Envoy’s ‘holiday’ raises concerns for RI-Oz ties Ross B Taylor  ;   The President of the Western Australian-based Indonesia Institute (Inc), A Former Government Trade Director based in Jakarta

JAKARTA POST,  20 Januari 2014

                                                                                                                       

The Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott last week arrived back in Australia after holidaying with his family in the French Alps over the Christmas holiday period. Meanwhile Indonesia’s Ambassador to Australia, Nadjib Riphat Kesoema, continues his “holiday” in Jakarta as a result of being recalled by his government over Australia’s response to the spying revelations late last year. This “ambassadorial holiday” is now in its eighth week; a worrying sign that the bilateral relationship is becoming more ambivalent as the weeks roll by as both countries focus on domestic issues dominated by Indonesia’s upcoming presidential elections and the new Australian government’s challenge to restructure their economy. In the meantime, Australia has now admitted breaching Indonesia’s territorial waters whilst turning asylum seeker boats back to Indonesia; an announcement that will almost certainly see Pak Kesoema have his stay in Jakarta extended. But the reality facing Australia and the Abbott government is that despite the quick apology over this latest incident and the ongoing rhetoric about the need for “close and meaningful relations” between Indonesia and Australia, many Australians still see Indonesia from a very Anglo Saxon perspective and with an overriding suspicion about their northern neighbor.  Indonesia admittedly still has huge challenges as a nation including corruption, lack of infrastructure, poverty and the critical need to control any rise in Islamic militancy through the archipelago. A close relationship with their neighbors, including Australia, is important to Indonesia’s path to becoming an economically strong — and socially stable — nation. In terms of regional security, Australia has an enormous investment in this long-term outcome. The reason Australia hands-out aid money to Indonesia is, as a prosperous and first-world neighbor, they want to be benevolent but also aid money works in Australia’s national interests. Yet every time my fellow Aussies don’t get what we want, the calls are the same: Withdraw aid if Indonesia causes us problems. It’s a bit like the parent who threatens to withdraw funding to their son or daughter at university every time they have a family disagreement. It’s patronizing and selfish.  In business and commerce both countries enjoy close relations, but the two-way trade is still comparatively small. For some years now Indonesia has been looking north for trade and investment opportunities, whilst Australia is focused on China and “their very best friend in Asia”, Japan. We talk often about building stronger trade links including the restoration of the live cattle trade with Indonesia.  There are some positive signals coming out of Jakarta but we still see the rebuilding of this vital trade from a perspective of, “We sell; they buy”, and the current malaise affecting the bilateral relationship will affect the significant opportunities for creating genuine partnerships with Indonesia to build a fully integrated supply chain where Brand Australia could add-value to beef for reexport, from Indo-Australian operated companies in Indonesia, to other countries through Asia and the Middle East. There is probably no better example of how close “partnerships” can benefit both Indonesia and Australia than the model developed by our respective national police forces. The Australian Federal Police and Indonesia’s National Police systematically “demolished” terrorist groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah who were responsible for the Bali bombings. These two organizations continue to enjoy close and effective relations, working on a range of important issues including training, people smuggling and terrorism.  But this relationship needs close government cooperation to be restored soon in order to maintain the effectiveness of our joint policing that also helps keep many Australians and other foreigners safe whilst holidaying in places such as Bali. The political malaise that continues may not dominate the public’s thinking at present, but the ramifications of a longer-term cooling of our mutual relationship will not only impact on Indonesia, but all Australians as well.  The recent spat with China over their ongoing dispute with Japan was a good example of where Indonesia and Australia — as regional partners — could have voiced our valid concerns jointly to China in a far more diplomatic, yet impactful, way. But it was not possible to do that when the core relationship and trust between our two nations was not there. Indonesia and Australia need each other as we both walk the otherwise lonely regional path between our economic dependency on China and our security allegiance to the USA and Japan. In a recent article in The Australian Financial Review newspaper, former Australian Labor Party leader, Mark Latham wrote that Indonesia is “just a two-bit player” and the best strategy for Australia would be to keep them, “at arm’s length”.  Notwithstanding these misguided comments, sadly as Indonesia becomes more inwardly focused during the 2014 election year, “mutual ambivalence” may become an undesirable feature of our bilateral relationship. The reality is however, both countries need each other, and the future security of the region and our respective futures are inextricably linked, despite our differences. ●