WA's RI DISENGAGEMENT STRATEGY

 

 

How not to win friends and influence people

 

‘No country is more important to Australia than Indonesia. If we fail to get this relationship right, and nurture and develop it, the whole web of our foreign relations is incomplete.’ 

 

 

Few have disagreed with then PM Paul Keating’s March 1994 speech, endorsed mildly by his successors and embellished by exporters.  Though there’s been a wealth of words and a dearth of action, who’d dare doubt this article of faith?

 

Mark McGowan for one.  The newly re-elected WA Premier has shredded the Asian Engagement ministry he created in 2017.  He’s also dumped the State’s dedicated trade commissioner in Indonesia, a tough market to penetrate for even hardened operators at ease with the language and culture.

 

Connoisseurs of pointless memorabilia should grab a copy of the government’s WA’s Asian Engagement Strategy 2019-2030, Our Future with Asia - before the printout is quietly pulped.

Despite Indonesia mishandling the pandemic [1.5 million cases, 40 thousand deaths] market watchers still reckon the planet’s fourth most populous nation is set to become the fourth biggest economy by 2050. As Perth is just a coffee-and-kip flight to the archipelago, let’s go. The Balinese love us thirsty laid-back Ozzies - Jakarta can’t be that much different.

There’s been some screeching about betrayal because WA was once seriously keen on building lasting ties with East Java, particularly when Labor’s Dr Geoff Gallop was premier [1996-2001]. The problem’s been Perth-based decision makers’ expecting rapid returns for little outlay.  Relating to Asia is a long game; like wine it needs to age.

There’s also disillusionment and envy. What are these trade wallahs up to when out of town?  In their exotic postings they’re supposed to sell the State and nurture neophytes carrying embossed ballpoints, diarrhoea pills and delicious pie-charts.

They care for VIPs on overseas ‘fact-finding missions’ which in one case involved checking Japanese bath-houses.

Craig Peacock was WA’s man in Tokyo garnering praise for his competence and ability to hustle.  He was certainly a great wool-puller, blurring his bosses’ eyesight.  For 17 years he had a grand time till the state’s Crime and Corruption Commission picked apart his reports and receipts, allegedly finding a $540,000 fleecing plus some funny business involving politician mates desiring $700 massages.

In 2019 he lost his job and an opportunity to explain himself in court as the alleged offences occurred overseas.  He’s reportedly agreed to repay the cash.

Naturally there was an inquiry which spread beyond malfeasance into structure causing a furious McGowan to upend the barrel because one apple had codling moth. The Premier’s ‘hub and spokes’ response involves four new investment and trade commissioners in seemingly incompatible and certainly unmanageable geographical groupings: ‘India-Gulf, North-East Asia, China and ASEAN.’

 

Their department is JTSI, which sounds like an office where you’d ask for Winston Smith.  The acronym is as weird as the combine – Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation.  Rearranged as JIST it becomes Kiwi for a joke.

 

Unfortunately there’s nothing witty about forcing such disparate disciplines together in an isolated city to see which cracks first.  This isn’t another absurd TV series but an apparently serious attempt to win new business.

 

Overseas officials and businessfolk used to centralised systems find it passing strange that states in a federation would compete to sell their goodies.  Why duplicate when there are old Austrade hands in our largest Embassy in the world? These diplomats know the ropes and traps, and they’re backed by a Canberra department with 6,000 employees.

 

The WA appointee handling the ten heterogeneous nations which make up ASEAN [pop 600-plus million] will be based in Perth, then Singapore and eventually Jakarta if and when the plague subsides.  Apart from confusing cities, currencies and timezones, pressures will include edgy minders demanding hourly feedback.

McGowan reckons ‘hubs’ will provide a ‘more flexible model to help diversify WA’s mining-dependent economy’.  Indonesia Institute president Ross Taylor, a former Jakarta-based WA trade commissioner, has a different translation, ensuring he’ll miss out on breakfast invites at the next launch of an exciting strategy:

 ‘The real issue is not the demise of the portfolio as it was completely ineffective, but rather the incompetent leadership of JTSI, which has left the critically important trade and investment function a mere shadow of its once visionary and professional self.

