Shame Australia, shame
Many weird
stories come out of Indonesia: A smoking orang-utan hooked on nicotine, the
public servant jailed for confessing his atheism on Facebook.
Some yarns
are funny like moralising politicians caught surfing porn during parliamentary
debate. Others are sad: A 15-year-old
faced five years in jail for hoofing it with a cop’s sandals.
But few can
be as strange as the linking of the Australian Graduate School of Leadership
with the Jenderal Soedirman Center.
The joint venturers intend to set up a leadership and ethics education
institution to rid Indonesia of corruption.
JSC head Bugiaks was reported saying: “Leadership and ethics
education should be an effective way to create new leaders who bring prosperity
to the populace.
“Corruption is like a chronic cancer, and has to be cured by
preparing upcoming leaders with a good ethics.”
Some might consider the proposal a joke, the money better
spent on seeking the Philosopher’s Stone.
Wrong; it’s a golden goal. Even
though corruption is to the public service and business what rice is to the
cuisine, at least someone is trying and that’s to be applauded.
The problem is that Australia has been chosen to teach
Indonesia leadership as though we have a reputation in this area.
That used to be the situation. When others straddled the fence after Indonesia
declared independence we were in the forefront, recognizing a new nation. The government shilly-shallied for a while
but the unions were resolute, custodians of our conscience
When
emergency assistance was needed after the 2002 Bali bombs, we responded with
alacrity and unqualified generosity. Fundamentalists had killed 202 innocents,
including 88 Australians, and injured 240 - but we didn’t let the bombers’ hate
poison relationships with our neighbours who had also suffered terribly.
We were
leaders in compassion. We gave $7
million for an eye centre and $2.5 million for local victims, with many flown
south for treatment.
Apart from
the $1 billion government aid following the 2004 Aceh tsunami, ordinary folk
across the continent gave money and goods without question. It was the same with the 2006 Yogya
earthquake, the Mount Merapi explosion and every other major natural disaster
to hit the catastrophe-prone Archipelago.
Even when
the need has been less urgent Australia has been there with health and
education programs, offering scholarships, building schools, training and
advising. We give almost half a billion
dollars a year. We are Indonesia’s top
aid donor.
We led the
way in good governance. We’d inherited
the great Westminster system. We upheld
the rule of law and ministerial accountability. We believed in human rights and made it law. Our public service
was staunchly independent, like our judiciary.
We were the model nation, an example to the world.
In a region
where despots rule, violence influences votes and states fail we could help a
struggling democracy. It was our duty.
When
Australia supported the East Timor referendum we were still in front. The issue
was clear: Indonesia was in the wrong,
disgracefully so, and Australia in the right.
We took the
moral high ground and risked war. We
upheld the great Australian principle – we did the Right Thing. We led the world and stood tall.
No longer.
It’s time
to apologize to the Indonesian people and confess that all the knowledge and
wisdom we’ve been smugly offering is now dross. In truth we are as base as those venal politicians who run the
Republic for themselves.
We cannot
show leadership because we’ve abandoned that ideal. We cannot teach ethics because we’ve been gutted of that quality
through our inability to fix the asylum seeker problem that has killed hundreds
and brought anguish to thousands.
A difficult
situation? Yes, extraordinarily so,
complex and tangled. Beyond
solution? No, given intelligence,
goodwill, honesty, a determination to put the preservation of life above
political career – and leadership.
We’ve long
been the Lucky Country, rich in resources, young and free as the anthem
says. Happy to rest on our record of
excellence.
Zip back
the body bags of the drowned and see the results, the decomposition of
political leadership.
(First published in On Line Opinion 11 July 2012. Read reaction here
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