Flying high with SBY

Flying high with SBY

Have relations between Indonesia and Australia ever been
closer?

With Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono due here
later this month, and a bilateral forum scheduled for Canberra on
Thursday featuring no fewer than nine Indonesian government
ministers, it would be hard to argue things could be much better.
The last Indonesian leader to visit was Abdurrahman Wahid, in the
twilight of his tenure in 2001 -- and the one before that was
Soeharto in 1975. The visit is above all a tribute to the
unlikely but genuine chemistry between Susilo and John Howard.
Howard's attendance at Susilo's inauguration last year struck a
chord with the Indonesians, while the response of the Australian
Government and the Australian people to the tsunami disaster
struck a much louder and deeper one. The confidence between the
two leaders was illustrated by the speed with which Susilo signed
up to Australia's hands-on tsunami relief package, worth $1
billion.

This excellent relationship should now be nurtured. Susilo
faces immense challenges in improving governance, defeating
corruption and getting the Indonesian economy back on the rails.
Until Indonesia demonstrates it is a reliable place to do
business, it will never compete successfully for foreign
investment -- which it desperately needs -- against the tiger
economies surrounding it. But by taking the unpopular step
earlier this month of reducing government fuel subsidies -- a
notorious platform for black-marketeering, and for rewarding the
rich at the expense of the poor -- he has shown a willingness to
begin the necessary reforms. A democrat who took on an incumbent
president in a clean election and won, Susilo gives every
appearance of being the best thing that has happened to bilateral
relations in decades.

He also represents a new political class in Indonesia that
understands Australia much better than its predecessors. There
are 22,000 Indonesian students here, and until recently they
included Susilo's son Edhie, who graduated from Curtin University
earlier this month. The key challenge for the ministerial forum
later this week is to go past the big headline issues --
terrorism, insurgency in Aceh and tsunami relief -- and work
towards deepening partnerships in areas such as education,
health, governance and capacity building. Every step we take
towards helping Indonesia to govern itself more effectively is a
victory in the battle against Islamist fanatics for the hearts
and minds of ordinary Indonesians.
-- The Australian, Sydney