At least that is the experience of Australia’s new Ambassador to Indonesia, Greg Moriarty, who spoke with the The Jakarta Post during his first official visit to Bali, meeting provincial Governor Made Mangku Pastika late last week.

“It can be difficult throughout the South Pacific. A lot of [Australian] politicians don’t like to be photographed with animals. In the Pacific Islands there are always animals, so as a junior diplomat one of our jobs was keeping the pigs away from visiting politicians,” quips Moriarty, who is a delightfully informal gentleman with a true fondness for Indonesia, a country he returned to in late October 2010 as Ambassador — a far cry from being on piglet patrol in the Pacific.

“I arrived [Indonesia] near the end of October — just before the arrival of [Australia’s] Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the eruption of Mount Merapi and the Mentawai tsunami. It was an intense amount of work with the huge excitement of arriving, so it was quite a swirl for the first few weeks until we got some breathing space,” says Moriarty adding it was during this “breathing space” that his wife, Sara and their two sons got around to unpacking “all the little things, toys, photographs and the soccer balls that make a home.”

For Moriarty and family, Indonesia feels a bit like being back home. The Ambassador and Sara in their younger days studied Indonesian in Yogyakarta and still feel a deep affection for the special zone.

“When we were here the last time we had no kids for the first couple of years and went to Yogya to study Bahasa Indonesia at Colorado school [Lembaga Bahasa Colorado]. So my first experience [of Indonesia] was as a student in Yogya. We traveled a lot — to Sulawesi, Sumatra, Papua. I had worked in Papua New Guinea and I am very interested in Melanesian culture and the impact on that of modernity.

“To come back this time — its different, but meeting old friends like Bapak Marty Natalegawa, [Indonesian Foreign Minister] who was then more junior like I was, is great,” says Moriarty, whose eldest son was born in Indonesia.

Both sons studied Indonesian culture and history at school in Canberra adds Moriarty. “They are now learning the language.”

Indonesia today is a very different environment than welcomed Moriarty in 1999. “It’s such a positive experience now, because when I was here last Indonesia was going through a difficult time; the country was quite introspective and uncertain of its future.

“When a country has had a huge financial stress, Ambon with its deep clashes, Aceh was a big problem and the Dayak situation — there was for some uneasiness about Indonesian unity.

[Questions on] how the country was going to cope with democracy, some may have overstated
the potential for fracture [of the state], but there was a sense of anxiety,” says Moriarty of Indonesia during the fragile post-financial crisis, Soeharto’s step down and the Reformasi years.

He sees a very different nation today. “There is now a confidence and a change of mood and the optimism is quite invigorating. There is now a more confident Indonesia — people now see they can work through these challenges.

“The country has a strong economy, stable politics and is taking a greater international role, I feel this year [Indonesia] chairing the ASEAN is a real boost to Indonesia’s confidence.”

With Australia’s closest neighbor moving swiftly into a leadership role in Southeast Asia, Moriarty says it is time to bind their ties more deeply.

“We [Australia/Indonesia] have long had a very good political relationship, but I feel there are two areas where we can do better. The first is people to people contact.

Although the relationship is very good at government to government, there are still wide gaps in misperceptions [among the populations of both nations]. We want to broaden those people to people meetings — we have a sense more can be done,” says Moriarty.

He explains on her recent visit to Indonesia, Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono “talked about the need for a people’s leadership forum involving business and culture... to talk about where those relationships are going. We are looking to work toward that [forum] this year.”

A second front in advancing inter-country ties at the grassroots level is through business, which in some areas has been difficult in the past.

“Although there is good business between Indonesia and Australia, I feel it is underdone. Indonesia is our [Australia’s] 13th largest trading partner, and while we have a very good political relationship — it’s time to put the sinews on that business relationship. We think regionally a complete economic agreement is a good way to give impetus to increasing economic integration.

“To achieve this we need to identify what are the current impediments. So there are some hard barriers we want to tackle — tariff walls, regulatory issues, who stops Indonesia exporting to Australia, import restrictions, standards.  

We want to look at what does an Indonesian company need to do to get its products on our shelves,” says Moriarty in recognition that good neighbors work together.

“What we are talking about here is business being engaged and the real support to do that,” says Moriarty who is excited to be able “to assist in what is an amazing time in the history of this amazing country.”

Popular

Volcano erupts in North Sulawesi, hundreds evacuated

Dubai roads, airport reel from floods after record rains

Ramadan boosts consumer confidence, retail sales