Australian soccer progress confuses minister

Kornelius Purba ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Sydney   |  Fri, 02/15/2008 10:11 AM  |  Headlines

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith initially smiled and then laughed when his Indonesian guest Hassan Wirajuda mentioned soccer in their luncheon in Perth. In his conversation with Indonesian diplomats and journalists in Sydney on Friday, soccer came up once again.

Minister Hassan came to Australia to sign the Indonesia-Australia security pact, known as the Lombok Treaty, with his host.

The parliaments of the two countries have ratified the treaty. The Indonesian government hopes the treaty will keep Australia from supporting future separatist movements in our territory.

In bilateral relations with Indonesia, security -- especially terrorism -- is one of Australia's top concerns.

But for me, the soccer question is more interesting than the treaty.

Just look at Hassan's remarks: "What is difficult to understand is that Indonesia, with a population of some 240 million, most of whom are crazy about soccer, cannot send a decent football team to the World Cup. While Australia, with a population of just over 20 million, most of whom are addicted to cricket, can send so formidable a team to the same World Cup."

His Australian counterpart laughed at this and chuckled again at Hassan's attempt to answer his own question: "It could be that it's more difficult to choose 11 great players out of 240 million than to choose a similar team from 20 million. It could also be that Australia has a secret formula for soccer."

One day later in Sydney, on Friday, Indonesia's Ambassador to Australia Hamzah Thayeb revealed the answer: import players! Australia imports many players from eastern Europe, especially Croatia. It is a consolation answer.

The minister's succeeded at humor, and Hassan may not even have been serious in talking about the world's -- and Indonesia's -- most popular sport. But if we look deeper, Hassan raised an important question -- why should gigantic Indonesia feel overpowered by Australia with a population less than a tenth the size of ours?

Australia is more prosperous and more industrialized than Indonesia; although ultimately we greater potential.

As a mediocre citizen my answer to Hassan's question may anger many. Perhaps powerlessness -- at least in my case -- has something to do with brain quality! To be more polite: the problem is related to the quality of our human resources.

By xenophobic and ultra-nationalist Indonesians, Australia is often portrayed as an arrogant nation; it thinks itself superior to Indonesia. Australia is seen as the "deputy sheriff" of the U.S. in Asia Pacific.

During his 11-year tenure John Howard irritated many Indonesians who believe their country is one of the world's most important countries and its population one of the most civilized. We blamed him for the loss of East Timor and denied the role of human rights abuses in our defeat there.

To add to our frustration, Howard reduced the budget for education which affects Indonesian language teaching in Australian schools and universities. Many Indonesian studies at universities were effected by the budget reduction.

Visceral feelings toward Howard may blind us to the fact that, over the last 11 years, Australia has helped us a great deal during difficult times.

When Labor Party's Kevin Rudd defeated Howard in November, we applauded the new prime minister, because we hope to find him friendlier and because Labor has since been supportive of us since independence. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is among the first foreign leaders the new prime minister met with at the climate change conference in Bali in December.

No doubt Indonesia and Australia will remain close neighbors and strategic partners. But comparative economic status of the two countries will also play a key role in bilateral relations. At present Indonesia's economy is still gloomy, while Australia's economy is booming.

It is also naive to expect the Rudd government to treat us as well as Paul Keating treated Soeharto when they were in power. Times have changed.

Rudd, a fluent-Mandarin speaker, clearly pays careful attention to China and India for economic, political and security reasons.

Foreign Minister Smith, after his meeting with Hassan in Perth, announced his government would donate A$355 million to Indonesian education programs. The provision of more funds for Indonesian studies is much awaited by Australian universities and schools.

But we need to remember that Australians are now more interested in studying Chinese than Indonesian. This is for economic reasons; in the 1980s and 1990s interest in Indonesia was high because the Indonesian economy was booming.

Australia plays in the World Cup because its team is much better than ours. Hassan's question on soccer may have deeper meaning. Our neighbors will respect us when we can convince them that we deserve the respect.

The writer can be reached at purba@thejakartapost.com

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