Reflections on Australia-Indonesia ties<\/p>\n
By S. Wiryono<\/p>\n
CANBERRA (JP): As Australia's former prime minister, Malcolm
\nFraser, once remarked, \"life was not meant to be easy\". That is
\nsurely true for career diplomats such as myself, whose main task
\nin life is to represent their country to the rest of the world.<\/p>\n
Since no country on earth is totally free of unhappy incidents
\nor episodes in its present or past, this is not always a
\ncomfortable position to be in. Indonesia is, of course, my reason
\nfor being. We are still growing into the nation we aspire to be,
\nand naturally we are experiencing many difficulties and growing
\npains. Inevitably there are moments of doubt and frustration when
\nthe government's policies and one's own beliefs and values clash.<\/p>\n
Much is being written and said in Indonesia at present about
\nAustralia and Australians that reflects deeply hurt feelings. But
\nalthough partly spontaneous, it would be wrong to conclude simply
\nthat Indonesians have suddenly come to hate Australians. At the
\nsame time, much discussion of Indonesia in Australia at this time
\nis also based on a lack of understanding of, and sensitively to,
\nmy country and its present circumstances.<\/p>\n
This is not really surprising. Despite the rapid expansion and
\ndeepening of relations on a wide range of levels, most
\nAustralians know little of Indonesia, just as most Indonesians
\nknow little of Australia.<\/p>\n
It is important for Australians to appreciate that Indonesia
\nis going through a very traumatic period. The smoothly
\nfunctioning democratic process that is taken for granted in
\nAustralia is yet to be established in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Australians have a healthy disrespect for their politicians,
\nand the well-established electoral process allows voters to tip
\ngovernments out of power if they feel their interests are not
\nbeing looked after. On occasion, they feel that they need to go
\nfurther by demonstrating on the streets about issues of
\nparticular concern, but they have the luxury of knowing that they
\ncan do so without fear for their safety.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian people hoped that with the resignation of
\nformer president Soeharto and the successful staging of the
\nlegislative election in June, democracy would be firmly
\nestablished in Indonesia, but things are clearly not so simple.
\nIndonesia has been experiencing increasing political turmoil
\nsince the election. While Dr. Habibie's ascendancy to the
\npresidency last year was in accordance with the Constitution, he
\ndoes not enjoy widespread popular support. Yet, because of the
\nnature of the presidential election process, there will have been
\na hiatus as long as a year-and-a-half since Soeharto resigned
\nbefore we know who will be our first truly elected president.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, no single party gained a majority of the seats
\nin the House of Representatives, which means that we are forced
\nto go through a period of several months during which the various
\nparties, and the military -- which also holds a substantial block
\nof nonelected seats in the House -- must try to form a coalition
\nstrong enough to command a majority of votes. All kinds of
\nmethods are being employed in trying to win this battle, some of
\nwhich surely were never intended by those who fought for our
\nindependence and framed our Constitution.<\/p>\n
The recent tragic events in East Timor have been played out
\nagainst a background of this great national effort to form a new
\ngovernment to bring Indonesia into the family of democratic
\nnations. It is important that Australians understand that the
\ninstitutions they have built up over a hundred years of
\nnationhood -- a democratic electoral process, a strong and
\nindependent judiciary, a free and reasonably responsible press, a
\nlargely noncorrupt and highly competent civil service, a
\ndecentralized system of government in which strong states
\ncounterbalance the strength of the national government -- are
\nthings we Indonesians aspire to, and are just beginning to enjoy.<\/p>\n
Our strongest institution is the military, although in line
\nwith our democratic aspirations, its dual function is in the
\nprocess of being phased out, perhaps before the next election. We
\nare acutely aware of our own vulnerability to the dark forces
\nwithin our society that are able to be harnessed in a manner that
\nresults in such terrifying episodes as the suffering visited upon
\nIndonesians of Chinese descent in May last year, and social
\nupheaval in places such as Ambon, Kalimantan and so on more
\nrecently.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Indonesians need to have a better
\nunderstanding of Australian motivations toward Indonesia, and it
\nis helpful to look back further than just the past few months if
\nthis is to be achieved. At the government level, Australia was
\none of the first nations to pledge financial assistance to
\nIndonesia after the monetary crisis began to get out of hand late
\nin 1997. At the individual level, I cannot forget the two young
\nwomen university students who rode their bicycle around Australia
\nin a magnificent people-to-people fund-raising effort to support
\nIndonesian families hard hit by the crisis. Looking back much
