Big neighbor fading from our radar

David T. Hill ,  Murdoch WA   |  Wed, 03/19/2008 12:20 AM  |  Opinion

The recent three-part documentary by senior Australian journalist Mike Carlton, Indonesia: A Reporter's Journey has provided much grist for Indonesia-related internet mailing lists.

Carlton had been a fresh-faced young journalist in Indonesia in the 1960s, reporting for the ABC on the turbulent transition from president Sukarno's "guided democracy" to the rise of major-general Soeharto's "new order". The documentary, screened on SBS last month, covered his return to Indonesia four decades later to chart the changes in the country and its often fractious relations with Australia.

Some critics panned its tendency to focus on Carlton, rather than the country and communities of Indonesia, and the predictability of the images of Indonesia: Borobudur temple, Schapelle Corby, the Bali nine, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, the Bali bombings and the like.

But Carlton's snapshot interviews with a variety of Indonesians and Australians in Indonesia, provided accessible entry points into Indonesian history and views of Australia.

High-profile interviewees included former prime minister Paul Keating, former Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas, ambassadors and diplomats such as Richard Woolcott, Sabam Siagian and long-time Jakarta-insider Murray Clapham.

Although attention was generally focused on the sensational aspects of the bilateral relationship -- the bombings, drug arrests and teary court cases -- Carlton introduced a fresh perspective in the final minutes of the lastprogram.

Around a simple table at a university cafeteria in Yogyakarta he chatted with a half dozen Australian undergraduate students studying at Gadjah Mada University for a year.

At it happens, the students featured were from the Australian National University, but they could have been from virtually any university in Australia, for the unique non-profit organization that facilitated their study in Indonesia, the Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies, has member universities in every state.

Carlton quizzed the students on their experience of Indonesia and how they had been treated during their stay. Their responses were unequivocally positive. There was nothing of the apprehension, even paranoia, to which we are exposed in some sections of the Australian media.

The students acknowledged their decision to come to Indonesia for a year made them a special minority. They remained determined despite having to face incredulous family and friends, who constantly asked: "Indonesia? Why are you going there?"

Despite the obvious benefit of the in-country experience, not simply for their linguistic expertise but for their future careers and employability, the students said they had to "explain ourselves to everybody".

As a former foreign correspondent, Carlton instinctively recognized the great value of the experience in Indonesia to the students and to Australia more generally.

"Why don't other Australian kids do it?" he asked. "I thought there'd be millions of kids up here by now."

"There should be" was their swift response. They elaborated that government funding cutbacks affecting Indonesian language teaching in our schools and universities meant there was just not enough encouragement for young people to learn the language and less for them to go to Indonesia to perfect it.

"Media saturation sometimes has contributed to a negative perception of Indonesia," said one student, who added in frustration that "coverage doesn't present day-to-day life in Indonesia".

Carlton's questions might have been better put to the federal Government, whose support for such an initiative would be vital.

In February 2002, then prime minister John Howard also visited Australian students studying at Gadjah Mada University. He acknowledged the 500th ACICIS student to study in Indonesia since the consortium was established in 1994. Howard marked the achievement by presenting Jennifer Robinson with a framed cartoon. As a measure of the quality of the students who choose the year's study in Indonesia, after completing a field study project in Papua through ACICIS, Robinson went on to get a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford.

Should our new Prime Minister make a similar trip, he would find that semester enrollments were declining. They peaked with 68 Australian students in February 2000, falling to 47 students when Howard visited ACICIS in 2002. The present enrollment has only 37 ACICIS students in Indonesia.

To those of us teaching Indonesian in Australian universities, and to the policy-makers and government departments whose responsibility it is to fund education, develop our human resources and prepare for Australia's global future, Carlton's questions are a challenge.

Other Australian youngsters should be encouraged to learn Indonesian and supported to study in Indonesia. While Carlton's millions may be optimistic, there certainly should be hundreds, if not thousands, of Australian students in Indonesian universities, gaining first-hand knowledge of the country, its language and its people.

Our 37 Australians studying in Indonesian universities amount to less than 0.25 percent of the 16,000 Indonesians studying each year in Australia. It is a pitiful investment in the expertise base and human resources that underpin our bilateral relationship. National self-interest alone should direct us to do more.

Carlton concludes his program with Keating's 1994 dictum that "no country in the world was more important to Australia than Indonesia". As Keating reasserts, "that is as true today as it was then".

The writer is Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies director and professor of Southeast Asian studies at Murdoch University.

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