{"id":45884,"date":"2019-03-04T11:02:40","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T00:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=45884"},"modified":"2019-03-04T11:02:40","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T00:02:40","slug":"australia-and-indonesia-towards-a-durable-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-and-indonesia-towards-a-durable-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia and Indonesia: towards a durable partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This essay is from ASPI\u2019s election special,<\/em>\u00a0Agenda for change 2019: Strategic choices for the next government<\/a>.\u00a0The report contains 30 short essays by leading thinkers covering key strategic, defence and security challenges, and offers short- and long-term policy recommendations as well as outside-the-box ideas that break the traditional rules.<\/em><\/p>\n

The challenge <\/strong><\/p>\n

No country is more important to Australia than Indonesia. In 2019, Paul Keating\u2019s now famous dictum<\/a>, first enunciated 25 years ago, has assumed even greater salience as China emerges as a truly global power and regional political developments threaten to undermine Southeast Asia\u2019s hard-won economic advances.<\/p>\n

The biggest challenge for the incoming government in Canberra is to address the yawning trust deficit with Jakarta. Too often in recent years, our diplomatic relations with Indonesia have been blown off course by avoidable political squalls\u2014the latest being the controversy generated by the Morrison government\u2019s desire to relocate Australia\u2019s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

The aim must be to deepen and broaden Australia\u2019s engagement with Indonesia and to build genuine trust and closer personal links, not just between our political leaders but within the broader community and within key counterpart government agencies and departments. With national elections to be held in both countries in the coming weeks or months, this year provides a suitable platform for a new resolution by Australia\u2019s political leaders to pay greater attention to Indonesia and then deliver on that resolution in the next term of government. We need to work towards a stronger, deeper and more durable partnership with Jakarta.<\/p>\n

For more than two decades, successive Australian governments have hyped the benefits of closer economic, political and cultural links with Indonesia. Our political leaders and our strategic policy planning documents continually pronounce on the importance of Indonesia\u2019s economic rise for Australia. But mention of Jakarta lags far behind the considered treatment given to our major trading partners, led by China, the US and Japan. Geographical proximity doesn\u2019t dictate closer economic relations.<\/p>\n

The official rhetoric from Canberra has placed great store on Indonesia\u2019s strong performance as Southeast Asia\u2019s largest economy, citing its growing middle class and its rapidly increasing demand for goods and services. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade\u2019s 2017 foreign policy white paper<\/a> pointed to the likelihood that Indonesia, with its 260-million-strong population, will be the world\u2019s fifth largest economy by 2030.<\/p>\n

Yet Australia\u2019s business and academic communities have signally failed to take up the challenge of greatly increased economic and educational engagement with our giant northern neighbour. Our trade and investment in Indonesia, never robust, has languished since the 1998 Asian financial crisis and in the wake of China\u2019s remarkable economic ascension since the turn of the century. Australian companies still hold negative perceptions about the difficulty of doing business, given Indonesia\u2019s uncertain regulatory framework and pervasive corruption. That needs to change before Indonesia becomes a major global economy.<\/p>\n

Our two-way trade with Indonesia is currently flatlining at around $16.5 billion annually\u2014accounting for just 2.2% of Australia\u2019s overall global trade. Indonesia is only our 13th largest trading partner\u2014lagging behind its much smaller ASEAN neighbours\u2014Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.<\/p>\n

Since the mid-1990s, government-to-government ties have gradually developed into a dense web of activities including counterterrorism cooperation, financial sector governance reform and joint military exercises. Our embassy in Jakarta is now our largest overseas diplomatic mission; its more than 500 staff include 150 Australia-based diplomats. But deep functional working relationships (as we have built over decades with the US) need to be built between our respective defence organisations\u2014and the defence industries that support them. A decades-long agenda needs to start now.<\/p>\n

We have a fundamental stake in Indonesia\u2019s continuing prosperity and political evolution as the world\u2019s largest Muslim democracy and the natural leader of ASEAN. But, beyond the official rhetoric and closer bureaucratic partnerships that have been forged between government agencies since the 1990s, broader people-to-people engagement between Australia and Indonesia has barely advanced.<\/p>\n

While Australia is still the largest destination for Indonesian students studying abroad, the number (currently around 40,000) hasn\u2019t changed in years. Conversely, the number of Australian students undertaking Indonesian studies in our schools and universities, including language learning, is the lowest in decades.<\/p>\n

We also continue to demonstrate a high level of ignorance about political developments affecting our northern neighbour. Many Australians still fear that Indonesia could pose a military threat to Australia. They also worry about the spread of militant Islam and refugee flows from the archipelago. A 2018 Lowy Institute poll<\/a> found that only 24% of Australians agreed that Indonesia was a democracy.<\/p>\n

On the Indonesian side, long-held popular stereotypes about Australia and Australians persist. According to leading Indonesian journalist Endy Bayuni, we\u2019re still seen as<\/a> \u2018racist, arrogant, manipulative, exploitative and intrusive\u2019. Many members of Indonesia\u2019s political elite haven\u2019t forgiven Australia for the role we played<\/a> in bringing about East Timor\u2019s independence in 1999. They also harbour deep suspicions about our intentions regarding the future of troubled Papua.<\/p>\n

Quick wins <\/strong><\/p>\n

The incoming government in Canberra should move quickly to ratify the Indonesia\u2013Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) agreed in August 2018 [to be signed today<\/a>, though ratification could be months off<\/a>\u2014Eds]. The signing of this landmark trade agreement was stalled in the wake of the Jerusalem embassy controversy.<\/p>\n

The CEPA promises to be a shot in the arm for Australian trade and investment in Indonesia, offering better access to our commodity exporters, including the agriculture and manufacturing sectors. Further trade liberalisation under the CEPA framework will enable Australian service industries to invest in areas such as education, telecommunications, health and mining.<\/p>\n

Vocational training providers will be able to partner with Indonesian counterparts to provide skills training in Indonesia. Under the CEPA, Indonesia\u2019s foreign investment regime will provide greater legal certainty for Australian companies seeking to invest in Indonesia. Economic opportunities need to be pursued by a more sympathetic and more Indonesia-literate business community. Indonesians also need to become more aware of what Australia has to offer, particularly in the services sector.<\/p>\n

The hard yards <\/strong><\/p>\n

Only by pursuing a much deeper and broader engagement with Jakarta can we hope to bridge the gulf between two vastly different cultures. As Keating once observed, the Australia\u2013Indonesia relationship needs to grow not only in the statements of governments but \u2018in the attitudes and actions of ordinary Australians and Indonesians\u2019.<\/p>\n

The incoming government should consider a number of additional measures to help underpin a more durable partnership with Indonesia:<\/p>\n