http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/we-must-make-the-running-with-indonesia/story-e6frg6so-1225840630651
We must make the running with Indonesia Rowan Callick From: The Australian March 15, 2010 12:00AM THE visit of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last week was a triumph. What can top it? A visit by the US President? As it happens, Barack Obama is due here soon, although the visit has been put back and shortened because he needs to sort out the US health system. But he will be here. And by then we'll have filed the SBY visit away with other happy snaps. We have become accustomed, ever since our founding as a nation by Britain, to weighing our international relations by standards other than proximity. The people-smuggling waves, the terrorist bombings and the drug sentences on Australians directly affect our relationship with Indonesia, and all bear weight because of proximity. During SBY's visit, measures were promised to ameliorate these problems. Jakarta Post columnist Ati Nurbaiti wrote explaining the roots of the latter issue: "While in Australia people get `slapped on the wrist' for carrying illegal drugs, it's hard for Australians to understand how people could be jailed, let alone put to death, for such a crime." Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. Such differences of understanding, emerging from a cultural chasm, are at the root of the fragility of the overall relationship, however warm the sentiments between the two political elites. Lowy Institute polling, and similar surveys in Indonesia, highlight the persistence of out-of-date negative stereotypes. Such patterns tend to emerge from experience. Islamist terrorists are still at large in Indonesia, whose military continues to act cruelly in West Papua and elsewhere, while we still have supporters of White Australia, and our universities provide support for West Papuan independence activists, seen in Indonesia as part of a neo-colonial imperative to pull the nation apart. But such people are on the margins these days. The Jakarta Post editorialised as SBY arrived: "In the greater theme of Indonesia-Australia relations, (the visit) should not be regarded as a historic milestone any more. As closest neighbours, such visits should be rudimentary in the same way as one visits the house next door. Nothing special, but no less important." An admirable sentiment. But the visit was special to us, more than to Indonesia, for two reasons. First, because SBY is so special - we may not for a long time have such a supportive leader next door. And second, because Indonesia is crucial to our security and to our economic future. Indonesia, the world's third-largest democracy, grew its economy at 4 per cent through the global downturn last year, and will return to 6 per cent-plus growth this year. Yet our trade is only half that with New Zealand, and our investment less than 1 per cent of our total overseas. Under Suharto, Indonesia's economy developed, but only so far, and the benefits were distributed very unevenly. Today, democratic and internationally minded Indonesia is fast catching up with its formerly more successful Asian peers. It is fostering a vast middle class, several times larger than the entire Australian population. If we miss out in Indonesia, what would that say about our economic future? Because of past prejudices, Australians have become used to viewing ourselves as the courted party in this relationship. But we must begin getting used to the reality that as the smaller nation, we have to make the running. Tim Lindsey, director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne and one of Australia's leading Indonesia experts, commended SBY's announcement about criminalising people-smuggling, pointing out: "Australia is the destination country and Indonesia the transit country. It's not really their problem - there's nothing in it for them." Professor Lindsey, now in Jakarta, said the Oceanic Viking saga involving Sri Lankan asylum-seekers, was not a big story in Indonesia. "They have many displaced people of their own internally." He says the big question is what to do next, beyond more frequent political exchanges. "The challenge is for Australia to respond to the people-smuggling move by changing its official travel warnings." Many Australians routinely ignore advisory notices when travelling to Bali as tourists, as Tony Abbott pointed out, but business, public service and especially educational visits are still restricted because of the insurance consequences of defying them. Educational and other institutions are unable to make such judgment calls on their own. And the engagement of tourists with Indonesians is limited - some don't even realise Bali is part of Indonesia. Professor Lindsey said that despite some restoration of funding for Asian languages by the Rudd government, Indonesian studies were in crisis. The subject had declined during Kevin Rudd's time in office, he said. "We have the lowest levels of teaching of Indonesian language in a decade." He fears the two governments will be out there on their own, and the relationship will unravel again. "The failure of a broader understanding of each other among Australians and Indonesians will eventually pull the relationship apart." The whole relationship "can't be run by Kevin Rudd and SBY", Professor Lindsey warns, however strong the goodwill between the two leaders. Related Coverage a.. 'We feel the pain of Balibo killings' The Australian, 2 days ago b.. Five years jail for smugglers Perth Now, 3 days ago c.. Indonesia to jail people-smugglers The Australian, 3 days ago d.. Feel-good show lacked depth The Australian, 4 days ago e.. A refreshingly frank address The Australian, 4 days ago
