For all the talk from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong’s visit to Indonesia and its importance to Australia, we have heard much the same from most incoming PMs.
So the new government has to do more than talk. It must understand and acknowledge the differences between the world and regional views of the two nations and find a way to leverage common goals. And it needs to listen too, something Wong has been keen to emphasise as she criss-crossed the Pacific these past two weeks.
After his meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Albanese hit all the right notes, confirming Australia’s presence at the G20 summit that Scott Morrison had put in doubt, and covering Australia’s proposed $200 million climate and infrastructure fund with Indonesia, regional security (China) and trade and business ties.
The fact is, Australia and Indonesia’s economic ties are undercooked. Despite its position as the region’s largest economy, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand sit ahead of it on Australia’s two-way trading partners list and outside the top 10. Australia does not rank in Indonesia’s top 10 trading partners.
Now Australia is facing a dramatic switch in terms of raw economic power with Indonesia. The world’s fourth most populous country — already South-East Asia’s largest economy — is forecast to vault into the top five global economies within two decades from its present position of 15th. Australia, on the other hand, will slide from 13th to 27th.
“Revitalising our trade and investment relationship is a priority for my government,” Albanese said. This is easier said than done. For his part, Widodo has long been focused on trying to untangle the notorious difficulty of doing business in Indonesia — particularly for foreign firms.
It’s worth noting the opportunity in education, especially in an environment where the rivers of gold from Chinese students is being checked and could, depending on how far Beijing goes with gumming up its borders for its own citizens, really start to dry up. Indonesia sends fewer students overseas than many regional countries. Monash University is the first foreign university to set up a campus in Indonesia, four years after the government opened its doors, which underscores the difficulty of such projects.
Albanese announced 10 new scholarships for Indonesian students and a program to encourage Australian students to study in Indonesia, but this must be just the beginning. A real focus on bringing Bahasa as well as other major South-East Asian languages back into Australian schools, properly funded, is needed.
Linked to education is the onerous visa process Indonesians face to visit Australia, whereas Australians are granted a visa on arrival in Indonesia. While there are understandable concerns about illegal migration, something needs to be done if we are serious about improving people-to-people and business ties.
Albanese will also meet Lim Jock Hoi, the Jakarta-based secretary general of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). While the organisation is flawed and troubled due to the dire situation in member state Myanmar — and ever closer the alignment of Cambodia and Laos with China — it is in Australia’s interest to promote its better functioning.
An important and promising feature of this trip is the visit to Makassar today, the capital of South Sulawesi province, a symbolic nod to the hundreds of years of trading between the Makassans and Yolngu people of northern Australia. As Albanese noted, it is an important symbol showing that Australia understands Indonesia is more than Jakarta and Bali.
It’s a move that is long overdue. For too long, Australian politicians have barely seen the foreign countries they visit, especially in Asia. They go from plane to car to hotel to meeting room to official dinner — if we are lucky there is a “local colour” photo op. Then they’re off. It’s rare they venture out of capital cities.
It’s easy to forget that Indonesia is the best functioning democracy in South-East Asia. That’s quite a journey from the authoritarian dictatorship of Suharto which ended in 1989 and a journey that has occurred as democracy has receded, or even disappeared, in much of the rest of South-East Asia including in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia in the past decade and is in trouble in Malaysia and the Philippines.
This, as much as anything, makes the relationship between Australia and Indonesia all the more important.
“makes the relationship between Australia and Indonesia all the more important.” and more exciting. When the LNP were in power our Indonesian neighbors never rated a mention. Yes we do need to hasten quickly but not like a bull in a China shop.
At the same time we need to sort the East Timor debacle as it makes Australia look unethical. Crooks in Australian terms, and the Indonesians know it. Would you trust an Australian politician in negotiations knowing what we know so far.
I have been reading Watsonia a collection of writings by Don Watson. Last night I read The East Timor Problem written for The Monthly of June 2006. By then the bugging of the offices of the fledgling East Timor government had occurred but were not then known about.
The history of Australia’s treatment of East Timor is appalling and reflects no credit whatsoever on our honesty and integrity as a nation.
It does need to be sorted out and a line needs to be drawn under our actions. I absolutely would not trust the Australian government’s statements until this action is taken.
By my guess Australia owes the Timorese for about 40 000 dead civilians after we left in WWII. We have never givern them the respect they deserved, rather we have stolen their resources.
Bahasa as the primary LOTE in schools is a must, and it should the norm. With over 300m speakers in Indonesia and Malaysia, it makes economic sense.
From an academic perspective, Australia should have a second language baked into schools from an early age, Trying to find the teachers will be harder, especially when teachers are hard to come by at the best of times.
The current LOTE situation in Australia is a haphazard mishmash of scrounging around for a teacher with any LOTE skills and not having language consistency between skills (ie one teaches Japanese, another French due to teacher availability) means we are all the worse for it.
Bahasa was a pidgin lingua franca developed by the Raj & the Dutch – it takes all of 10mins to learn.
which leaves us withn even fewer excuses
Go Albo and Wong. Keep up the good work.
I wonder whether Indonesia’s political and military elite have gotten over their dreadful Timor ‘own goal’ from the Suharto years and their tantrum over Australia’s role in 1999 has faded. If so, then it seems to me the stage is right for a meaningful Australia-Indonesia relationship across many spheres. Not just business and Jakarta/Canberra stuff.
Well East Timor might fade into the past, but what about West Papua? That’s an ongoing problem. Should we just turn a blind eye?
Sukarno rightfully fought the Dutch for independence. Indonesia today is doing to Papua what the Dutch did to them. Who’s side will we be on when push comes to shove in Papuan’s full on fight for independence, as it will one day. It always does! Not exactly Ukraine vs Russia, but similar. And in our back yard…
It is about whether Australians are fair dinkum . . . or not!
Regional nations are mystified as to the Great Southern Land’s intentions, needs and priorities. Beyond those of global alliances and common language. But it is the intentions, needs and priorities running hot and cold that limits productive liaisons. We’ve been around some two hundred and twenty plus years and yet still tremulous about getting too close to neighbours?