‘For 20 years state governments have rebranded, restructured, culled, expanded and now diminished our engagement with Asia. International trade and investment is the life-blood of our economy.  It deserves better than this.’

Australian traders seeking guides to the 4D labyrinth of Indonesian business negotiations will be better advised to ignore the JTSI jesters and recruit polyglot scions of Indonesian corporate families.  There are plenty around.  They’ve studied abroad so know how to engage with Australia.

 

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First published in Pearls & Irritations, 26 March 2021:  https://johnmenadue.com/how-not-to-win-friends-and-influence-people/

VISIT AUSTRALIA - BUT DON'T EXPECT A WELCOME MAT

Getting to know you shouldn’t be so difficult                                

Australia is so close passengers just have time for a snack and a snooze on a two-hour, 30 minute flight to Darwin.  It takes longer to get to Manado in North Sulawesi.

The Northern Territory capital is a delightful, compact modern city largely rebuilt since it was trashed by Cyclone Tracy in 1974.  No adjustment needed for those who enjoy the tropics.

If heading south to Perth in Western Australia, add a short doco or news update; you’ll be there in well under four hours after lifting off from Denpasar.

There’s no shortage of carriers so fares outside school holidays can often be lower than flying between centers in the Archipelago.

Just one catch:  Indonesians need visas, like most foreigners.  But there’s a difference which can be more than a hassle and a cost.  It’s also a big deterrent, according to Indonesia Institute President Ross Taylor, who lives in Perth.

Along with the local tourist industry his NGO has been pushing for Indonesians to have the same access to visitor visas as citizens of Singapore and Malaysia.

They can apply on line, get speedy responses and pay only AUD 20.

Taylor, who used to be a trade commissioner in Jakarta, tells of a chance encounter with a family of 22 from Bandung, West Java.  They were enjoying Perth’s splendid Kings Park above the city.  Access to this bushy lookout is free, but getting there ripped wallets.

The group leaders told him they’d paid AUD 3,080 for visas and filled in close to 300 pages of questions.

Aussies flying in and out of Indonesia know that those trying to ram overweight backpacks into overhead lockers use English expletives to help the bag fit.  Less than one in six passengers are Indonesians.

In 2016 the Indonesian government surprised tourists when it cancelled the US $30 visa-on-arrival system, a decision which reportedly cost the country US $50 million.  It seemed like an economic wrist-slash, but it was super smart.

Within a year visitor numbers flew 16 per cent higher, and according to industry calculations, added US $145 million to the economy.  Now Australian passport holders queue only to get stamped, not fleeced.  That comes later in Kuta’s Jalan Legian.

The other factor is time.  Feel like a quick break this weekend Down Under?  Forget impulse ticket-buying unless you’ve fixed the paperwork well in advance.

Last month this writer helped an Indonesian who wanted to look around Sydney during a return home eight-hour stopover from New Zealand.

It took about ten days using an agent in Indonesia to get the transit visa.  The middle-aged lady had no criminal record and held a senior position in a State bank.

Jakartans spluttering to get out of the Asia’s second most polluted city and inhale fresh air should forget the Wide Brown land and head for the Himalayas; India now gives Indonesians visas-on-arrival. 

Last year more than 9 million Indonesians traveled overseas; less than two per cent headed south-east. Their favorite destinations were Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Japan.

Tokyo is seven hours from Denpasar but Indonesians don’t need a visa for a short visit. More than 300,000 made the trip last year while fewer than 200,000 headed Down Under.

The Australian Embassy struggles to deny the facts, arguing that immigration policy is a work in progress. Officials say Indonesians can now apply on line, multiple-entry visas valid for three years are available, and that most applicants are successful.

The unspoken reason for the discriminatory treatment appears to be the lack of trust in what officials call ‘document integrity’.  This is bureaucratic-speak for believing forgery of passports and supporting travel documents has yet to be tackled seriously.

The other issue is overstaying.  Yet few from the Archipelago are guilty.  According to Immigration Department figures, Malaysians are the major offenders followed by Chinese, Americans and the British.  Around 60,000 overstayers are believed to be in Australia, a nation without ID cards.

None of this dents Taylor’s resolve to get more of his neighbors into his country, and not because of the money they’ll bring.  He reckons tourism helps people get to know each other and shed attitudes built on myths and hearsay.

