There is still a lot of anger in the hearts of many
Australians and Indonesians.
The anger on the part of the Australians
is easy to understand.
Two Australian citizens were executed by firing squad
after having been found guilty of a capital crime by a duly constituted court
and after all the legal attempts to save their lives had been exhausted. In the
10 years between their sentencing and their executions, they had reformed,
become good people ready to serve their fellow human beings, notably through
the drug rehabilitation program that they designed and carried out while in
prison.
The anger on the part of many
Indonesians is different: it is born of a deep-seated grievance against Western
nations with which Indonesia interacted in the past. This grievance just
happened to be focused on Australia because of the clumsy way the Australian
government tried to save the lives of the two condemned men. The people of
Indonesia felt that they were being dictated to and were not getting the
respect they deserved. The anger reached boiling point when the Australian PM
Tony Abbott very imprudently brought up the matter of Australian aid to
Indonesia. This was regarded as an attempt to humiliate Indonesia into sparing
the lives of the two death convicts. This is now all that comes to mind when
Australia is mentioned.
Nobody remembers Australia’s role in the country’s
struggle to keep its independence in the late 1940s.It might seem to be the
dictate of common sense to let the storm blow over before saying anything about
Australia-Indonesia relations, to be silent about it for a sufficient period of
time to allow the negative emotions to dissipate. And yet there might be wisdom
in addressing the problem right away.
In this regard it is always a good thing to be able to
see things from the other person’s point of view. When I was undergoing
training to become a diplomat, we were told to cultivate the habit of
two-handedness. To be able to say: on the one hand, this is how I see the
issue, and on the other hand, you may have a point that I must consider.
On one hand, Australia needs Indonesia as an economic
partner; on the other hand, Indonesia equally needs Australia as an economic
partner and as a collaborator in its regional architecture building.
That’s why I am optimistic that on both sides the
wounds of recent controversy will heal. And my optimism is strengthened when I
think of what PM Abbott recently said: “This is a dark moment in the
relationship, but I am sure the relationship will be restored.”
Likewise, a few days ago, Indonesian Foreign Minister
Retno LP Marsudi said she hoped the relationship would normalize because, she
said, “Indonesia needs Australia and Australia, I think, also needs Indonesia.”
It would help, of course, if the dialog between the
two countries became more constructive. During the years that I served in the
foreign ministry and dealing with Australia, I learned that indeed, in this age
of information, countries scrutinized each other. This is a fact of
international life.
But the developed countries of the West are the ones
that are doing most of the scrutinizing, as the developing countries are more
often distracted by their own domestic problems. Observation breeds criticism,
and when officials express their views on issues through the mass media, they
tend to grandstand and play to the gallery. This generates a lot of heat
without shedding light on the issues to be addressed.
And sometimes the media are part of the problem. By
providing information and commentary on issues, the media help shape public
perceptions. Politicians and public officials have to deal with these
perceptions that are eventually stripped of their nuances and reduced to their
most simplistic forms. The traditional media have always tended to be
sensational, but the most sensational of them all are social media. These days,
so much misperception, so much prejudice and so much hatred are being perpetrated
by social media.
The negative impacts of irresponsible media reportage
and commentary are further complicated by the cultural traits of peoples. It is
my impression that we Indonesians are a more emotional people than Australians
and other Westerners who are more cerebral in their approach to issues. We tend
to deal with others on a heart-to-heart basis, while Australians do it
head-to-head. So in the case of a controversy such as that surrounding the
Australian duo sentenced to death, many statements coming from Australia, which
were meant to be simply sensible and practical, were received in Indonesia as
hard-hearted and cold-blooded.
It would greatly help the relationship if we spent
more time learning about each other instead of debating who is right and who is
wrong. And there should also be a more robust manifestation of mutual respect.
While we are unlike each other in terms of culture and traditions, the fact
remains that we are geographically next-door neighbors. We are stuck with each
other.
One of the most prudent things we can do is to invest
in cross-cultural communication — in a way that shows respect for one another’s
views. We can disagree while still showing respect for the person we disagree
with. We must avoid the blame-game and refrain from speculation. Above all, we
must avoid inflammatory language. We must shun megaphone diplomacy.
We must do more to promote social-cultural relations.
Our cooperation in the field of education must continue.
At the same time we must make our economic partnership
work for our peoples. They must feel and enjoy the benefits of that
partnership.
We must work together to form a robust regional
architecture through ASEAN-led processes, especially the East Asia Summit.
These are the ballasts of our bilateral relations. If
we keep on enlarging and strengthening them, if we keep on learning about each
other and showing respect for each other, our bilateral relations will grow
from strength to strength in all the years ahead. It is the two countries’
shared responsibility.
Indonesians are a more emotional people than
Australians and other Westerners who are more cerebral
The writer Wiryono Sastrohandoyo, served as ambassador
to Australia in the late 1990s. The article first appeared in John Menadue —
Pearls and Irritations blog.
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