koshi and his delegation and outlined the framework for
the conference. Koshi responded in kind thanking Murray and his
delegation for their hospitality and expressing his hope that the
conference would be successful in agreeing to a treaty.

The meeting then got down to business
following the pre-arranged agenda containing a list of twenty-seven
items. The first items covered standard protocol issues before
coming to the substantive issues. The foreign ministers and defence
ministers led the discussions, starting with a report on the
ministerial meetings in the morning. All comments had to be
translated by interpreters which doubled the time taken to deal
with issues. After an hour and a half, little progress had been
made on the substantive issues and the meeting paused for afternoon
tea. Prime Minister Murray called Prime Minister Koshi aside and
the two had an earnest discussion for the next twenty minutes.

As the talks recommenced, the two P.M.s
jointly announced a new agenda item which they called “The P.M.s’
Action Plan.” They then had distributed a large broadsheet to
everyone around the table and in firm language requested the
meeting to examine the proposal as their sole priority for the rest
of the afternoon. There was a buzz of surprise and expectancy from
both sides of the meeting as they looked at the Plan.

Jake looked at the paper and realised it was
virtually a replica of his own proposal. He was even more surprised
when P.M. Murray asked him to explain the Plan to the meeting.
Somewhat nervously, Jake stood up and went through the package of
measures contained in the Plan. He gained more confidence as he
went along, switching from English to Japanese to describe each
point to both sides.