Australian foundation betters links in Asia

By Dewi Anggraeni

MELBOURNE (JP): In a pluralist society like Australia, it is not uncommon for two opposing forces to be unleashed simultaneously, intentionally or otherwise, to either gather strength or fade away.

These last few months have seen Pauline Hanson grabbing headlines and causing considerable concern in Asia about Australia's attitude to its regional neighbors.

But what has not dominated the headlines and is equally important is that there are groups and individuals here who work hard to forge ties between Australia and Asia. Even more important, they are not all chasing the dollar sign.

One of these groups is the Asia Education Foundation Australia, which is convening its first national conference in Bali, Indonesia, this week.

Established in 1992 by the Commonwealth Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, the foundation is a joint venture of Asialink, a center of the University of Melbourne, and Curriculum Corporation.

The foundation works with schools, government authorities, education institutions and the corporate and philanthropic sectors in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

Its promotion of Asian study has received hearteningly enthusiastic response from primary and secondary schools, which get more practical guidance than financial assistance from the foundation.

Education projects it sponsors include in-country tour programs for teachers and students. Feedback from participants of these is so encouraging that the foundation decided to have its first national conference off-shore.

First choice

Indonesia was the first choice because it is a close neighbor, and its language and culture are studied by an increasing number of Australian students.

Since the foundation's underlying objective is to broaden educational horizons, the organizers are calling the Bali conference the Linking Latitudes Symposium. The three-day meeting began yesterday.

"The project began to take shape late in 1995 when I met professor Anton Mulyono, then in Melbourne assisting the planning of the first Chair of Indonesian Studies at the University of Melbourne," said Julia Fraser, the symposium's manager.

Prof. Mulyono was not only enthusiastic, he also introduced Fraser to several key people on the Indonesian side, such as Mien Warnaen of the Indonesian Teachers Association, and Prof. Sri Hardjoko Wirjomartono of the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture. A steering committee was then formed with Prof. Wirjomartono as chairman.

It is an ambitious project, encompassing many issues that would help create a conducive atmosphere for countries in the region to cooperate and collaborate in the educational and cultural fields.

Initial discussions will explore vital issues such as changing demographics and the effect on the family, regional security, environmental impact and opportunities for regional cooperation. Some country-specific topics are also included such as the transformation of state socialism in China and the growth of the middle classes in Thailand.

Participants will also be offered the opportunity to visit interesting places like temples, markets and schools, to take part in natural therapy workshops and to watch Hindu rituals and local communities' ways of recycling.

On the second and third days, the conference will hone in on challenges for education with discussions and workshops before branching out into wider topics again. Environmental impact and tourism will be discussed from a Balinese perspective by I Made Suarantha of Wisnu Foundation.

Other issues like Indonesia's economy in the next century, youth culture and the role of global media will be explored.

For teachers, there are sessions full of practical ideas for the classroom and on using public places to teach about Asia, as well as workshops and exhibitions.

Curricula

Despite the magnitude of the project, Fraser has found her work enormously rewarding. She said the incredible goodwill she received from her Indonesian counterparts touched and enriched her.

It also helped render the problems caused by geographical distance easier to overcome. Both the Australian and Indonesian organizers believe in working to internationalize the curricula of both countries.

The conference's short term goal, says Fraser, is to give Australian participants first hand experience of life in Indonesia, so they can see the country as more than a tourist destination.

"It is a center of intellectualism, where various cultures grow and develop. At the same time we are bringing to the Indonesian people samples of contemporary life outside their own country."

Fraser is also driven by the foundation's medium to long term goals of nurturing the existing friendship between the two countries in the hope that it will lead to collaboration projects on a number of levels, person to person, school to school and system to system.

After the three-day conference in Bali, participants will be given the option of joining several four-day fieldwork programs that will meet different interests. These cover field programs in Bandung (West Java), Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Pangkalanbun (Central Kalimantan) and Bali itself.

Seeing the work and the goodwill that have gone into this project, it will hopefully give sufficient impetus for an equivalent Indonesian organization to reciprocate with a similar project soon.