'Silaturahmi' to Australia

If and when President Abdurrahman Wahid's plane touches down at Canberra airport on Monday morning, history will be made. In the often tumultuous relations between Indonesia and Australia, this will be the first visit by an Indonesian president to its giant southern neighbor for 26 years. In contrast, there must have been at least a dozen visits by different Australian prime ministers to Indonesia during those intervening years.

For two large neighboring countries who have everything to gain from cooperation and almost nothing from confrontation, this is a visit that should have been made a long time ago. Then president Soeharto chose not to, even as he privately acknowledged the importance of Australia to Indonesia in almost every respect, because of fears of the prospect of demonstrations in Australia, particularly over Indonesia's annexation of East Timor.

Today, East Timor, the one single issue that in the past got in the way of better bilateral relations, has practically been removed from the equation. In any case, President Abdurrahman does not have the kind of inhibition that prevented Soeharto from visiting Australia. The near-blind leader has had to deal with far harsher protests and criticisms than any Australian protester or media can ever hope to inflict on him during his visit. At home, the democratically-elected President is facing demands for his impeachment.

Putting aside for the moment Abdurrahman's penchant for overseas travel --- he has visited more than 50 countries in the 20 months he has been in power -- this is probably the one trip that he should have made in the early days of his presidency. After all, aren't all Indonesian Muslims taught the concept of silaturahmi, that is that they should regularly pay courtesy visits to relatives, friends and neighbors in order to nurture their bonds?

The visit will be largely symbolic and may be void of any real substance. But symbols are important nevertheless and both Indonesia and Australia will gain plenty from it.

The visit will signal reciprocity, that Australia is as important to Indonesia as Indonesia is to Australia. It will signal Indonesia's acceptance that as different as we may be, culturally and historically, we are geographically destined to live next to each other and that we may as well try and get along with each other.

Both countries have everything to gain and little, or nothing, to lose by being friends. This is best illustrated by the state of bilateral relations over the last two years. While some Indonesians still resent Australia for its about-face policy in East Timor in 1999 and later its participation in the East Timor peacekeeping force, Australia has continued to provide aid and Australian companies have continued to invest in Indonesia during the past three years of economic crisis.

Apart from these symbolic gestures, nothing else can be expected from this visit. Some sections of the Australian media have even depicted the meeting between President Abdurrahman and Prime Minister John Howard as an encounter between two "dead men walking". The first is facing an almost certain impeachment process in August and the second faces a general election later this year that pundits predict he will lose. With their political positions precarious, they are not in any real position to discuss new initiatives and agreements, or even revive some of the agreements that were abrogated after the East Timor debacle in 1999.

While the historic visit will do wonders for Indonesia's foreign policy, it will do almost nothing for Abdurrahman's standing at home. On the contrary, the President has been widely criticized for going ahead with this trip at a time when the nation is still deep in crisis. Coming just one week after a 30 percent hike in domestic fuel prices, the Australian visit is seen as another extravaganza by the President who seems to have lost both his sense of crisis and sense of priority.

For what it's worth, since President Abdurrahman is going ahead with the visit, both countries may as well make the best of it. Twenty six years is a long time. It's time that Indonesia overcome all its inhibitions when dealing with Australia and start pursuing a positive neighborly policy. Let's pray that this silaturahmi, if anything, marks the beginning of more fruitful relations between our two countries in the future.