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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AOTEAROA'S LOMBOK LINK

Aotearoa’s Lombok learning link © Duncan Graham 2009

Lombok folk probably know more about New Zealand than most Indonesians, particularly those who still think the South Pacific islands (also known in Maori as Aotearoa) are an offshore colony of Australia.

This knowledge has nothing to do with the efforts of paid NZ government agents promoting their little country of just over four million people. It does have everything to do with Istiqlal, (“my name’s easy to remember – just think of the big mosque in Jakarta”), the principal of a big government vocational college in Mataram.

“Everyone knows about Australia because Lombok, like Bali, is an Australian holiday spot, but NZ is a bit of an unknown. Kiwis tend to get a bit cranky when Indonesians confuse them with Australians,” said Istiqlal, demonstrating his comprehensive grip on the vernacular, perceptiveness and past tertiary studies in Darwin.

“I thought it was about time we helped build our relationships with NZ by sending them some of our students to improve their cultural understanding and experience of the world outside Lombok. There were a few difficulties, but I like a challenge.”

His wish was granted. The difficulties included no easy access to NZ. Australia is less than a couple of flying hours away at its closest point and just a meal and an in-flight movie between Bali and Perth.

Garuda no longer serves NZ and the cheaper fares require travellers to first fly north to Brunei, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. They then have to hang around the sensory deprivation units known as airport terminals waiting for connecting flights. This makes the journey southeast unnecessarily long and exhausting.

The other hurdles were the cash and education imbalances. Despite having free food and lodging the cost of sending an exchange student to NZ for a fortnight was around Rp 25 million (US $2,000) – a heavy burden for some Indonesians.

Then came the language problem. Many Australian schools teach Indonesian, but that’s not the case in NZ where European languages and Maori still dominate the curriculum, with Chinese and Japanese plodding along behind.

Nonetheless, in late March 18 teenagers from various Lombok schools found themselves in the capital Wellington, shivering in a sparkling autumn day that most Kiwis considered brilliant and balmy. In August a similar number of NZ students will be in Lombok facing heavy humidity and a diet dominated by rice.

Since Istiqlal took over SMK Negeri 4 (State vocational college) in May 2008 the rule on campus has been that the 850 students, the majority girls, must master English. To underline the message he insisted that anyone meeting him on the school grounds had to open the discussion in English.

“This had the effect of many people trying to avoid me,” he noted wryly. “But we produce graduates in tourism and they must be able to use the world language. That’s not so easy because till now we haven’t been able to employ native speakers – though that may change.

“My goal is to make our college number one in training for the hospitality industry with international standards. I don’t just want our alumni to be content with basic jobs; I expect them to become hotel managers and even owners of hotels in Indonesia and overseas.”

Bill Russell, the chairman of NZ company Education Network Indonesia, which brokered the exchange program, confirmed that Istiqlal’s college was exceptionally well equipped with modern teaching facilities.

“Some Westerners go to Indonesia and say: ‘We’re all right, you’re all wrong’,” commented Bill Russell. “They need their bums kicked. There are so many talented students who could hold their own anywhere. I always feel humble in Indonesia.”

Proving his point was Lombok lad Muhammad Haikal, 16, who gave a humorous off-the-cuff speech in laid-back English at a formal Indonesian Embassy function in Wellington. This was after spending sleepless hours squashed in an Airbus jumping time zones.

He didn’t even have time to change out of his sweat-soaked crumpled clothes, which would have fazed most public speakers because the VIP audience was in suits, crisp uniforms and pressed batik.

Istiqlal, 41, is no stranger to NZ. He was with a group of principals who flew south in 2008 on a study tour. For the energetic teacher who uses the Internet day and night like an international futures trader, this was no junket. He was one of the few that did any follow up work once he was back in the archipelago.

He promptly reported to the Education Department with ideas on how the trip could be used as a feeder into an educational highway, not a one-way street, - the fate of many study tours.

Astonished bureaucrats in Jakarta told him he was the only participant to come back with anything in writing and invited him to address principals from around the country on his plans.

He told them that in Wellington he’d met the Indonesian Ambassador to NZ, Amris Hassan who matched the Lombok teacher’s enthusiasm by endorsing a student exchange program.

The Ambassador took him to a Malaysian restaurant because there’s no Indonesian eatery in Wellington and said: “Since I took up this post two year ago I’ve been wondering why so many Malaysians come to NZ to study and so few Indonesians, and what to do about the problem.”

Amris Hassan introduced Istiqlal to Bill Russell and the ENI. This is a consortium of NZ secondary and tertiary institutions now recruiting Indonesian students. (See sidebar)

“Coping with the weather is going to be their biggest problem, followed by comprehension,” said Istiqlal as the Lombok students, many wearing headscarves, stole glances at their short-skirted Amazon hosts, wondering how they would fit in to the casual sport-mad lifestyle of NZ.

“We gave them cross-cultural courses before they left Lombok and of course they’ve seen many bule (foreign) tourists in Lombok, so the way they behave and dress shouldn’t be too much of a surprise.

“Religion isn’t a concern. Parents know that their children will be staying with Christian families, with some studying at Catholic schools. Our cultures, foods and lifestyles are quite different, but the schools and host families are most concerned with the care of their visitors.

“This is a pilot project. I love NZ and want others to enjoy this country. The education here is world class, the people are friendly and everything is clean. It’s not just a land of sheep and dairy cows. I’m working very hard for NZ and wish we could get more government help.”

(Sidebar)

Handshaking opens doors © Duncan Graham 2009

Jane Holloway finds the heavy international promotion of New Zealand as a clean, green under-populated outdoor adventure land full of knockout scenery a bit of a handicap.

When trying to persuade Indonesian teenagers that they should enhance their education in NZ, preferably at St Catherine’s College in Wellington where she’s the principal, she also stressed that the country does have shopping malls, cosmopolitan cities, cellphones, and lots of urban attractions.

“Wellington is a compact, safe, cultural city, easy to explore with a good social life,” she said. “That’s a real strength.”

To convince the students’ parents that they should send their offspring to a land far away she mentions money. A short-term education program (usually of around 12 weeks) costs about $NZ 6,000 (US $3,500 – Rp 40 million) less than in Australia.

“NZ dropped out of the Indonesian education market during the Asian economic crisis 11 years ago,” Mrs Holloway said. “Australia stayed on – so that’s made our task so much more difficult. It’s a bit like re-inventing the wheel.”

St Catherine’s College is one of several high schools and universities that have joined Education Network Indonesia to sell the benefits of Kiwi education. They are getting there, though slowly. Four years ago 194 Indonesians got long-term student visas – last year the number jumped to 249.

ENI chairman Bill Russell said education and accommodation in NZ was much cheaper than Australia though the education quality was equal or better. To get a three year university qualification would cost around $NZ 100,000 (US$ 59,000 – Rp 670 million) including full board and lodging.

“This is about ten per cent less than Australia without considering exchange rates,” he said, before dashing off to handle another study tour.

“A lot on people don’t understand the downstream benefits of overseas student programs. Apart from improving international relationships and generating goodwill the students spend their money in their host country.

“ Now education is being decentralized in Indonesia progressive teachers and officials are realising they can improve their education overseas.

“We’ve signed memoranda of understandings with four provincial governors and are putting together upskilling courses in English and maths in NZ for Indonesian teachers. NZ is a world leader in all aspects of tourism and that’s a real attraction to overseas students.

“District by district we’re building a rapport between Indonesia and Kiwis. We’re getting a tremendous response by making personal contacts. Building relationships is critical in Indonesia. Handshaking really does open doors.”

(First published in The Jakarta Post Monday 27 April 2009)

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