A leap back in time

Although only time will tell whether last week's election success of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party in the northeastern Australian state of Queensland augurs an impending Australian policy shift toward Asia, that event represents a development that both Asians and Australians would do well to watch.

For Asians in particular, the rapid rise of One Nation, the party established by federal parliamentarian Pauline Hanson, could forebode a return to that continent's old and antiquated "White Australia" policy. Although Hanson has rebutted charges of racism, her party advocates, among other things, a halt to Asian immigration and special programs designed to help Australian Aborigines, curbs on foreign investment and massive protection of Australian trade and industries.

What gives particular cause for concern among many Asians is the seemingly rapidly growing support which the party enjoys among Australians. Since its establishment 14 months ago, the party's membership has grown from insignificant to a claimed 20,000 countrywide.

In the Queensland state election, the party won almost a quarter of votes cast. The latest polls, meanwhile, indicate that support for One Nation around the country has risen to 11 percent. The party is now set to field candidates for all the 148 lower house seats contested in the upcoming general election, which Prime Minister John Howard is likely to call later this year.

Although that is still months away, voices of concern have already been heard in a number of Asian countries. In Malaysia, Foreign Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said that although most Australians do not share Hanson's views, the possibility of more Australians supporting her could eventually strain Australia's ties with Asia.

In Beijing, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman criticized the One Nation's election success as "running against the historical trend". Australia, said foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao, was now a multicultural society in which Chinese and other Asian immigrants had made "positive contributions to the country's economic development and social progress".

Of more direct significance are the concerns voiced by Jim Sheu, head of the Taiwan-Australia Business Association in Sydney. At least 10 Taiwanese firms decided to cancel their planned investments in Australia after news of the rise of Hanson's One Nation Party, Sheu said. Taiwanese businesspeople, according to Sheu, are really concerned because One Nation is described by the media in Taiwan as anti-Asian.

Not only Asians, though, worry about the trend. Australian business leaders also worry about One Nation's rise and its xenophobic views. To cite Philip Holt, chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry: "Business would not normally enter such debates, but statements that make our neighbors look at us in a light that is not favorable are not helpful."

Such concerns are of course warranted. Considering the global and regional developments that have taken place in the world in the past half century or so, and especially since the end of the Cold War, it is difficult to see how any country can successfully maintain an existence as an insular enclave surrounded by an alien sea. In our own region, this goes not only for Australia and its relations with Asia, but also vice versa.

For the present, though, the specter of having an isolationist "White Australia" as our neighbor is just that -- a specter, which we believe most Australians have the good judgment not to turn into reality. The best stance that we can take under the circumstances is to follow the advice of Malaysia's foreign minister and not to react in any way that could jeopardize the existing good relations.