“Tourism is the best way to forge a more intimate bilateral relationship, giving Indonesians the chance to see how Australians live,” he said.  “It challenges ignorance, misperceptions and suspicions.

“We need to bring hundreds of thousands more Indonesians to Australia, so we start getting to know them better."

Ironically this is the same message continually pushed by the Australian government.  It says it wants people from the Republic to jump a jet and check out the koalas and kangaroos for themselves, and for Aussies to discover their neighbors no longer live in an autocracy.

The ignorance has been measured.  Every year the well-respected Lowy Institute questions Australians perception of Indonesia and its citizens.  The last report was little different from its predecessors:

‘In 2018, only 24 per cent of Australians agree that Indonesia is a democracy. They are divided … on whether Indonesia is a dangerous source of terrorism, and only 32 per cent agree that the Indonesian government has worked hard to fight terrorism’.

Maybe encouraging more Indonesians to visit Australia might help the locals revise their outdated attitudes. 

First published in Indonesian Expat 4 July 2019: https://indonesiaexpat.biz/featured/getting-to-know-you-shouldnt-be-so-difficult/

Also published in The West Australian on 12 July 2019

WE WANT YOU - BUT MAKE IT EASIER FOR MALAYSIANS

      Visit Down Under and pay up              

Indonesians will not be getting cheap and easy-to-obtain Australian visas available to Malaysians and Singaporeans. Australian campaigners seeking better access for Indonesian tourists have been officially told there will be no changes. This is despite the Republic giving Australians free visas-on-arrival and the Australian government claiming it wants more Indonesian visitors.

The AUD $20 (Rp 211,000) on-line visas known as Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) are used by citizens of a dozen countries including the Republic’s near neighbors. However Indonesians have to pay seven times more for permission to visit the Great South Land.

They also have to complete a complex form with more than 50 questions and provide references and bank statements.

The Perth-based Indonesia Institute (II) has been urging a relaxation of entry requirements so Indonesians wanting to holiday Down Under can use ETAs.

The Institute believes more visitors will improve people-to-people relationships but that high-cost visas inhibit travel. However at the start of 2018 the II has been told that Indonesians won’t get ETAs.  No reason has been given.

Acting Assistant Secretary Ben Meagher of the Department of Home Affairs wrote to II President Ross Taylor saying Australia was “currently taking steps to transform Australia’s visa system to make it easier to understand (and) navigate.”  However “expanding access to the ETA program is not being considered.”

Till recently Indonesians had to seek Australian visas through approved fee-charging agents but can now apply directly on-line. Tourists can normally stay for up to three months at a time. The visas are valid for three years.

Apart from Malaysia and Singapore, Asian countries whose citizens can use ETAs include Brunei Darussalam, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea.  Decisions are usually given the same day, often while the applicant is on-line.

Taylor said he recently encountered a family of 21 from East Java visiting Perth.  While welcoming he apologised for them having to complete 357 pages of forms and pay AUD $2,940 (Rp 31 million) to enter the country.

“I just wonder when our Federal Government will put aside the secret fear of Indonesia - despite the people being respectful, easy-going and polite - and welcome our neighbours as friends,” he said.

“Australia is losing a large and expanding market driven by young people seeking overseas holidays through special on-line ‘last minute’ airfare deals.

 ”Indonesians who want to take a long-weekend break can’t chose Australia as it’s too expensive and too slow to comply with the Australian visa requirements. And that’s a major loss to the Australian economy.

“Air Asia proudly boasts on the side of its aircraft: 'Now everyone can fly’. Maybe they need to add…'except to Australia’.”

According to Immigration and Border Protection figures, last year Indonesians represented about four per cent of the 64,000 visa overstayers.  Most defaulters were from Britain, the US, China and Malaysia.

Australia has been attempting to lure more Indonesian visitors. Last year the Jakarta Embassy launched its Aussie Banget (Real Australia) strategy to dispel stereotypes about beaches and barbecues.

Former Ambassador Paul Grigson said the Embassy was “trying to encourage Indonesians and Australians to think of what we have in common.”  Clearly that encouragement does not extend to matching immigration rules..

Although numbers have risen the imbalance is huge. About 200,000 Indonesian tourists visit Australia every year but seven times more Australians enter Indonesia, most to holiday in Bali.

