Canberra summit marks new era in RI-Aussie ties

Canberra summit marks new era in RI-Aussie ties

S.P. Seth, Sydney

Indonesia is currently the flavor of the month with the government and the media in Australia. Canberra feels good with its generous tsunami aid package and humanitarian aid. The government is satisfied that it will be able to effectively supervise how its $A1 billion five-year aid package (half in grants and half as low interest loans) will be spent to prevent it from ending up in corrupt deals.

The state visit of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is a heartening development for Australia, because such visits in the past have been rare occasions. In the past, the political traffic was largely one way with the Australian prime ministers visiting Indonesia much of the time.

For Prime Minister John Howard it is a vindication of his foreign policy towards Indonesia and the region. Which is that Canberra will not kowtow to its Asian neighbors and nor will it engage with them by compromising its special relationship with the United States. Howard believes that his predecessor Paul Keating's excessive focus on Asia was wrong because it sought to define Australia's "place in the world too narrowly."

Speaking recently at an Australian think tank, he said, "My government has rebalanced Australia's foreign policy to better reflect the unique intersection of history, geography, culture, and economic opportunity that our country represents."

When John Howard came to power in 1996, Asia-Pacific region was on a high economically. President Soeharto was still secure in his position. But soon after, in 1997 and 1998, Asia was hit by an economic tsunami. Soeharto resigned and Indonesia plunged into economic and political crisis. The Asian economic miracle seemed over, and with it all the hype about Asian values and the incoming Asia-Pacific century.

During this period when Asian economies were in doldrums, Australia managed to come out pretty strong which reflected well on it. It gave Canberra new confidence to deal with its Asian region.

Indonesia was hit the hardest with its polity and economy in a shambles. Even as it was trying to cope with the new disaster, it was also hit with East Timorese independence movement. Australia played a role in it, with its peacekeeping force deployed after the independence referendum in East Timor. This has poisoned Australia's relationship with Indonesia, which is only now emerging from under an enveloping cloud.

But East Timor saga gave Canberra a new confidence about its regional status tempered, though, by the realization that it wouldn't have been possible without U.S. political and logistical support. Hence, the much talked about U.S. "deputy sheriff" role for John Howard, indicating Australia's derivative status.

Therefore, when Howard recently said that Australia's close links with the U.S. "are a plus, not a minus, in forging stronger links in Asia", he was apparently referring to the regional clout Canberra exercises in view of these special ties, further reinforced after Australia became part of the "coalition of the willing" to invade Iraq.

In other words, Jakarta's new interest in revamping relations with Canberra seems part of Susilo's larger agenda of forging closer relations with the United States. But there will be problems in the parliament where there still is considerable bitterness about Australia's role in East Timor.

But at the level of the governments in both countries, there is a desire to improve and expand their bilateral relations. And this is leading them, as first suggested by Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, to work on a security treaty.

However, President Susilo is not keen on a full-fledged defense pact between the two countries.

The idea is to formalize and expand existing cooperation between the two countries in the areas of counter-terrorism, transnational crime and military training.

Fortunately, the developing ties between Indonesia and Australia is happening at a time of general improvement in Australia's relations with other ASEAN countries. Indeed Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi will be the next visitor from an ASEAN country.

However, in an interview with Australian TV he didn't mince words about the problem areas. Commenting on John Howard's greater interest in Asia, Badawi felt that he "was perhaps changing some tunes." But he still found upsetting Howard's statements like "pre-emptive action" against terrorists in regional countries.

Badawi doubted if East Asia was Canberra's primary focus, considering the centrality of its ties with the United States.

At the ASEAN level, Canberra's refusal to sign its Treaty of Amity and Cooperation might hinder an otherwise promising relationship with the regional organization.

The former Prime Minister Paul Keating has written in a newspaper article, "Back in 1996 (when John Howard came to power), Howard set about wasting our relationships with Asia, while overdoing our relationship with the U.S."

He added, "His flirtation with Pauline Hanson and race, the deputy sheriff, the triumphalism over Timor, the resignation over International Monetary Fund intervention in Indonesia, the Tampa debacle (the refugee ship that was not allowed in), the 'we decide who comes here', have all left scars...which will have long-run consequences."

But Canberra is making a good start. And the new mood in Australia and Indonesia might be the harbinger of a new era between the two countries and the region.

The author is a free-lance writer based in Sydney and can be reached at SushilPSeth@aol.com.