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."