Taylor said: “When Indonesia scrapped the US $35 (Rp 470,000) Visa-On-Arrival fee for Australians (in March 2016) the Republic lost about US $30 million revenue. 

“The next 12 months saw arrivals from Australia rise by over 16 per cent. This delivers around US $165 million annually to the local economy. Is there a lesson here for Australia?”

(First published in Pearls and Irritations 12 January 2017.  http://johnmenadue.com/duncan-graham-visit-down-under-and-pay-up/

FORTRESS AUSTRALIA: WHAT MESSAGE IS BEING SENT?

Brittle bonds, wary views, slow trade: Rethink required               

Just before Easter Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop opened her country’s latest and grandest Embassy.

The AUD 415 million complex covering four hectares of Central Jakarta is being billed as a marvel of modern technology married to sensitive architecture.  There’s even an embrace of greenery and Javanese beliefs with four transplanted banyan trees.

Building colors represent minerals of the Great South Land. The walls are blast resistant; in 2004 a Jemaah Islamiah car bomber killed nine outside the former Embassy.

Bishop banged a gong and pronounced: ‘This is our largest overseas diplomatic post and will be a symbol of the breadth and the depth and the importance of this relationship between Australia and Indonesia’.

These are familiar lyrics which read well but never seem to catch on. ‘Underlying strengths’ and ‘bilateral ballast’ are other timeworn diplomatic standards, but not Golden Oldies. As Ross Taylor, President of Perth’s Indonesia Institute points out, ballast doesn’t help a ship go anywhere.

Inside the Forbidden City are tennis courts, a medical center, club and 34 four-bedroom apartments. A boon for some of the 500 staff who won’t have to dodge the Big Durian’s waspish   motorcycle swarms, wade flooded streets and share the travel dramas of millions of commuters.

Following a tough day at the keyboard first, second and third secretaries can do lazy laps in the chlorinated pool not far from Ciliwung and its black tributaries which the poor use as laundries and lavatories. 

Sometimes they might get a whiff of kretek (clove cigarettes) blown over the battlements from the mysterious kampongs beyond. Or hear azan, the ancient calls to prayer from mosques nearby.

Is Fortress Australia the right model for overseas engagement in the Internet Age, particularly with the people next door? Big isn’t necessarily better.

The days of translators gluing press clippings have gone the way of the fax and cassette tapes, along with chanceries spiked with aerials. Video conferences miss the subtle messages passed through handshakes, but they’re far cheaper and time efficient.

Professionals in Australasia are no longer tethered to static desks. Mobile offices are a smartphone and laptop hooked into the staffer’s HQ mainframe from wherever a decent coffee is brewed. 

Counsellors and envoys scattered across Jakarta’s sprawl deny terrorists the big targets; the foreigners can mix with the locals, squabble about soccer instead of cricket, and see the view from the street, not the satellite.

Posted for three years, attaches analyse data, massage files and interpret reports.  Their views and advice help craft policy in Canberra. This principally concerns the STD that infects Indonesian-Australian relationships – Security, Trade and Defence. 

As an aside they mention aid, less so since the budget was slashed by 40 per cent, and the amorphous people-to-people relationships.

Last year Malcolm Turnbull popped into Jakarta on his way to Europe and showed how to relate, more by accident than design.  It was his first visit as Prime Minister, seven months after Ambassador Paul Grigson was withdrawn when reformed drug traffickers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumara were executed.

A high point of the stopover was accompanying President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo on one of his signature blusukan through a crowded and chaotic market.  The walkabout delighted Indonesians surprised that a tie-free foreigner was meeting and greeting the wong cilik (ordinary folk).

Cynical Australians assumed the PM was being mistaken for George Clooney; who’d clap a politician they’d never elect?  Sweaty Turnbull yanked off his jacket, grinned a lot and snapped selfies. Security looked hot and bothered.

The trip was a gate-opener for Trade Minister Andrew Robb and 360 business folk clutching order books.  Major deals have yet to be trumpeted.  As the Australians flew home a 1000-strong Japanese delegation jetted in with big construction projects in mind.  They got to meet Jokowi – a favor denied Robb’s Mob.

