Where is Australia heading?

By Richard Woolcott

CANBERRA (JP): A buoyant economy, recent sporting successes and languid days at the beach may lull many Australians into feeling that now is the summer of our content. But our 99th Australia Day last Wednesday was an occasion when all Australians should have reflected on the direction in which this country of such great potential should move in the 21st century.

Australia can look to a bright future if we make the right choices in both domestic and foreign policy. And if we strive to recover from the concerns which have been generated in our region and from the lost opportunities of last year.

We have to adjust to a greatly changed world compared with a decade ago. It is 10 years since the Berlin Wall came down and 10 years since the collapse of the former Soviet Union; two events which symbolize the end of the cold war.

Many people assumed then that the advance of technology -- not armies -- and battles over markets -- not ideologies -- would define the new post cold war order which would lead to a more peaceful and prosperous world.

Unfortunately, this assumption has proved to be simplistic. The disintegration of the former Soviet Union has not led to the end of war. On the contrary, there has been a recrudescence of ethnic, religious and national rivalries. Nor is ideology dead. Islamic fundamentalism, for example, is increasing its influence, especially in Africa and Asia.

The information and technological revolution has changed the world forever. The symbols of division -- the Berlin Wall and the Cold War -- have been replaced by new symbols of linkage -- the computer and the internet. The wall has been replaced by the web.

We live in a wonderful country. There is so much which I missed about it when serving overseas. We are the only nation to possess a continent for ourselves. While some of it is hot and dry and harsh, much of it is beautiful and bountiful. We also have unique nature, scenery, clean air and a magnificent coastline.

We are relatively free of terrorism, ethnic hatreds and transplanted prejudices. Culturally, we are alive and evolving. We have abundant food and great mineral and rural resources. However, we also have shortcomings which must be addressed, if we are to realize our potential.

Australia cannot successfully pursue an internationalist foreign and trade policy -- which we must as an isolated trading nation -- if our social culture is insular. So I believe we need a major attitudinal change about our place in the world.

Some of our neighbors see us -- or some of us -- as still racist, uncouth, assertive, self-righteous, intrusive and preoccupied with sporting prowess; as unwilling to make the effort to understand their cultures and the complexities of their societies.

We do indeed face the question of how to maintain our values while, at the same time, nurturing important regional relationships with often very different societies like Indonesia and China. To do this we should avoid, as far as possible, two of the cardinal sins of international diplomacy: excessive self- righteous moralizing, and a heavy handed intrusion into the domestic affairs of other countries. Both of which were committed in l999.

There are a number of major issues which Australia must face early in the next century. In fact they are already with us.

The first is the need to participate fully in the information revolution and embrace the new related technologies. The number of personal computers connected to the internet per household could well become the future measure of a country's influence, rather than its size or wealth.

The second is the question of the extent to which Australia should reopen itself to large scale immigration in order to stimulate our cultural evolution and economic prosperity. I have no doubt we must do so.

The third issue is the revolution in bio-technology, including cloning, the substitution of defective genes and genetically modified foods. All of which raise important ethical and religious questions but which also offer extraordinary opportunities to improve human conditions.

Fourth, globalization is a reality in a competitive world. Eighty percent of what Australia produces is exported. So our trade policy must continue to resist any resurgence of protectionism and press for market access and trade liberalization.

Fifth, in foreign policy, Australia will need to define more clearly its role in the world. During 1999, confusion developed in Asia about the government's real approach to the region. The perception was allowed to grow that the government had stepped back from decades of bipartisan support for constructive Asian engagement.

Loose talk, often for opportunistic political reasons, about Australia having "over appeased" Indonesia, projecting its moral values into the region, acting as a kind of patrol officer on behalf of United States' interests, suggesting East Timor could be a model for future Australian military interventions in other Asian trouble spots (mercifully unidentified), and the assertiveness and triumphalism, together with a perception of jingoism, neo-colonialism and latent racism has led to a serious deterioration in our relations with the fragile elected government of Indonesia -- always a country of fundamental importance to Australia -- which has grown into a damaging confusion about how Australia now sees its role throughout much of the region.

It must be a national priority that this damage to our standing in the region in which we are situated be undone as soon as possible. But it will take time.

I had hoped Australia would enter the 21st century as a republic with its own head of state. The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Downer have rejected the notion that there are international consequences as a result of the "No" vote last November. I know from my extensive international experience that they are wrong.

The "No" vote was in fact a tragic lost opportunity to redefine Australia not as a western outpost, but as a fresh, vigorous, distinctive nation with no anachronistic links with the English crown. The republic will happen but it will, sadly, be some years now before the opportunity will come again.

The directions Australia takes remain ours to choose. We can stand still and look backwards with nostalgia to a past which may have been comfortable and less complex, but which has gone forever. We are what we are; not what we were. As this century draws to a close Australia must be willing to look forward, not backwards.

It is the task of political leadership to set national objectives and review them regularly. We need to develop an infrastructure which will serve Australia in the future. We need to work towards a technically skilled, computer literate, economically competitive, equitable, just, non-racist, tolerant and respected Australian society; a continent of acknowledged industrial, commercial and cultural attraction and opportunity. The ingredients are here. What we need is the vision -- which has been lacking -- leadership and the political will.

We need to ensure that Australia's traditional qualities of openness and fairness, continue to develop in a society which is multiethnic, multi-cultural and more understanding of its Asian neighborhood. But which is first and foremost Australian and in which imported feuds and enmities are set aside and subsumed into an increasingly clear Australian identity.

We must also build a stronger national consensus that our strategic, economic and political interests now -- and will in the 21st century -- lie less with the countries of our historic and social origins and increasingly with the countries of East Asia.

If we are really going to become the "clever country" of which former Prime Minister Bob Hawke spoke, then we must not only attract more intelligent and skilled migrants, we must also devote the necessary resources to consolidating a superior secondary and tertiary education system; a system "capable of training the next generation of Australian and Asian leaders", as Rupert Murdoch said in an address to the AustralAsia Center of the Asia Society in Sydney last November.

Australia's national identity and our response to the changing world beyond our shores is still evolving. It is up to all of us, especially our political leaders, to move this country forward: to reject intolerance, bigotry, latent racism, insularity, self- satisfaction and triumphalism and to strive with renewed energy, a sense of national purpose and vision to recover from lost opportunities. It is also up to us to embrace change and strive for a secure, prosperous, outwards looking and distinctive Australia, of which our grandchildren can be proud in the coming century.

The writer is a former Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra. He has served as the Australian ambassador to Indonesia and the Philippines and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. He is currently an international business consultant and President of the AustralAsia Center of the Asia Society. This article is published simultaneously by The Jakarta Post and The Australian.