Recovering from a rebuff
What does
the Indonesian government have in common with bikie gangs? Both reckon revenge is a dish best served
cold.
How else to
explain the restrained responses to revelations that Australia spied on a friend,
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and his wife Kristiani Herawati?
Dr Marty Natalegawa, the Australian-educated Foreign Minister and a man
not known for intemperate outbursts said: “This was not a smart thing to do.
It violates every single decent and legal instrument I can think of.“It is nothing less than an unfriendly act, which is already having a very serious impact on bilateral relations.”
We braced
for furious retaliation. Would our
embassy be besieged by militant mobs while the police took a smoko? Would
outraged nationalists sweep hotels for Aussies ordering them out of the
archipelago? Trade bans, for sure. Maybe
Boeing loads of Bali-bound tourists would be turned back.
These
things have happened before, though not this time.
Despite
reports that defence and security cooperation have been diluted, and that the
live cattle trade is being reviewed, the most serious response so far has been
the recall of ambassador Nadjib Riphat Kesoema.
There could be another explanation for the
limited action: We’re not going to be punished – just ignored. As every wannabe
celebrity knows, that’s a fate too awful to contemplate.
What an insult! A rich, mature, modern
nation-continent that always punches above its weight (according to Barack
Obama), snubbed by a corruption-riddled infant democracy where half the
citizens live in poverty.
Now hear this: We’re the US deputy sheriff
in Southeast Asia, a generous neighbour giving half a billion aid dollars every
year. Why so rude, so ungrateful? Don’t you know who we are, how important and
influential?
Even though Tony Abbott has declared that
Jakarta is our new Geneva, the Indonesians have left Canberra where it is, a
southern branch office of the northern Anglosphere where the serious power is
headquartered.
There are other distractions and all
internal: Elections, inflation, poverty, corruption, inequality, intolerance
... Foreign affairs hardly register.
The spying revelations are our collision
with the rocks of reality. We have four
times more space but one tenth of the population. The Republic ranks fourth in
world population statistics – we’re number 52.
Indonesians see us as we view New Zealand; a nice place to visit, but
not to be taken too seriously.
We claim to be big on human rights and
equality, but treat asylum seekers as criminals. Our responses to the health and education
needs of indigenous Australians are an international disgrace.
When feeling nasty the more knowledgeable
add that our nation was settled by British criminals, our culture has been
imported, our lifestyle is godless and we’re closet colonialists.
The ruling Javanese are masters of refined
behaviour and subtle response. Reading their emotions takes time and insights.
They prefer consensus to confrontation but have long memories. Anger over our
often-misrepresented role in the 1999 East Timor independence referendum still
bubbles away, not far below the surface.
Eventually the toxin of spying will be
diluted by time and crises new. His
Excellency will quietly book a Garuda seat south and fresh bottled water will
be set out in meeting rooms. Pragmatism will rule, though wounded pride will
not be rapidly healed.
This interregnum gives time to evaluate and
renovate the relationship.
First step is to appreciate that recovery
is too important to be left to the lumbering politicians. They haven’t just
smashed things up; they’ve compounded their clumsiness by unapologetically
trashing decades of finely crafted goodwill.
When two such different societies live so
close, navigation errors can lead to a capsize if there’s no ballast in the
relationship.
Instead of waiting for diplomats to start
shuffling forward let’s seize the opportunity to repair. Organisations like the Indonesia Institute
could take the lead and bring together academics, journalists,
businesspeople, NGOs and others on both shores of the Arafura Sea.
Our task?
To reclaim mutual respect and understanding.
What to put on the agenda? The 2012 Asian
Century paper, a document that seems to have been trampled in the current
disarray. Despite originating in government, reception has been generally
positive and bipartisan. A place to
start.
Hang on, these things can wait, it’s the
Christmas break.
Not in the world’s most populous Islamic
nation. The next president might not be so friendly, and the hole we’ve dug to
date even deeper.
(First published in Our Indonesia Today, January 2014)
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