Indonesia needs to be Asia-literate

Indonesia needs to be Asia-literate Mario Rustan ;  The writer teaches English and Australian Cultural Studies at Uni-Bridge, St. Aloysius High School, Bandung

JAKARTA POST, 01 November 2012

The Australian government has released a white paper titled Australia in the Asian Century, outlining plans to engage Asian nations more closely, repeating the Australian Labor Party’s foreign policy focus back in the mid-1990s.  In order to boost Australia’s per capita income (already one of the highest in the world), Australia needs to understand Asia better. The government wants Australian youth to be able to speak major Asian languages such as Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian and Japanese.  Australian business leaders need to understand Asian business and social culture and how to successfully make deals in them.  Finally, Australian universities, legendary among Asian students, must maintain their high quality and reputation in the face of stiff competition from universities in China, Singapore and Malaysia. Asian commentators, especially in Singapore and India, say it is about time that Australia realizes that it is in the neighborhood of Asia and be more aware of its neighbors’ cultures. But what about the awareness of Indonesians of the Asian Century and our own continent? “The Asian Century”, coined either by the United States Senate or in a meeting between Deng Xiaoping and Rajiv Gandhi, leaders of China and India respectively in the 1980s, can have several meanings.  The most common one is the prominence of Asia, arching from India to Japan, in 21st-century international affairs. That is where the consensus stops.  Several different understandings stem from there — does that mean that Asia will replace “The West”, i.e. the United States and European Union, as the chief protagonists in global politics, economics, and culture? Can Asia as a whole rise up, or will the Asian Century refer exclusively to the Chinese Century? Will India and China cooperate or compete? Can the Asian Century provide a Japanese recovery, or will it join the declining West?  The answers differ according to the aspirations of the speaker. Many Singaporeans want India and China to rise up together, since the island state is populated mostly by ethnic Indians and Chinese.  Many Chinese want Japan to stay weak and are not looking forward to seeing India promoting the virtues of democracy and to see Indian corporations competing with China’s. Many Japanese wonder if the Asian Century can benefit them.  Finally, many Taiwanese and Hong Kong people are not happy with a dominant China. What does the Asian Century mean for Indonesians? The media and scholars here praise the rise of China and hope that Indonesia will rise as well.  Optimists believe that Indonesia will become a major player in the Asian Century, citing its large population and vast natural resources.  The danger is that Indonesia keeps on dreaming about the Asian Century while doing nothing for it. China and India are not only giants in terms of population and natural resources, but also in terms of industrialization.  Indonesia is not an industrial nation. Australia is not an industrial nation either, but besides managing its natural-resource trade effectively (unlike us), Australia provides world class services in finance and higher education. Our big size in population and territory look more like burdens rather than assets.  The only developed country in Southeast Asia is of course Singapore, a “little red dot” in the condescending words of former Indonesian president B.J. Habibie.  Since then, Singaporeans have used the term proudly, as the little red dot is a world leader in finance, small electronics and events hosting, an industry that Indonesia is aspiring to develop.  Singapore, of course, is very Asia-literate. It has fulfilled the dream of its founder, Sir Stamford Raffles, to become the meeting point of India and China. It is easy to find cultural products of all Asian nations in the island, and Singaporeans enthusiastically embrace the visits of Asian stars be they from India, the Philippines, Hong Kong or Japan. Singaporeans are familiar and comfortable with the sights and sounds of Asia. That is Australia’s goal. The government knows that it is a Western country, often seen as an outcast by its northern neighbors. On the other hand, many Australians also believe that Asian civilizations are too conservative, strange and repellent for their liking. Asians — South, Southeast, and East — are integral parts of any Australian city, but they are yet to make significant impact on Australian media and sports. It is still easier to envision a Chinese or Malaysian Australian governor or minister than a star TV  presenter or Olympic medalist.  Understandably, Australian youth prefer to learn European languages rather than Asian languages, since they are more comfortable with those cultures. Actually, similar things happen in Indonesia. It was only a decade ago when it was illegal to express Chinese culture, from celebrating the Lunar New Year to learning Mandarin in private schools.  A decade later, we are still illiterate about Asia. Asian TV series and movies on television are still dubbed into Indonesian. None of the Indonesian media tycoons are interested in financing a Chinese or Asian media suit — television, newspaper, radio, magazine and website.  Many Chinese-language radio stations are struggling with their budgets and the only Chinese news program on Indonesian television seems to be dying. Asian language courses are still lagging behind European language classes. While many schools now teach Mandarin, the students are still too reluctant to practice it in daily situations.  In short, Indonesian society still treats Asian cultures with suspicion. We quickly belittle Korean pop bands visiting Jakarta and make negative stereotypes of other Southeast Asians even after we have visited Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Signs supposedly written in Japanese avoid kanji characters lest they are mistaken for Chinese writing. And most importantly, many Indonesians who revere China — as a nemesis to United States — also have negative opinions on Chinese-Indonesians and their culture.  It is astonishing that some Indonesian international relations experts shrug off Australia’s Asian Century white paper as a security plan against China, omitting the simple and obvious fact that Asia is not only China, but also India, Japan, South Korea and, of course, Indonesia. Currently, many Australians from Irish and Italian backgrounds are struggling to write the correct strokes and to hit the right tones, just to say “I eat rice” in Mandarin. Some Indonesians are doing the same, but their government and society will not reward them for their hard-won skills. It would be such a pity for Indonesia to miss out on the Asian Century. ●