Before Krismon the 1998 Asian economic storm that toppled President Soeharto’s 32 years of military-backed power, 400 Australian companies operated across the archipelago.  Now there are 250.

Robb wants 750, but the journey will be all uphill.  Australian directors are wary about risking funds in a country where the rule of law is exercised by might and mates. Corruption has deep roots drawing from the nation’s aquifer of graft.  Positions on foreign investments are acrobatic and Jokowi’s mindset hard to fathom.  Indonesians have the same problem.

Opportunities abound.  Two-way trade is worth AUD 16 billion a year, less than tiny Malaysia with only 12 per cent of its neighbor’s population.  

Indonesia is hungry for Australian wheat and beef, administrative expertise and smart technologies. But problems are also abundant – the business arena is seldom fair and flat.  White line boundaries are smudged. Spectators and players interchange and the goal posts can be erected anywhere. Or nowhere.

Indonesia ranks 109^th on the World Bank’s ease-of-doing-business list.   Singapore is tops and Australia number 13.

There’s hope a fresh recruit might give the whole show a shake.  Harvard-educated Thomas Lembong is the new Trade Minister recruited last year in a Cabinet shake up that favored technocrats over politicians.  He’s been in Australia claiming the tide of protectionism which has washed deep into the national psyche is now retreating.

If he’s right then foreign funds may start to flow.  They are needed – the growth rate is around 4.7 per cent (Australia’s is three per cent).  The Indonesian figure sounds phenomenal till measured against the World Bank estimate of eight per cent needed to meet domestic demands from 250 million consumers.

Lembong, a former investment banker, has been polishing the idea of a Free Trade Agreement with talks scheduled for later this year.  If fruitful this Indonesian initiative will be some accomplishment.  A similar attempt four years ago collapsed under the weight of misunderstandings, misjudgements and some gross gaffes.

Here’s one story: In 2010 Jokowi’s predecessor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono gave a speech to the National Parliament in Canberra.  Local media called it ‘forthright’, ‘touching’ and ‘transformative’.  

"Australia and Indonesia have a great future together,” he said. “We are not just neighbours, we are not just friends. We are strategic partners. We are equal stake-holders in a common future, with much to gain if we get this relationship right, and much to lose if we get it wrong.”

The wrong rapidly followed when SBY discovered that his phone and that of his wife Ani had been tapped by Australian spies.  The leader of the world’s third largest democracy was outraged and so were the citizens.  To his credit SBY maintained his Javanese cool and is now a visiting professor at the University of Western Australia.

More blunders followed, like the abrupt halt of cattle exports following reports of cruelty, leaving consumers short. The most recent clanger was authored by former PM Tony Abbott.  Recalling support for the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami he linked this generosity to an unsuccessful plea to stay the firing squad taking aim at Chan and Sukumaran.

Sore from smarting under Dutch rule for 350 years, Indonesians are on 24/7 alert for real or imagined remnants of colonialism, well aware their neighbor once ran a White Australia policy. They started collecting coins to pay back the aid.

The Embassy can’t be blamed for every offence, but some errors have been so stupid and damaging it seems either diplomats aren’t heard or are serving bad advice from flawed sources.

Saying Australia needs Indonesia more than the reverse is a cliché with limited truth. Although politicians on either side of the Arafura Sea tend to focus on parochial and separate interests, the far-sighted recognise that common concerns should prevail. 

China’s military expansion worries both nations. There’s already been one high-sea clash with the Chinese allegedly using force to recover a fishing boat seized by Indonesia. Threats are unlikely to come through the Southern Ocean. Indonesia needs solid friends in the region, as does Australia. 

The ten-member ASEAN (‘One Vision, One Identity, One Community’) should be a backer but has become what Indonesians call a NATO – No Action, Talk Only encounter. It’s neither an Asian version of the original acronym nor the common market and regional powerhouse once imagined.

Apart from foods, fuels, raw materials, tourists and services, what do Indonesians seek from Down Under? According to Allan Behm, former senior public servant turned security analyst and commentator, Indonesians want ‘respect, understanding, support, quiet engagement and constructive advocacy of their growing role as a regional and global player’.

Instead they get a citadel of ballast paraded as ‘a symbol of the breadth and the depth and the importance of the relationship’. 

