Australia Today Indonesia is only the beginning

Australia Today Indonesia is only the beginning

By Prapti Widinugraheni

JAKARTA (JP): Australia Today Indonesia 1994, the big trade
and cultural promotion program which got underway here this week,
is only the beginning of Australia's effort to establish greater
linkages with its northern neighbor.

"We don't see this simply as a one-way series of activities,"
Australian ambassador to Indonesia Allan Taylor said.

Taylor told The Jakarta Post that the Australian embassy and
Austrade, the Australian government trade representative office,
will closely follow-up contacts made during business and trade
forums and cultural events throughout ATI 94. "Without follow-up
there will be no successful outcome."

Australia's biggest-ever overseas trade and culture promotion
program was launched on Tuesday by Australian Minister of Foreign
Affairs and Trade Gareth Evans and Indonesian Coordinating
Minister for Industry and Trade Hartarto. The program's main
activities will last until July 3.

"ATI 94 is a chance for Australia to present itself as it is
today ..geographically a part of Asia-Pacific and oriented
towards the region in terms of trade, tourism and people-to-
people connections," Taylor said. "It is a part of the world we
are integrating into."

Future

Through ATI 94, Australia intends to present itself "as it is
in the 1990's: a culturally sophisticated, technologically
developed, educated, skillful nation, with a great deal to offer
to Indonesia and the Asia-Pacific region, where we see our
future," said Taylor, who has held his post since April 1993.

Integrating with Asia however does not mean that Australia
wants to be come an Asian country, the ambassador said.

"We don't seek to be Asians, or anything else except
Australia. We have a diversity that provides Australia with a
liveliness and an identity of its own which we are proud of," he
said.

Taking into account the rapid changes since the end of the
Cold War, he said dynamic economic developments in the East Asian
area, which had not existed before, are starting to take place.

"It is the Australian government's policy to follow the trend
and build up linkages with the Asia-Pacific region, of which
Indonesia is a very important part," he said.

Judging from the large number of Australians and Indonesians
involved in ATI 94, Taylor was optimistic that the atmosphere of
the event as a whole could develop new linkages and build on
previous progress made in bilateral relationships over the past
years.

New interest

Taylor pointed out that about 30 percent of the 200 businesses
taking part in the exhibitions had not been to Indonesia before.

"This represents the new and growing interest of the
Australian business community in exporting and becoming involved
in Indonesia and the Asia-Pacific region in general," he said.

He acknowledged the most recent deregulation policies issued
by the Indonesian government this month which opened virtually
every sector of the economy to foreign investors, saying that
they would be welcomed by Australian companies as they offer new
opportunities, particularly for small and medium-sized
businesses.

Australia has gone through many changes over the last 25 to 30
years and more recently there has been a strong growth of Asian
consciousness within the country, Taylor said.

"Starting next year, students entering all schools in
Australia will have as their compulsory second language either
Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese or Korean," he said.

The multicultural country is currently inhabited by more than
17 million people of 160 nationalities.

Immigrants

Although the majority of immigrants come from New Zealand and
Britain, seven of the 10 countries contributing the most
immigrants are Asians, including the Philippines, Vietnam,
Malaysia and Hong Kong, who together make up more than 50 percent
of the total immigrant population.

Although Indonesian immigrants are not a significant
proportion of this number, Taylor points out that more than 7,500
Indonesian students are currently studying in Australia.

"That number is increasing at a rate of about 25 percent each
year," he said, adding that the number of Indonesian tourists to
Australia doubled last year and will probably increase by about
the same amount this year.

Taylor considered the multinational situation existing in his
country as an aspect which could act as a common ground of
cooperation in similarly multi-cultural and multi-ethnic
Indonesia.

"Indonesia has great diversity too and in many ways we are
very similar in that diversity," he said.

Differences

As similar as they could be, Taylor realizes the two countries
have more differences and each has its own national interest to
pursue.

"We don't expect to always agree on issues. What we have
resorted to build over the last 5-6 years is a relationship which
is broad ... and deep enough to allow these differences, if they
arise, to be handled in the context of the relationship as a
whole," he elaborated.

Therefore, he said, if any political differences were to rise,
"they would be dealt with on a frank basis, without upsetting the
relationship as a whole and without concentrating the whole
relationship on the political aspects."

Taking the East Timor issue as an example, Taylor explained
that his government's policy was long well-known as accepting the
integration of the former Portuguese colony into Indonesia.

"We have always supported the need for human rights to be
pursued and we are continuing discussions with the Indonesian
government on these aspects," he said.

The Australian government has therefore publicly expressed its
view that a favorable human rights situation in the region can be
pursued through a reconciliation with the people in East Timor.

"We are now doing our bit of help through an economic
development program," Taylor said, pointing to the A$3 million
(US$2.17 million) aid commitment from his country for East Timor.

Taylor now holds one of Australia's most important diplomatic
overseas postings, since Prime Minister Keating has made it known
that no country is more important to Australia than Indonesia.

Keating's remarks were not mere words. He has visited
Indonesia twice since becoming Australia's prime minister in 1991
and will be in Jakarta again next week to lend credence to ATI
94. And he is expected to return again for the summit of the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in November.

"This is one (bilateral relationship) we have to get right ...
through developments in economic, social, cultural ways we have
to know one another better than we have in the past."