KL--Canberra ties still need time
KL--Canberra ties still need time
By Barani Krishnaan
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Australia is proclaiming a "new stage"
in its sometimes rocky ties with Malaysia but proof was needed
that this was something more than rhetoric, analysts said at the
weekend.
"We're still early in the day where Australia-Malaysia
relations are concerned," said Abdullah Razak Abdullah Baginda,
executive director of the Malaysian Strategic Research Center
(MRSC), a Kuala Lumpur-based think-tank.
"Australia has a new government yearning to score political
points and we have a Malaysian government with a softer stance
towards Australia," Abdullah Razak told Reuters. "Let's see if
this stops at rhetoric or goes on to bare facts."
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said during a
four-day visit ending on Sunday that ties were entering an
exciting new stage, defined by transformation in both countries
and historic change in the Asia Pacific region.
Downer was the fourth Australian minister to visit Malaysia
since Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's ground-breaking
visit to Australia in March, shortly after Prime Minister John
Howard's Liberal Party came to power.
Ties hit a low point in late 1993 after then Australian prime
minister Paul Keating called Mahathir recalcitrant for not
attending the inaugural Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
summit in Seattle.
Malaysia has expressed outrage during the past several years
over what it views as unflattering portrayals of the country in
film and television presentations, dismissing Canberra's
explanation that it cannot infringe on media freedom.
Ties became strained when Malaysia hanged two Australians
convicted of drug trafficking in the late 1980s, an act former
Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke called barbaric.
But last year in a sign that tension was easing, total
bilateral trade jumped 19 percent to $3.8 billion and in June
this year the two countries signed a new trade agreement.
"I have the impression that they (Australia) are trying hard
and superficially it looks good," said Rustam Sani, a Malaysian
political columnist.
"They must have figured out they've more to gain in being good
to us and are correctly starting off with business."
Australian Minister of Defense Industry, Science and Personnel
Bronwyn Bishop, also in Kuala Lumpur last week, pushed a bid by
Australian firm Transfield to build naval patrol vessels for
Malaysia.
The 5.6 billion ringgit ($2.2 billion) contract, one of the
biggest defense contracts pending in the region, is expected to
be awarded by the end of the year.
Key to the contract is setting up subcontracts and joint
ventures with Malaysian firms and transferring technology to
them. The ships are to be built in a Malaysian naval shipyard.
Abdullah Razak said he believed fundamentals in the ties would
not change. "APEC will most likely remain the main trade agenda
of the Howard government while Malaysia will continue pushing for
the EAEC," he said.
The East Asian Economic Caucus (EAEC), brainchild of Mahathir,
would group the seven members of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) with China, Japan and South Korea. The
United States and Australia opposed it, saying the caucus could
sow discord in APEC.
Kuala Lumpur, miffed that Australia has been a stumbling block
for the EAEC, blocked Canberra's inclusion at the inaugural Asia-
Europe summit in March this year on the grounds that Australia
was not part of Asia.
Fifteen European Union heads of state met their counterparts
from ASEAN, Japan, South Korea and China. Malaysian diplomats
proclaimed it a victory for the EAEC idea, although other Asian
members distanced themselves from the proposition.
Japan and South Korea say they are reluctant to become part of
an EAEC unless Australia and New Zealand are included. Some
members of ASEAN, which groups Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei, are
lukewarm to it.