Three years ago Australian National University Professor of Strategic Studies Hugh White wrote: ‘Australia not only needs a new kind of relationship with Indonesia, but a new way of thinking about foreign policy’.  The needs remain.

(First published in Strategic Review 4 April 2016,  See: http://sr-indonesia.com/web-exclusives/view/what-next-for-indonesia-and-australia )

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PEOPLE TO PEOPLE LINKS: ARE WE SERIOUS? ARE THEY?

Building mateship, not subs                                               Duncan Graham

Last century American Senator William Fulbright (right), who founded the exceptional international exchange programme that bears his name said:

In the long course of history, having people who understand your thought is much greater security than another submarine.

A few weeks ago academics William Maley and Bambang Nugroho  wrote in The Jakarta Post that the way back to normality was through leadership of ‘skilled professionals’.

This has been a common theme since Australia’s Ambassador Paul Grigson was recalled following the executions of drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. Don’t fret, the argument runs, now the Ambassador is back in his Jakarta fortress the diplomats will get the Indonesia-Australia relationship back on the road again provided, as Prime Minister Tony Abbott says, journalists don’t get in the way.

This is a seriously flawed assumption.

Diplomats follow the policies of politicians who take their cues from the public mood.  They can’t ‘lead’ anything.  I think they helped get us into this mess by misreading the character and philosophy of Indonesia’s new President, the uncompassionate Joko [Jokowi] Widodo.

The path forward won’t come from professionals in bombproof shelters but suburban folk seeing for themselves how their neighbors live, understanding their values and appreciating what’s really happening next door.

Five years ago former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono  (left) asked the Australian Parliament for a more constructive relationship, unaware our spies were eavesdropping his wife Ani’s phone.

His words were described as ‘forthright and touching’, ‘transformative and moving’. His appeal inspired; fresh schemes followed, old ones blossomed.  While officials pondered individuals took action.

Among them was Perth journalist and historian Dr Frank Palmos who has done more than a talkfest of cultural attaches to improve our image in Indonesia.  He’s achieved this by writing Sacred Territory, the definitive history of the Battle of Surabaya and then using his own money to have the book translated into Indonesian.

Around 5,000 copies should be released on 10 November, the 70th anniversary of that nation-defining event, and published by a major newspaper chain. 

Palmos’ determination to help our neighbours get to know their real history instead of the one constructed by the late President Soeharto has earned him enormous respect. Fortunately he’s not alone. 

In 2010 former Western Australian Trade Commissioner Ross Taylor gathered a group of like-minded volunteers to start the Indonesia Institute  offering an alternative tough-love voice to balance the constrained views of government.  It’s become the go-to source for informed comment outside officialdom.

Retired social worker and public servant Peter Johnston (right) initiated the Bamboo Micro Credit scheme in 2007  to offer interest-free loans to small entrepreneurs. It now lends millions of rupiah in three cities and is expanding as ordinary Australians donate small sums to fund the initiative.

There are many other examples – these are just ones I can vouch for personally.  Never underestimate the power of a determined individual.

However a clear-eyed look at the official schemes show they’ve been too few and small for any deep and lasting impact. 

Although the Joko Widodo administration seems to have sidelined SBY’s hopes, both nations need to engage beyond the professionals’ issues of aid, trade and barricade.  These are important, but they’re not the stuff of chats in the bus.

True friendship requires trust and the best way is through talking to people across the street, understanding their quirks and concerns, applauding  their achievements, empathising with their difficulties.

It’s true in my kampong and your suburb; it’s true in our world.

The Australia-Indonesia Bridge School Partnership  is a splendid project.  It started seven years ago and funding ends this year.  So far 112 schools have been involved along with more than 450 teachers.

Certainly not to be rubbished. But put this in perspective; there are about 32 million primary students in Indonesia attending 150,000 schools. Way to go.

The prestigious New Colombo Plan  is another fine idea, this year helping 60 of Australia’s smartest undergraduates learn in locations throughout the Asia Pacific Region. There are many other scholarships.

Top of the schemes has to be the Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies driven by a small group of dedicated academics led by Murdoch University’s Professor David Hill. It’s been running for 20 years and has helped more than 1,600 undergraduates get to know their neighbours. 

