{"id":62674,"date":"2021-02-23T12:30:33","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T01:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=62674"},"modified":"2021-02-23T11:49:03","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T00:49:03","slug":"australia-indonesia-relations-keeping-it-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-indonesia-relations-keeping-it-real\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia\u2013Indonesia relations: keeping it real"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Observers of the relationship between Australia and Indonesia can\u2019t have missed Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison\u2019s declaration a year ago that the two countries enjoyed a level of \u2018trust that underpins only the truest of friendships\u2019, or Indonesian President Joko Widodo\u2019s labelling of Australia as Indonesia\u2019s \u2018truest friend\u2019. Such hyperbole might have been necessary given the occasion<\/a>, but it\u2019s a chimerical basis for building the kind of strategic partnership from which both countries would benefit over coming decades.<\/p>\n

We should inch our reality closer to the rhetoric by enhancing our practical ties with Indonesia in a few areas.<\/p>\n

Like its predecessors, the Morrison government has hardly ignored the relationship, even if its preoccupations with China and the Pacific have cast Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia somewhat into the policy shadows. It has rebuilt ties last strained by Morrison\u2019s ruminations<\/a> on moving our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and, before then, by Widodo\u2019s old zeal for capital punishment. It deserves credit for its response<\/a> to Indonesia\u2019s need for support during the Covid-19 pandemic. And, if its claims about the gains from the Indonesia\u2013Australia Closer Economic Partnership Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership prove overblown, benefits are nonetheless likely to flow for both countries.<\/p>\n

But it would be naive to believe that any of this is likely to reshape entrenched perceptions of Australia in Indonesian policy circles any time soon. Many Indonesian leaders will remain suspicious of our motives and dismissive of our capacity to be a significant economic and strategic partner, as a recent survey<\/a> shows. We could multiply our leaders\u2019 and ministers\u2019 contacts, but whatever gains that might bring would quickly dissipate with the onset of the next bilateral spat, which is only ever just around the corner. Moreover, it invariably takes more time and effort to rebuild what\u2019s broken than it did to break it; it\u2019s a Sisyphean task.<\/p>\n

That assessment doesn\u2019t justify abandoning the quest to push the relationship up a less frustrating incline. It simply means that, no less than for Washington, we shouldn\u2019t expect any lingering gratitude and reciprocity from Jakarta, least of all that our actions can buy us influence over its decision-making. We should do it anyway, in part because not to do so would reduce the ballast that the relationship needs to survive rockier times.<\/p>\n

We should make more of an investment in some areas. Defence cooperation is one, irrespective of the fact that Indonesia\u2019s military (the TNI) harbours more suspicions and easily aroused hostility towards Australia than other parts of Indonesian society. Decades of activities between our armed forces haven\u2019t doused such sentiment, so we shouldn\u2019t expect that merely expanding joint training will change the TNI\u2019s institutional mindset. But it would improve the odds of disabusing Indonesia\u2019s emerging military leaders of the fallacies about Australia\u2019s capabilities and intent to which they\u2019re often subjected and of building personal bonds between both officer corps that, in times of crisis, can help keep matters in a broader strategic perspective. We should be especially open to activities that Indonesia would welcome or, ideally, initiate in the maritime domain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another area is aid. Again, history shows that being among Indonesia\u2019s major donors guarantees<\/a> neither gratitude nor influence through \u2018soft power<\/a>\u2019 when political factors strain the relationship. Moreover, the more Indonesia develops into the power it sees as its destiny, the less it wants to be defined as an aid recipient or \u2018a member of a beggars\u2019 club<\/a>\u2019. So, we shouldn\u2019t expect greater aid flows simply to translate into more power, but nor should we imagine that continuing to run down our aid won\u2019t have consequences.<\/p>\n

Ideally, we should restore aid flows closer to where they used to be by means of a \u2018Southeast Asia step-up<\/a>\u2019 beyond what the government has announced. Failing that, the only way to mitigate this risk is to concentrate on those areas most likely to resonate with Widodo and the wider Indonesian public. We should prioritise aid that meets what Indonesia identifies as its primary development needs rather than programs aimed at longer term social objectives. That\u2019s likely to mean refocusing the program to cleave more closely to Widodo\u2019s own second-term development goals as enunciated in his inauguration speech<\/a>, especially his aim to endow his country with a human resource base more skilled in sciences and technology. This would offer both practical support and a potential soft-power dividend.<\/p>\n

One element of this should showcase Australia\u2019s scientific and technological excellence in the health and agriculture sectors. We can do this through our aid program as well as our commercial promotion activities. To a degree, this is already happening. Adjusting the aid program would allow it to happen more.<\/p>\n

Another element should turn on getting more young Indonesians to study in Australia, particularly in civil engineering and the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). This is a multidimensional problem demanding measures that in many cases lie beyond any Australian government\u2019s reach. That said, the government could do far worse with its aid funds than expand the Australia Awards program significantly and should review how closely its current priority fields of study<\/a> marry with Jokowi\u2019s.<\/p>\n

As some of Australia\u2019s most consistent Indonesian critics have proved, granting someone an award to study here doesn\u2019t guarantee even a balanced appreciation of Australia\u2019s flaws and virtues, let alone a readiness to privilege it. But many recipients have come away from the experience understanding Australia better and valuing it more, and some have risen to senior levels of government and business. More to the point, reducing the number of awards\u2014or even simply maintaining the same number while competitors like Beijing increase theirs\u2014will guarantee that Australia\u2019s chances of influencing Indonesian decision-makers will diminish commensurately and relatively to others\u2019 at precisely the time when our interests will lie in improving our odds.<\/p>\n

In that event, however, the government should avoid simply increasing the proportion\u2014or even the number, beyond a certain point\u2014of Indonesian government recipients. Since Indonesia\u2019s private sector (more specifically, its young entrepreneurial class) appears on course to influence and even define the country\u2019s political economy, raising the proportion of both long- and short-term awards to non-government applicants may offer a better chance of exposing Indonesia\u2019s future opinion-shapers to what Australian science, technology and education have to offer.<\/p>\n

These proposals offer a far from perfect answer to the dilemma of doing less with less. They\u2019re likely to have implications that run counter to Australian values, such as equity, and for our attractiveness to some Indonesians (a theme to be explored in a future Strategist<\/em> post). But until we have the means to do more with more, they may be the least imperfect option from a national interest perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Observers of the relationship between Australia and Indonesia can\u2019t have missed Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison\u2019s declaration a year ago that the two countries enjoyed a level of \u2018trust that underpins only the truest of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1241,"featured_media":62677,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[832,17,51,8],"class_list":["post-62674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-aid","tag-australia","tag-defence-cooperation","tag-indonesia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAustralia\u2013Indonesia relations: keeping it real | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-indonesia-relations-keeping-it-real\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Australia\u2013Indonesia relations: keeping it real | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Observers of the relationship between Australia and Indonesia can\u2019t have missed Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison\u2019s declaration a year ago that the two countries enjoyed a level of \u2018trust that underpins only the truest of ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-indonesia-relations-keeping-it-real\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-23T01:30:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-23T00:49:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-1205151891.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"704\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Engel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Engel\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-indonesia-relations-keeping-it-real\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-1205151891.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-1205151891.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":704,\"caption\":\"CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 10: Prime Minister Scott Morrison (L) walks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo through a linkway as they leave the House of Representatives at Parliament House on February 10, 2020 in Canberra, Australia. 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