'Silaturahmi' to Australia

'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.