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.