Australia's election: Impacts on Indonesia

Australia's election: Impacts on Indonesia

Rob Goodfellow, Cross-cultural Specialist, University of Wollongong,
New South Wales, Australia

Alison Battisson, Independent Researcher, Jakarta

When the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hassan Wirajuda,
announced that Indonesia would hold an international conference
to discuss ways to curb the flow of illegal immigrants, his
initiative was met with complete silence from the Australian
government, which on Nov. 10 successfully won an election
campaign predominantly on border protection issues.

Conservative-minded voters across the country were completely
distracted from the issues of health, education, and a lack of
infrastructure facilities in small towns and villages.

Their overwhelming concern, thanks to an influx of Afghani
asylum seekers, was an ancient fear of our near north -- Asia.
Prime Minister John Howard's uncompromising position was an
election winner in a contest that promised to be very close, but
in the end was decisive for the ruling party. Unfortunately
Howard's policy of turning back asylum seekers is no solution at
all. The Labor Opposition leader Kim Beazley made this point
consistently during the campaign.

What for instance was the Prime Minister thinking last month
by sending off Ministers Peter Reith, Phillip Ruddock and
Alexander Downer (respectively in charge of defense, immigration
and foreign affairs) for a three hour meeting in Jakarta, in
which they suggested a detention center be built on Indonesian
territory to deal with Australia's refugee problems?

What benefit was that to Indonesia? And what was Howard
thinking when he failed to support the delicate position the
Indonesian government was in over "the war on terror", by making
very public demands on what Indonesia should and should not do,
rather than advocating privately with the United States for a
better understanding of Indonesia's dilemma?

The question is, would a Beazley Labor Government (ALP) have
done any better? And can Howard now change his policy towards
Indonesian from the comfort of a strong majority government?

There is no doubt that Labor had a clear policy of wanting to
work co-operatively with Indonesia. What distinguished the ALP
from the conservative Liberal Party in the campaign was that
Howard saw Indonesia as part of Australia's problem, Beazley saw
dialog with Indonesia as essential to long term border
protection, regional security and prosperity. Further, although
rhetoric, Beazley evoked the language of diplomatic engagement
dormant since Keating's Foreign Minister Gareth Evans.

In the national televised debate, at the ALP campaign launch,
and through the platform of numerous policy statements, Beazley
consistently advanced the idea of a bilateral dialog with
Indonesia built on interpersonal and professional relationships,
at the level of government, the civil service and the military.

Beazley appeared to understand that what Australia needed was
a real solution to the issue of asylum seekers that is both
practical, effective and humane, not the "deputy sheriff", crisis
management, ad hoc, and extremely costly approach of the Prime
Minister John Howard.

To his credit Beazley was at pains to point out that any
"solution" to the issue of asylum seekers that does not involve
the full co-operation of Indonesia is no solution at all.

Interviewed in Sydney last month the newly appointed
Indonesian envoy to Australia Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat,
suggested that such a process of engagement was not complicated.

It was just that there was a particular way of going about it.
It was, according to the Ambassador, simply a matter of
"determining how as neighbors we can help each other, and then
finding the most appropriate process to facilitate this".

The question is, will a third Howard government have the
foreign policy acumen to be able to secure Indonesia's full
cooperation over border protection and then trade this off
against a number of pressing needs President Megawati
Soekarnoputri now finds herself confronted with?

For example this week the Indonesian leader expressed her
concern over the possibility of foreign investors leaving
Indonesia for security reasons. Megawati suggested Indonesia
remained in dire need of foreign assistance, despite the
country's wish to be self-reliant in raising development funds.

The head of state pointed out that foreign capital was badly
needed for natural resources development and for generating new
job opportunities.

As the only Western nation in the region, Australia is in a
unique position to advocate as a neighbor and a friend for
Indonesia in the areas of foreign aid and debt relief, to
strengthen the institutions of democratic and secular government,
to support Indonesia's territorial integrity and unity, to
provide post-graduate education in every discipline, to assist
with urban and telecommunications infrastructure improvement,
with good governance programs, and corporate restructuring,
(particularly in the wake of the disastrous Asian economic
monetary crisis of 1997).

In terms of realpolitik the dynamic would then be for
Indonesia to say, "thanks for the assistance, what can we now do
for you in return?" (In Indonesian,membalas budi).

What Labor is suggesting is that not only can Indonesia stop
the flow of most asylum seekers, but can also advocate on behalf
of Australia in terms of regional trade opportunities, for
example for expanded markets for our highly efficient food-
producing sector. On the evidence thus far the Conservatives
still do not understand that Indonesia needs a friend in the
region, just as much as Australia does.

Writing for the Sydney Morning Herald last week, former prime
minister Paul Keating observed that when a nation's leader
changes, the country changes. Implicitly Keating was suggesting
that the deterioration in Australia's relations with Indonesia
can be dated from his electoral defeat in 1996, and is
consequently the result of the low premium his successor places
on regional diplomatic imperatives.

The question is, will there be a change in official Australian
attitudes towards Indonesia; the answer is, there has to be.