indonesian_open FW: [Wa-indon] Indonesia Article in WEST AUSTRALIAN

[Wittman, Leonie]

Teman-teman yang baik

Forwarded message from Wa-indon follows.

Leonie

 

________________________________

From: wa-indon-bounces at central.murdoch.edu.au
[mailto:wa-indon-bounces at central.murdoch.edu.au] On Behalf Of David T.
Hill
Sent: Thursday, 3 November 2005 11:27 AM
To: wa-indon at murdoch.edu.au
Subject: [Wa-indon] Indonesia Article in WEST AUSTRALIAN

 

Members may be interested in this article published in this morning's
WEST AUSTRALIAN.

regards,
David.
.............
The West Australian, 3 November 2005, p.14

Mixed signals go out on ties with Jakarta
 
Canberra has ignored advice that Indonesian studies be given strategic
priority, says David Hill.
 
It is a measure of the complexity of Australia's relationship with
Indonesia that the most comprehensive recent government report on it
ignores the vexed issued of fishing rights.
 
Between August 2002 and early 2004 the Commonwealth Parliament's Joint
Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade considered 124
written submissions and heard from nearly 150 witnesses. Its report,
'Near Neighbours - Good Neighbours: An Inquiry into Australia's
Relationship with Indonesia', was tabled in parliament in May 2004.
 
The 251-page report languished for 16 months until Minister for Foreign
Affairs, Alexander Downer, responded to its 28 recommendations last
September 8.
 
Despite the seasonal arrival of Indonesian boats, the tussle over
fishing zones is a relatively minor component in Australia's most
multi-facetted international relationship.
 
While such omissions from the Report are regrettable, far more
disappointing is the government's failure to act decisively on many
major recommendations.
 
The government generally endorses recommendations which have modest
financial implications, such as 'strengthening of the bilateral
relationship through encouraging the establishment of links between
local regions in Australia and Indonesia'.
 
On some issues, there has been good progress. After a deplorable decline
in Australian aid to Indonesia between 1993- 2003 (from $130 million to
$121 million per annum), the government highlights a pre-tsunami
increase for 2004-5 to $160 million. Commitments following the tsunami
have raised Australia from Indonesia's fourth largest bilateral source
of financial support to third place (after Japan and Germany). 
 
Prevailing concerns about terrorism dominate the report and the
government's response. Closer relations between the armed forces is seen
as crucial in a regional strategy against terrorism. The Government's
most extensive response to a single recommendation detailed the
rebuilding of its defence relationship with Indonesia, ruptured over
East Timor in 1999.
 
Several submissions and witnesses urged the Committee to avoid links
with the infamous Kopassus (Special Forces Corps), tarnished by serious
human rights abuses throughout Indonesia. But pressure to collaborate on
counter-terrorism has out-weighed concerns about human rights. Kopassus
will restart joint training with the SAS at Swanbourne, with a
preparatory visit to Perth expected this month.
 
The report placed major emphasis on educational links with Indonesia. It
recommended an 'enhanced' program to provide a 'substantial package of
scholarships' for Indonesian students. The Government noted a 10%
increase in education and training assistance to Indonesia between
2002-3 and 2004-5. Such educational assistance is a valuable long-term
investment, creating substantial goodwill in Indonesia.
 
Included are new programs to assist 'mainstream Islamic schools' in
Indonesia, with 'particular focus on in-service training of teachers',
designed to 'help building in Indonesia a better understanding of
Australia'.
 
However, contrary to Recommendation 17, the government has declined to
increase support for the Australia Indonesia Institute (AII), the main
agency funding people-to-people social and cultural links with
Indonesia. 
 
The Government sidestepped the key recommendation that Indonesian
Studies be designated a strategic national priority by both the
Australian Research Council, which funds university research, and the
Department of Education, Science and Training, which funds teaching.
 
Instead, research priorities will not be reviewed until 'around 2006-07
when the Government will consider whether the existing priorities and
goals should be amended or enhanced'. This provides nothing for
universities striving to strengthen research and teaching of
Indonesia-related subjects.
 
The Commonwealth has chosen to leave strategic educational planning to
the whim of the market. It is a grave miscalculation.
 
The Committee recommended that the National Asian Languages and Studies
in Australian Schools (NALSAS) program, which invested over $200 million
from 1994 to 2002, be restored. NALSAS provided crucial funding for
Asian languages, including Indonesian, throughout the school system.
 
In WA schools, enrolments in Indonesian increased dramatically from
about 2,300 in 1993 to nearly 40,000 in 2003. The 2002 closure of NALSAS
will have a knock-on effect causing enrolments to decline.
 
The Government implies that NALSAS has been superseded by a $110 million
allocation over four years for a School Languages Program to improve
Asian, European and Indigenous languages, plus about $10 million for
four other limited initiatives. 
 
Less than $1.50 an Australian a year for support across all languages,
this will do little to enhance Australia's competence in Indonesian.
 
Instead of taking the initiative, the Commonwealth has fobbed off
responsibility to state governments 'to ensure languages and studies of
Asia programmes in their schools are adequately funded'.
 
As Indonesia struggles on its path to democratisation, the coalition has
taken some major steps to broaden and deepen the relationship. But its
response to the parliamentary report is patchy, only exposing how much
more needs to be done.
 
 ............................
 
David Hill is Professor of Southeast Asian Studies and Fellow of the
Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University.



........................................................................
............
Professor David T. Hill
Chair of Southeast Asian Studies
School of Social Sciences and Humanities
(Education & Humanities Building, Room 2.11)
Division of Arts
MURDOCH UNIVERSITY WA 6150
AUSTRALIA 

tel: (+61-8) 9360 2412 (direct); 9360 2504 (School office)
fax: (+61-8) 9360 6575

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