\nfurther into the past, we need to remember also that Australia
\nwas the country Indonesia chose to represent it in the UN Good
\nOffices Commission when we sought to wrest our independence from
\nthe Dutch.<\/p>\n
The Australian and other international media's reporting on
\nEast Timor reflected people's sense of outrage as to what they
\nsaw going on. But many of the broadcasted images were angled and
\nspliced so as to be almost entirely weighted against Indonesia,
\nand to picture the proindependence side in highly sympathetic
\nterms.<\/p>\n
The fact is that the situation in East Timor is very complex,
\nnot a black and white case of angels fighting devils. The
\nanimosity between the disputing parties has been building up over
\nmany years. Violence has been committed by both sides, and
\nepisodes in which the perpetrators were proindependence
\nsupporters have almost never been reported.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, while I realize that there have been all kinds
\nof statements coming from Australia that are perceived in
\nIndonesia as over intrusive and boastful, I feel that Australia's
\nmotivation now is no different from before. If we are honest with
\nourselves, we must recognize that many East Timorese people
\nsuffered during integration, just as we suffered under the Dutch,
\ndespite all the funds we contributed to the development of the
\nprovince. We can draw no other conclusion from the result of the
\nrecent referendum, which was a vote of 78.5 percent to 21.5
\npercent for independence.<\/p>\n
Indonesian diplomats have suffered personally as a result of
\nthe tragedy in East Timor. As the Indonesian Ambassador in
\nAustralia, I have had to bear the brunt of media accusations,
\ncriticism, sharp questioning -- in some cases, virtual
\ninterrogation.<\/p>\n
It has not been a pleasant experience, and I have to say that
\nI have little respect for those members of the media who seem
\nintent on stoking the fires of Indonesia-oriented xenophobia to
\nbuild their own ratings or circulations, rather than making a
\npositive and constructive contribution to informing the general
\npublic and discussing the issues in a thoughtful manner. Some
\ncould, indeed, be accused of seeing East Timor as an event to be
\nexploited as a form of entertainment for their audiences.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, I have been much heartened by many letters
\nand calls expressing sympathy and regret for the unenlightened
\nbehavior towards me and my country by some sections of the media.
\nBut not all members of the Australia media can be characterized
\nas irresponsible. And in Indonesia, we cannot say that our own
\nmedia are perfect. We are just starting to become used to having
\na free press after decades during which it was firmly controlled,
\nand in some cases this new freedom is also abused.<\/p>\n
In addition, although sometimes I have been on the receiving
\nend of behavior I considered to be intolerable on the part of the
\nAustralian media, I note that, indeed, life is not meant to be
\neasy for politicians or diplomats, and it is not the job of the
\nmedia to make their life easier.<\/p>\n
On the contrary, if we care about transparency and
\naccountability, we are unlikely to get it unless the media are
\nfree to make government officials and their political masters
\nsomewhat uncomfortable from time to time.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the media would do well to contemplate the
\nconsiderable power they have at their disposal to influence
\npublic opinion by reporting current events in a balanced and
\nobjective manner, and thus positively to influence the course of
\nrelations between our two countries.<\/p>\n
If there is one plea I would make on the eve of my departure,
\nit is that the media in Australia and Indonesia recognize their
\nresponsibilities in this regard more than they have done in
\nrecent weeks.<\/p>\n
An ambassador should seek not only to project the face of his
\nown nation within the country to which he is posted, but more
\ngenerally should aim to build stronger ties between both
\ncountries.<\/p>\n
To this end, it is also possible for people such as myself to
\nproject the realities of the host country, in this case
\nAustralia, back home to my own people. At no time have these
\ntasks been more important than now.<\/p>\n
I am glad to be going home after many years away on foreign
\nsoil, but I am sad to be leaving at a time when Indonesian-
\nAustralian relations have deteriorated so greatly. But there is a
\ngreat deal of goodwill in each country toward the other, and I am
\nconfident that this will form the basis of efforts to heal the
\nwounds and bruises in the months and years to come.<\/p>\n
For the time being, people on both sides need to keep their
\nemotions in check and to look for the right moment to begin
\nrebuilding the relationship. God has made our two countries
\nneighbors, and our economic and security interests link us
\ninextricably. It is the challenge, and the grave responsibility,
\nof men and women of goodwill on both sides not to allow the
\nrelationship to be damaged further.<\/p>\n
The writer is the Indonesian Ambassador to Australia who
\ncompleted his three-and-a-half year tour of duty in Canberra on
\nSept. 30, 1999.<\/p>",
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