Australia recasts its relations with neighbors

Australia recasts its relations with neighbors

By Sid Astbury

Sydney (DPA): Australia's previous prime Minister, Paul Keating, was keen on engaging Asia. He tried to be chums with Asian leaders and was careful to keep in check his tart tongue on visits to the neighbors.

Keating took the view that it was personal relations, not political principles, that really mattered in Asia. He struck up a friendship with ex-president Soeharto. He was quick to apologize for calling Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir "recalcitrant".

John Howard, Australia's current prime minister, takes a quite different view. He believes that Asia is not a special place, that principles are always more important than people, that Australia's best interests are served by being up-front and businesslike with everyone.

It's a stance that doesn't please all Australians. They say that Howard's failure to get up close and personal with U.S. President Bill Clinton has led to unseemly trade friction with the United States, the only superpower and Australia's firmest ally.

When Howard visited Clinton in the White House earlier this year, he was back in the Rose Garden in less than 20 minutes.

But Howard is standing his ground. He told parliament recently that "we should not delude ourselves that relations between countries turn of the personal rapport of leaders, the sentiments of governments or so-called special relationships".

In Asia the new Australian style of diplomacy has caused consternation.

Lim Kit Siang, the leader of the Opposition in Malaysia's parliament, said Howard had "done more than any previous Australian prime minister to damage Australia's relations with Asia".

Salim Said, a Jakarta academic and political commentator, was even more barbed. He said that Howard is "like a 19th century European standing on a beach and thinking he will have to watch out for the little brown uncivilized neighbors that lie to the north".

What seems to stick in the craw of some Asian luminaries is that the "Howard Doctrine" -- as it has come to be called -- is a reappraisal of Australia's position in Asia.

According to Howard, Australia occupies a "unique intersection -- a Western nation next to Asia with strong links to the United States and Europe".

To some analysts, Howard indeed has damaged relations with the neighbors. David McGibbon, a former Howard colleague, says the switch in stance "has made it very easy to run the campaign against Australia that we are isolated in Asia -- and we've spent 50 years trying to put a different perspective".

But to others, the Howard Doctrine is a breath of fresh air. Why, they ask, shouldn't Australia's relations with Asia be conducted in the same way as with any other region of the world.

In fact, some see Howard's robustness as one step back for two steps forward. They say that for the first time in decades Australian policy actually accords with the wishes of the Australian people. As Howard himself said: "National interest cannot be pursued without regard to the values of the Australian community".