Schapelle Corby and Australians' anger

Schapelle Corby and Australians' anger
JP/6/DEWI

Schapelle Corby and Australians' anger

Dewi Anggraeni
Melbourne

Indonesians may be bewildered by the frenzy the Schapelle
Corby case has whipped up in Australia, followed by various
manifestations of an anti-Indonesian backlash. Rob Goodfellow's
article on May 31 in this newspaper has to a great extent
explained what was behind the rage.

Having followed the events leading up to her sentencing, and
being the mother of a daughter myself, I feel deep sympathy for
Corby. However, I saw an angle which Goodfellow, being an
Australian Indonesianist, may have overlooked.

Following the publication of my article in Australia's The Age
newspaper on May 31, 2005, I received several calls, not all
agreeing with me. Interestingly, in my article I do not say
anything negative about the majority of Australians, indicating
instead, that the hardest to take among the "vocal minority" are
those who demand reimbursement for the donations made to the
tsunami victims. I describe their behavior as immature and
infantile, making Australia come across as a nation who gives in
order to wield power on the recipient later.

Those who disagree with me accused me of being heartless,
asserting that this is what they would expect of Indonesians. One
caller actually reprimanded me, saying that calling Australians
immature and infantile was not a nice thing to say for someone
who has benefited from living in Australia.

I realized then what I was witnessing.

Many Australians, even those who show compassion for other
people, unconsciously believe that they are superior to people
from Asian, especially Southeast Asian, countries. When they
give, and show their compassion, they expect the recipients of
their gifts and compassion to be grateful, and what is more, to
show their gratitude. In the caller's consciousness, I was
ungrateful. Having been "lifted" from an undoubtedly worse life
in Indonesia, I dared to turn around and call any Australians at
all, who have been generous for allowing me to live here,
immature and infantile.

Unfortunately there is a deep pathos in this attitude, because
it reflects a degree of defensiveness which many Australians,
secure in their own sense of self-identity, do not feel. Along
with the vitriolic attacks in the letters-to-the-editor pages and
the airwaves, there have also been those who have tried to point
out how irrational and emotional the attacks have been.

When we transpose this feeling of superiority and
defensiveness onto the Corby case, we see the anger of a group of
people who regard the arrest, let alone the 20 year sentence, as
gross impudence -- even a kind of uprising against the authority
-- on the part of those who are inferior, who dared to subject
one of their daughters to unspeakable indignity. They are not
familiar with Indonesia at all, so they do not know about the
pain of Indonesia's democratization process, corruption
eradication drive, massive problems with drug-related crimes and
disease. And more importantly, they are not aware that Indonesia
has a judicial system at all, and that an increasing number of
Indonesians are as educated, if not more educated, than they are.

The most important thing to emphasize is that, while the
majority of Australians lack awareness about Indonesia, only a
minority, a vocal minority nonetheless, show viciousness without
compunction. Most, when it is pointed out to them, will accede
that they have been unreasonable.

Most Australians have had to suffer being patronized by the
Britons, often openly and publicly. And Australians have been
arrested and prosecuted in the British Isles. While this has
caused anguish and maybe anger on the part of their families and
friends, their families and friends could not react the way they
reacted to the Corby case, because they are familiar with the
legal system, and I suspect, deep down they know they would only
come across as impudent if they did. And it is human nature to
seek someone you think is inferior, if only to know that you are
not at the bottom of the heap. And for Australia, Asia,
especially Southeast Asia, is it.

It is therefore worth noting that increasing numbers of
Australians have indeed risen above that basic human instinct by
consciously educating themselves out of it. And most of these
people do not easily take offense at patronizing attitudes from
other nationals, be they Britons or Americans. And they are
comfortable with the idea that there are other social, legal or
cultural environments apart from their own. More importantly,
they are not threatened by non-Caucasians who are as informed and
as educated as they are.

The Corby case has unfortunately reminded everyone that there
are still Australians who can do damage to their country's image.
And as neighbors and friends, Indonesians need not give them too
much credit or time. After all, Indonesia itself is far from
perfect.

The writer is a Melbourne-based journalist.