RI-Australian ties better, but misperceptions remain

RI-Australian ties better, but misperceptions remain

Johannes Simbolon, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Melbourne

Relations between the Indonesian and the Australian
governments, which were increasingly strained over the past three
years, are apparently on the mend. Will the relations improve
further in the future and, if so, how long will it last?

Relations between the neighboring countries, which prospered
in the middle of the 1990s during the Soeharto and Keating
administrations, plunged to their lowest level following the
violence-marred referendum in East Timor in 1999. Many
Indonesians felt humiliated by Indonesia's loss in the referendum
and angered at the strong support Australian Prime Minister John
Howard voiced for East Timor's independence, and at Howard's
strong criticism of Indonesia's failure to uphold security in
East Timor before and after the referendum.

Various statements and policies made by Howard in the
following years -- including statements describing Australia as
the "deputy sheriff" of the United States, Australia's readiness
to launch preemptive strikes against countries harboring
terrorists and raids launched by the Australian police on Muslims
in Australia suspected of having links with terrorist groups --
further strengthened the perception of many Indonesians that
Australia is an enemy rather than a friendly neighbor.

And Australia's participation in the U.S.-led invasion of
Iraq, which was protested by most countries, also infuriated many
in Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the
world.

Relations between the two countries started to recover
following the Bali bombing late last year, which killed 202
people, including 88 Australian tourists, as both governments
then agreed to jointly investigate the terrorist attack.
Relations have warmed since then.

Prior to his recent departure to the U.S., Howard said he
would propose to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan that
Indonesia, along with Germany, India, Japan and Brazil, become a
permanent member without a veto right of the United Nations
Security Council as part of the reform of the agency. Certainly,
such a statement would please many Indonesians.

In his recent budget proposal to parliament, Howard suggested
raising aid to Indonesia by A$30.1 million to A$151.7 million for
2003 to 2004 to support poverty reduction, strengthen democracy,
enhance security and stability and improve the quality of basic
social services in the country. Of the total aid, A$10.5 million
would be allocated for the upgrading of facilities at Sanglah
Hospital in Denpasar, where many Australian victims of the Bali
bombings last year were treated.

"Australia's national interest is best served by having a
unified, prosperous and democratically strong Indonesia as
neighbor," the budget proposal states.

During a recent press conference in Canberra with a group of
visiting Indonesian journalists, Chris Gallus, parliamentary
secretary to Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer,
underlined that relations between the two neighbors had much
improved.

When asked about the support by Australian non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) for Papua independence, which has caused
great concern in Jakarta, Gallus stressed that the Australian
government supported a "unified" Indonesia and had notified all
Australian NGOs that they would not receive funding from AusAID
if they made "political dealings" in any countries they were
working in, including in Indonesia.

The proposal to increase aid for Indonesia and to install
Indonesia as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, plus
the reluctance to openly criticize Jakarta's military offensive
in Aceh, all indicate Canberra's commitment to maintaining good
relations with Indonesia, whose cooperation it is seeking in the
fight against terrorism.

Despite the encouraging trend, Australian scholars warn that
no one can guarantee that relations will further improve in the
future. They say Indonesian-Australian relations will continue to
fluctuate, as they did in the past, given the big difference
between the countries in terms of history, culture, religion,
income per capita and economic structure; and the deep
misperceptions both communities have about each other.

"As (former Australian foreign minister) Gareth Evans used to
say, Indonesia and Australia arguably have bigger differences
than any other neighboring countries around the world," leading
Indonesianist Hall Hill of the Australian National University in
Canberra said.

Both communities remain poorly informed about each other. Most
Australians do not realize the magnitude of the transition, which
Indonesia has been undergoing since the downfall of president
Soeharto in 1998, and the difficulties faced by the country in
overcoming the economic crisis. On the other hand, most
Indonesians still mistakenly consider Australia as a nation of
white people and are totally unaware of the liberal immigration
policy adopted by the Australia government and the transformation
it has caused in Australia over the past 13 years. Australia is
today one of the most ethnically diverse nations in the world.

Providing further examples of misperceptions, Harold Crouch,
also a leading Indonesianist of the Australian National
University, said many Indonesians still believe that Australia
wants Indonesia to disintegrate because it is afraid of Indonesia
given its large population. Some also suspect that Australia
wants to expand its territory into the eastern part of Indonesia
and will use East Timor as a stepping-stone to realize the
ambition.

"What Australia is afraid of is not that Indonesia will stay
together but the country will disintegrate, because it will cause
huge refugee and communication problems for Australia," Crouch
said.

Many Indonesians, still remembering the support by many
Australian NGOs for East Timor's independence, still suspect that
Australian NGOs, some of which are campaigning for the
independence of Papua, have a strong influence on the Howard
administration.

Many Australian politicians do not fully understand Indonesia.
It thus remains unpredictable whether Indonesia and Australia
will have better relations on a governmental level after Howard.

Whatever the situation on the political level, Indonesians and
Australians can retain good relations in business. An example of
this is how trade relations between the two countries grew very
quickly in the middle 1980s during the Hawke administration, when
the Indonesian and Australian governments' relations nose-dived
following the publication of an article by Australian journalist
David Jenkins. In the article, Jenkins revealed the business
holdings of Soeharto family and his cronies.

The writer is currently visiting Australia on a AusAID-funded
business journalism course organized by the Indonesia-Australia
Specialized Training Project.