Australia-RI security: 'Learn the words'<\/p>\n
Rob Goodfellow, New South Wales, Australia<\/p>\n
With elections pending in Australia and Indonesia, the bombing
\nof the Australian Embassy in Jakarta last week has placed
\nsecurity at the top of respective national campaigns.
\nUnfortunately, an important opportunity may be lost as
\npoliticians in both countries attempt to outbid each other over
\nwho is tougher on the issue of security.<\/p>\n
For example the leaders' debate between Liberal Prime Minister
\nJohn Howard and Labor Opposition leader Mark Latham, aired on
\nAustralian national television on Sunday night, was dominated by
\nmilitary and security responses to \"the war on terror\".<\/p>\n
It must not be forgotten that any effective regional strategy
\nagainst terrorism must be comprehensive and include identifying
\nand removing individual terror cells, ideologically isolating
\nextremists from mainstream Indonesian Islam, and fostering closer
\npolitical, social, cultural, religious and educational
\ncooperation.<\/p>\n
In addition to bolstering mutual police and intelligence
\nresources, it is vitally important that both Australia and
\nIndonesia strengthen the capacity to analyse the cultural,
\nsocietal and political contexts in which terrorists operate.<\/p>\n
With Australia spending over $A500 million to fight regional
\nterrorism, there is a strong case for the Australian Government
\nto make an urgent strategic investment in Asian Studies along the
\nsame lines as has been done so fruitfully with the Australian
\nInstitute of Sport or AIS. The AIS produces elite athletes.<\/p>\n
This is one key reason why Australia, despite its small
\npopulation of some 20 million, was able to dominate the recent
\nOlympic Games in Athens. What Australia needs are elite scholars,
\nmen and woman trained to engage Indonesia at many levels -- not
\njust counter-terrorism. This especially includes the study of
\nIndonesian history, society and language.<\/p>\n
Some of this work is being done within state bureaus such as
\nthe Office of National Assessment (ONA), the Australian Security
\nIntelligence Organisation (ASIO), the Australian Secret
\nIntelligence Service (ASIS), Indonesia's Badan Intelligen
\nNational (BIN) and respective national Departments of Foreign
\nAffairs and Trade; however this level of knowledge-building must
\nalso occur in independent think tanks and, more importantly, in
\npublic universities. Indeed, without building up the capacity of
\nthe latter, there will be too few experts trained and available
\nto staff government agencies.<\/p>\n
Australia was caught off-guard by Jemaah Islamiyah, in part,
\nbecause there is too little scholarly expertise in Australia
\nabout Islam in Southeast Asia and in Asia as a whole (an
\nextraordinary omission given that 60 percent of all Muslims are
\nAsians).<\/p>\n
According to scholars such as Greg Barton, the author of the
\nnewly released book, Indonesia's struggle: Jemaah Islamiyah and
\nthe Soul of Islam, \"hundreds of millions of dollars of 'eye in
\nthe sky' hardware for covert surveillance and signals
\ninterceptions is all but useless without human expertise such as
\nknowledge of Asian languages and cultures\".<\/p>\n
The extra investment in the Australian Federal Police's (AFP)
\ncounter-terrorism capacity, in particular in the AFP's
\ncooperation with the Indonesian Police, is important and timely.
\nSo too is the extra investment in ONA, ASIO, ASIS, and other
\nagencies. However, Australia will be missing an extraordinary
\nopportunity if it does not strategically invest in building
\nAustralia's academic capacity to understand and interpret Asia.<\/p>\n
It is not acceptable that only five percent of Australian
\nuniversity students study any aspect of Asia and only three
\npercent an Asian language.<\/p>\n
Two years ago, during Paul Keating's private visit to Jakarta,
\na journalist asked the former Australian Prime Minister to
\nexplain why it was that some Australian politicians had so much
\ndifficulty managing the relationship with Indonesia. Keating's
\nintriguing response was that the Australian Government \"could
\nwhistle the tune but didn't know the words to the song\". In other
\nwords, Australia well-understood the strategic importance of our
\nneighbour -- we could appreciate similarity -- but were never
\nable to successfully manage the subtleties of difference and
\ndisagreement.<\/p>\n
Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat, former Indonesian Ambassador to
\nAustralia, once said at a function in Sydney, \"it is important
\nthat as neighbours in a troubled world we must look for every
\nopportunity to build processes that will survive changes in
\ngovernment. These processes must involve a mature and measured
\n'behind the scenes' approach involving real people working
\ntogether\".<\/p>\n
At the same gathering, Sutjipto, General Secretary of the
\nIndonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) surprisingly
\nremarked to me that \"for Australia 'the wind blows from the
\neast'. Your destiny is in Asia. Indonesia is the key to your
\nsuccess and security in the region. The best system for
\nmaintaining order is one built on good relationships with one's
\nneighbouring country. If relationships are good then, of course,
\nthe system of maintaining order will be sound\".<\/p>\n
This relationship is complex, but possible to successfully
\nmanage, especially if Australia devotes even a small fraction of
\ncurrent anti-terror resources to developing a deeper
\nunderstanding of Indonesian culture and society -- in particular
\nIslam. Post-Bali and Jakarta bombings, this developing
\nunderstanding would benefit enormously from a strategic
\ninvestment in Asian studies, such as the creation of an
\nAustralian Asian Studies Institute along the lines of the AIS.
\nThe question is, can either John Howard or Mark Latham move
\nbeyond reactive military and security rhetoric, and support a
\nwell-funded national commitment to Asian studies?<\/p>\n
The writer is a Visiting Fellow at the University of
\nWollongong.<\/p>",
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