Australia supports RI democracy

The following article is based on a presentation by Kim Beazley, leader of the opposition in the Australian Federal Parliament and chairman of the Australian Labor Party at the Indonesia Australian Business Council breakfast meeting in Jakarta on May 2, 2000. This is the first of two articles.

JAKARTA: Geography places us firmly in the Asia Pacific region. This proximity often created problems for us in the past. But now, as any observer can see, Australia is no longer preoccupied with defending ourselves from the region.

Today's Australia no longer sees a region to be engaged with almost grudgingly, out of necessity, and at arm's length. It is a multicultural society, with several lively Asian communities, thoroughly enmeshed with the region through trade, investment and education.

There is today, a realization in Australia stretching across politics, commerce and academia that to ensure economic and physical security, as well as commercial opportunities, we need a good understanding of, and strong links with, our regional neighbors.

This was first brought home to us in the Pacific during World War II when Australia's Asian destiny was forged. The beginning of the war in the Pacific in December 1941 was a critical turning point.

Britain, of course, was heavily engaged militarily in India and Burma, and the United States in the Pacific itself. But the Pacific theater was fundamentally a different matter for Australian society. Nothing less than the security of our homeland was on the line.

Our contribution to the effort in the Pacific was greater than many recognize. There were more Australian troops under Douglas MacArthur than American troops until the latter part of 1943. The burden in New Guinea was carried by Australian troops and they inflicted Japan's first defeats on land.

Almost in an instant, Australia came to the realization that we had to make our own luck in the region. We jettisoned old alignments to save ourselves. We also gained a more sophisticated understanding of regional aspirations.

The post-war Labor government of Prime Minister Ben Chifley was convinced that Australia's long-term strategic and economic interests required a policy of positive engagement in Asia, and support for the emerging national forces in the region.

This was especially so in relation to Indonesia where the Dutch hoped to re-establish their colonial rule, but as one Australian diplomat later observed, Chifley was adamant "that the Indonesians had a right to run their own country".

The Indonesian people won Indonesian independence, of course, but, as many of you will know, Australia played a key diplomatic role. When negotiations collapsed and the Dutch resorted to military force against the Indonesian Republic in July 1947, Australia took decisive action.

We referred the conflict to the UN Security Council as a breach of the peace -- the first occasion such an initiative had been taken at the United Nations. As a consequence the Dutch were obliged to accept a cease-fire, and the UN was committed to broker a peaceful settlement -- a process which led to the end of Dutch rule in December 1949.

Australia's initiative was applauded by Indonesia. Republican Premier Amir Sjarifuddin expressed "great satisfaction" that Australia had "upheld an old tradition in assisting the Indonesian people in their common struggle in the cause of freedom and democracy".

Australia's action was condemned by the Dutch and found little favor with the United Kingdom, or for that matter the United States. But we charted our own course.

Our support for Indonesia's independence was simultaneously an expression of our neighborliness and a far-reaching re-definition of Australia's place in the world.

This did not go unnoticed in the region. Prime Minister Nehru of India, welcomed this Australian attitude in a speech he made in the immediate post-war period. In his opening words as host of a major regional conference held here in Indonesia, he defined our region as representing:

"...Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines on one side, to Egypt and Ethiopia on the other.... half of the circumference of the globe and by far the greater part of its population. We represent the ancient civilizations of the East as well as the dynamic civilization of the West."

So, in this very real sense, Indonesia's emergence as an independent nation was a critical element in the re-definition of Australia's foreign policy and even national identity after World War II. The importance of this development is underestimated to this day.

Let me fast forward to today's situation, against this canvas of a fundamental realignment in Australian views and circumstances half a century ago. The strategic underpinnings remain essentially the same. The Cold War, came and went in that time, but regional engagement has, if anything, come into even sharper focus as a result of the decline in conflict between the superpowers. Our interests remain embedded in the destiny of our region.

No-one should misread this analysis to imply that our relations with the countries of our region will always run smoothly. Nor should they misread this to mean that the character of our relationships will not change over time.

When I last spoke to this Council three and a half years ago, I said it was to be expected that we would, from time to time, encounter problems in our relationship.

People always cite cultural and historical "differences" in this regard, but I think an even bigger issue is the more practical one of proximity, and the way it entwines our interests. So much of what each of us does affects the other. Of course, even the closest of neighbors must expect to differ on some issues from time to time.

We were not to know those three short years ago how enormously challenging for Indonesia these times would be. Indeed, they have proved to be the most demanding and difficult of Indonesia's history as a modern nation.

Since I last spoke to you, we have seen the Asian financial crisis, the fall of the Soeharto government and the subsequent Habibie administration, and free democratic elections, ushering in the government of President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Last year, we also experienced the dramatic and difficult events in East Timor, and are now witnessing a new beginning there as well. All these developments touched Australia, but each was felt more keenly here.

In terms of our bilateral relationship, it was the East Timor events that placed the greatest burden on our relations. They have been strained, and that must be acknowledged. But they have survived, too, and there is a great deal of good in affirming that.

It has been said recently that our relations would never be the same again as a result of those events. Our relationship will indeed never be the same - for one very positive reason: we are no longer just neighbors in geography, but today we are also neighbors in democracy.

Indonesia's transition to democracy is an extraordinary achievement, particularly as it took place during a very difficult few years. This transition will be regarded as a turning point in Indonesia's history, and in its relations with the rest of the world.

It is an achievement that Indonesia's friends in Australia welcome and warmly applaud. We also strongly support the enhancement of the rule of law and human rights institutions, which we can expect in years to come.