Australians have long been ambivalent towards Indonesia.
They want a good relationship with Indonesia and disapprove when the
government fails to maintain this. But they are also wary and often anxious
about Indonesia. Only a small minority of Australians feel close to or
knowledgeable about the country.
Tackling
this ambivalence is seemingly becoming harder due to changes in both nations.
Within Australia, Indonesian literacy is falling. Fewer Australians learn
Indonesian than probably at any time in the past half-century. And there is
little Indonesian content in the general school curriculum.
Meanwhile,
Indonesia is growing faster than Australia and is likely to surpass Australian
on many economic indicators in the next decade or so. Prior Australian notions
of their country being more important in the bilateral relationship and the
world will be less credible.
So how
is Australia to face these issues of anxiety, hoped-for amity, and the shifting
balance between the two countries?
Indonesia overshadowing Australia?
Most
Australians have deemed their country more significant than Indonesia.
Australia is wealthier and has a larger economy, with much higher GDP per
capita. It has superior military forces and has, at least until recently,
enjoyed a higher international profile.
That
Australia gave large sums of development aid to Indonesia probably fixed in the
minds of many ordinary Australians that their neighbor was a poor and needy
country. Whether these indicators really did mean Australia was more important
to Indonesia than Indonesia was to Australia has been a matter of historical
debate among scholars and commentators.
But
Indonesia’s rapid economic growth over the past decade, at around 5 percent per
year, and its prospects for rising prosperity in the coming decades, mean
Indonesia is likely to draw near to or overtake Australia on many of the
measures on which Australia previously enjoyed a commanding lead.
Many
Indonesians are increasingly confident of their country’s future significance,
not only regionally but globally. They view Australia as a neighbor that their
country will soon overshadow.
Causindy
How
Australians respond to this reversal of fortune will be one of the issues
discussed at the Causindy conference.
The
annual Caunsindy (Conference of Australian and Indonesian Youth) was held in
Bali, where I was a speaker. It is an initiative aimed at tackling the
complexities of the bilateral relationship outside of a formal government
context.
The
conference brought together 30 young leaders from Australia and Indonesia who
have a good knowledge of each other’s countries. Most of the Australians have
good Indonesian and the Indonesians good English. A wide range of issues, from
politics, to the environment, to culture, will be discussed during the
conference. Differences of opinion are welcomed and respected.
What
ties the Australian and Indonesian conference delegates together is a shared
desire for warm relations and the deepest possible mutual understanding.
Anxiety towards Indonesia
Evidence
of high levels of popular mistrust of Indonesia has long been evident in
Australian media reporting and commentary.
But two
recent surveys on bilateral perceptions released by the Australia-Indonesia
Center (AIC) provide a more detailed picture of Australian (and Indonesian)
attitudes. One of the surveys examines current attitudes; the other looks at
historical opinion polling going back to the late 1940s.
For the
contemporary survey, respondents confessed to feeling “confronted” by
Indonesia’s size and rising economic prospects. They are wary of Australia
becoming “reliant” on its neighbor, though keen to extract “benefit” from the
relationship. Many expressed their “emotional distance” from Indonesia. More
expressed an unfavorable attitude to Indonesia (47 percent) than a favorable
one (43 percent).
Islam
and terrorism were particular sources of negativity for those surveyed. At the
top of the list of word associations with Indonesia was “religion,” and
respondents linked Indonesian Islam to extremism and the Middle East. Some 42
percent said they were not interested in learning more about the country.
While
there are a number of methodological concerns about this AIC survey, it
nonetheless indicates the broad parameters of Australian thinking towards
Indonesia.
The
historical survey shows a consistent perception of threat towards Indonesia for
most of the 71 years of the bilateral relationship. Australians have worried
about Indonesia’s perceived expansionist tendencies, its political instability
and large Muslim population. It also found a recurring desire among respondents
to “build a closer relationship” with Indonesia.
Australia's bleak mood
Australia
is a disconcerted nation at present. Over the past few years growth rates have
been low, social tensions have risen and political uncertainty is arguably at
its highest since the mid-1970s.
Not
surprisingly opinion surveys are finding pessimism and apprehension commonplace
in Australian society.
This
somewhat bleak mood has consequences for how Australians see Indonesia.
Do they
view Indonesia, with its growing economy and international role, as an even
greater threat to Australia? Or do they view it as presenting opportunities? Do
Australians continue to be anxious about and somewhat disengaged from
Indonesia, or do they seek to understand and embrace their neighbor?
On
present indications, Australians, in general, will continue being ambivalent
and wary.
Past
programs for mass education in Indonesian language and studies have proved
largely unsuccessful. Targeted activities that focus on Australians and
Indonesians with a high commitment to improving bilateral understanding and
engagement might have better prospects.
The
virtue of Causindy is that it provides a forum for discussing and addressing
these long-standing mixed feelings in the bilateral relationship. It may not
have a large impact on general public attitudes, but it will hopefully
undergird relationships among people who may well become opinion leaders and
decision makers of the future.
Greg
Fealy is an associate professor and senior fellow of Indonesia politics at the
department of political and social change at Bell School of Asia-Pacific
affairs at Australian National University
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