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/
##
1 comment:
Post a Comment