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.