More than 900,000 Australians are studying at Australian tertiary institutions.  Not all are interested in overseas cultural studies, or Indonesia. Let’s assume just one tenth of one per cent.  That’s 900 – and ACICIS is handling 80 a year.

There are eleven Indonesians for every Australian so there’s a limit to how much one country can do.  But on these figures Australia isn’t even coming within coo-ee of having meaningful contact on any scale.

Yet this worrying situation could be vastly and easily improved:  Not through spending big money - but by eliminating barriers.

Australia has agreements with 31 nations to offer visas allowing young people to wander and work in Australia for up to a year.  Many Australians will have met European and East Asian backpackers under this scheme and made lasting friendships.  All now have a better appreciation of each other’s cultures.

Such encounters are not surprising as last year almost 240,000 visas were issued. They’re commonly known as Working Holiday visas, - though the official term  is Working Holiday Maker; to further confuse there are two classes – Working Holiday class 417 and Work and Holiday class 462. 

This latter group includes Indonesia and caps the number at 1,000.  This visa requires applicants to have functional English, have completed two years undergraduate study and – these are the curly ones – AUD 5,000 [Rp 53 million] and ‘a letter of home government support’.

These restrictions do not apply to applicants from the Working Holiday class countries.

Last year only 436 Indonesians were successful. Anecdotally they find the financial and government approval fences too high to leap. The visa costs AUD 420 [Rp 4.4 million] and chest x rays aren’t on long weekend specials.

 So the applicants Australia needs and who would benefit most, the smart but poor, the incandescent visionaries with no friends in Jakarta’s high places or fathers in the army, these kids aren’t getting to see the country next door and the chance to erase myths and hang-ups.

The visa scheme is reciprocal, but unbalanced. Eighteen months ago a seminar co-sponsored by the government-supported Australia Indonesia Youth Association   heard that between 10 and 14 visas had been issued to young Australians, though many had applied.  It seems the kids are keen, but the bureaucrats are not.

The irony is that these walls, topped by broken glass, have been built by governments saying they want more people-to-people contacts.

Tourism is supposed to expand the mind with rich experiences helping the traveller better comprehend the world’s complexities.   To visit Australia Indonesians must answer 52 questions on a 17-page visa application paper form.

In June Indonesian sculptor Ono Gaf (left) spent time in Perth visiting galleries and fellow artists.

Australian friends raised money for his travel and other expenses.  The total was AUD 865.   The biggest expense was not the airline tickets but the visa. It cost AUD 408.

It would have been less if Ono hadn’t applied through an agent or had his first application rejected; his sponsor’s letter guaranteeing accommodation and ensuring he used his pre-paid return ticket was deemed insufficient security.

No appeal allowed.  No correspondence.   Your money has gone.  Start again.

Earlier he’d visited Singapore on a similar mission.  No visa required yet that nation state is just as paranoid about public safety - and has even experienced Indonesian terrorists bombing the city during first president Soekarno’s Konfrontasi venture. (left)

Had Ono been a citizen of Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania or 33 other countries his visa would have been free.

Last year 150,000 Indonesians arrived as tourists. Double that number came from Malaysia, and even more from Singapore.  Citizens of both nations apply for visas on line and pay AUD 20 [Rp 210,000].

Our priorities are not advancing arm-in-arm, but buying arms. We are planning to spend at least AUD 36 billion on new submarines, maybe ready for 2030. If they are ever built they may protect us against enemies yet to be imagined – though it seems the government has read the Murdoch Press which has Indonesia not a friend but a potential threat -  ‘armed and dangerous’.

By comparison, next to nothing is being spent on improving relationships in the here and now.  Back to the words of the late Senator Fulbright and the submarines – the greatest security comes when we understand each other.

The business of creating that understanding isn’t just the task of ‘skilled professionals’, or governments.  It’s your job, it’s my job, it’s our job.

(This is an edited version of a paper presented at the Indonesia Council’s eighth open conference held at Geelong’s Deakin University in early July.  Australian author and journalist Duncan Graham lives in East Java. He’s been contributing to The Jakarta Post for the past decade.)    

This paper has also been published in New Mandala:

http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2015/07/07/building-mateship-not-subs/

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