Australia’s spying activities regarding the leadership of the large, moderate and Muslim country of Indonesia has dominated the news cycle during the past few days.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott stated in Parliament that “Australia should not be expected to apologise for the steps we take to protect our country” and Indonesian President Dr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has regretted the response of our elected prime minister, and demanded an official response and apology.
Regardless of how this tag of spying and diplomatic war evolves, this specific event is a manifestation of the real position, relationship, and of the mutually understandable suspicion that exists between Australia and its Asian partners, including Indonesia.
Australia is a huge and rich land mass with a small population and western institutions established by a colonial power, located at the bottom end of the Pacific. This small, advanced and rich country, the product of British colonisation in a bygone era, is surrounded by countries that once suffered at the hands of western colonisers and imperial powers. The colonial victims of the past are now rapidly developing nations with huge populations, dynamic economies, ‘alien’ cultures, and a collective memory cultivated by their ruling elites, that will never again allow the West to take advantage of them in the future.
Australia is well received in Asia so far, because it is a small and non-threatening rich country. A country that does not carry, for example, the British, the Spanish, the French, the Dutch or the American colonial or imperial past in this huge continent of the globe. Also, Australia is well received because it can do vital business with her neighbouring Asian countries. Understandably the same goes for Australia’s approach. Never mind how well our relationship with Indonesia, China, or Japan is evolving or might evolve in the future, never mind how much iron ore Australian billionaires might sell to China or how much beef and wheat Australia’s mega farmers might sell to the Indonesians, Australia is and intends to remain a western country, with western institutions, western references and western needs, real or imagined.
Regardless of what our green or white defence policy papers might state, regardless of how much money the Australian economy is earning as a result of the commodification of our education system from Asian students, regardless of what our partners in Asia might state, we can accommodate each other, in a win-win situation, but we will never manage and we do not have to become part of the same world.
It is ahistorical, it is highly hypocritical and it is politically naïve to believe that international relationships are not conducted by adopting under the table techniques and initiatives as well. Techniques such as spying. Having said this though, acknowledging the way international relations are conducted throughout history does not imply that efforts must not be made to contain a possible escalation of the Australian-Indonesian rift. Or that what has to prevail is the public and electoral image-toughness of Prime Minister Tony Abbott or of Indonesian President Dr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
In a media driven and fast political world, throughout the globe, and in a pre-election year in Indonesia, it might be somewhat difficult to be reflective, and to have a short and a long term approach to managing conflict in front of the cameras or behind the scenes. Or of not inflating public prejudices. However, responsible leadership, especially in a time of crisis, needs to be exhibited and exercised on and off camera, both in Jakarta and in Canberra.