A rosier account of RI-Australia relations
Dewi Anggraeni Contributor Melbourne, Australia
----------------------------------------------- Australia and Indonesia, Partners in Development Published by ACFOA, Melbourne, November 2003 A4 Paperback, 16 pp (English), 16 pp (Indonesian) -------------------------------
Relations between Indonesia and Australia are often likened to a roller-coaster ride, and we often hear, whenever we dip into one of the troughs, the situation remains good on the people-to- people level.
As is the case with oft-repeated phrases, this one also is starting to lose its edge. We begin to doubt whether this depiction is not just a way of tempering bad news, because if that is so, how come we mostly hear in the mass media about events of conflict and when there are differences of opinion?
How come we get the impression that the relationships between the two countries are always fraught with bad feelings and resentment?
Is it possible that good news is not so sexy to readers? The publication of a booklet by ACFOA (Australian Council For Overseas Aid) in November 2003, therefore, may relieve some people and surprise others all at once, because it contains good news and it is a good read.
Australia and Indonesia, Partners in Development, launched by the Indonesian Acting Consul General for Victoria and Tasmania, Tito Octavianus, at the Asia Centre of the University of Melbourne, is published in both English and Indonesian. It is not a narrative of what the two countries have achieved together, but a compilation of accounts by a number of individuals who are involved in various projects, who are thus able to tell their stories from the ground level.
The involvement of these people goes beyond that of the nexus the trainer and the trained, or the benefactor and the receiver of money and kindness. It is in the blurring of these roles that their stories become interesting.
There is the touching story of Rosy, the director of programs at Yakeba (Yayasan Kesehatan Bali), a local partner of the Burnet Institute. Rosy did not travel the often smooth university-to- training-to-counseling path known by many, but has been herself a client of Yakeba. She fell into drug-addiction after six years of disgrace, hardship and humiliation -- a failed marriage, numerous arrests, the birth of a baby while living on the streets, until she was referred to Yakeba in 2000.
Rosy thus has the benefit of her own background experience in carrying out her work as a counselor for those battling drug- addiction and at risk for HIV.
While Australian volunteers who come to live and work in Indonesia on local wages inspire admiration, they often unwittingly invoke a degree of an inferiority complex in those who benefit from their presence. These people know that the volunteers have left behind a better standard of living, albeit temporarily, to come and help them, while they, no matter how hard they try, will never be able to match that kindness and sacrifice. This booklet has shown that it is not necessarily the case.
We read the stories of Chloe Olliver and Charles Spong, respectively volunteers for Australian Volunteers International (AVI) and AESOP Business Volunteers, which debunk the one-way benevolence myth.
Olliver wrote: "In approaching AVI, I specifically requested to be sent to live, work and learn in a Muslim-majority community. After limited postgraduate studies in Islamic Studies, I wanted to understand on a more personal level the complexity and diversity of what it means in at least one community to live under the guidance of Islam."
As she continued, her maturity and self-knowledge is decidedly reassuring.
"I was not naive enough to believe that a couple of years in South Jakarta would answer all my questions, but hoped that it would at least open the gates to a more informed and personal understanding."
While in his story Spong does not explicitly indicate that he went to Palembang, South Sumatra, seeking to learn something, he nonetheless implies that he ended up learning many cultural aspects in a subtle way. Spong even unintentionally depicts, to those who care to take notice, a community which respects other people's religions and beliefs.
"...As they would be praying in the mosques, they would be off work for four hours. They asked me where I prayed. When I said at the Catholic Church, they immediately drove me to the local priest. The following day they checked out whether I had prayed.
"They gave me a big smile when I replied, 'Yes'..."
The good news stories of people who have been able to benefit from the projects managed by the various non-governmental organizations in ACFOA and their local partners tell a great deal about communities who are not short of talented members, but needing that initial push to get going at their own steam.
In this era of seemingly full of tension and conflict all around, the Australia and Indonesia, this book certainly provides hope and optimism which is becoming increasingly rare, in Indonesia, Australia and elsewhere in the world.