After a negotiation process of over 10 years, the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, or IA-CEPA, was finally signed in Jakarta earlier this week by trade ministers Simon Birmingham and Enggartiasto Lukita.

Despite the fallout from the Jerusalem Embassy fiasco that resulted in Indonesia deciding to defer the signing of the agreement, the trade ministers of both nations have since worked hard — along with their respective ambassadors — to bring this long and drawn-out negotiation process to a positive position. Now both Houses of Parliament will need to ratify the agreement so we expect some further “bumps” and hopefully a conclusion to the process by the end of the year.

This agreement will be a good outcome for both Indonesia and Australia who stand to gain significant opportunities in a number of market sectors that include education and agriculture, paper, palm oil, technology and people-to-people links.

The importance of this major trade agreement cannot be underestimated as it will open-up significant trade and business opportunities for both countries. Politically it is also a “good news” story in Australia with a 2016 survey by the Australia-Indonesia Centre (AIC) showing almost 60 percent of Australians agreeing that Indonesia is economically important to Australia.

But as we celebrate the conclusion of this trade deal, we should also reflect on this same survey by the AIC that showed, apart from Australia’s transactional relationship with Indonesia, the understanding and trust of Australia’s largest neighbor is terrible.

The survey went on to reveal that whilst 87 percent of Indonesian’s felt “favorable” toward Australia, only 43 percent of Australians — and that included business people — shared that warmth towards Indonesians. The paradox here being that Australian attitudes toward the Balinese, is extremely high.

In a 2018 survey, the highly respected Lowy Institute in Australia found that only 24 percent of Australians knew that Indonesia embraced and functioned as a vibrant democracy.

Furthermore, only 32 percent of Australians felt Indonesia “worked hard” to fight terrorism, despite the Indonesian Police and the Australian Federal Police working in a close partnership since the Bali bombings to identify and destroy many terror-cells.

Despite Australians generally viewing Indonesians with a combination of distrust and ignorance, there are some positive signs.

The New Colombo Plan, operated by the Australian Consortium of In-Country Indonesian Studies, or ACICIS, is placing almost 400 Australian students each year into Indonesia, where they learn high-level Indonesian language and are immersed into local culture.

Conversely, Indonesian students and backpackers see Australia as a positive choice as a destination. 

And despite the diplomatic “bumps” that inevitably occur between neighbors, numerous government departments and officials work closely with their Indonesian counterparts to address and manage a wide-range of issues including anti-terrorism, regional security, health and business facilitation.

This is the good news story about our bilateral relationship. The bad news story is these positive relationships are not shared or understood by the majority of both populations.

In Australia the perception of Indonesia is mostly driven by short-term policy and political decisions — that continually challenge the long-term trust and consistency that is so important in our region — and the barrage of negative media reports about what goes wrong in, and with, Indonesia.

The IA-CEPA is an important process but the real challenge for our respective nations is to really build capacity within the relationship between “everyday” Australians and their neighbors to our north.

This can be done in taking the lead from ACICIS, for example, by allowing easier and less costly access for tourists and young people to visit and to get to know each other through work and holiday opportunities. Under the agreement Australia will allow 5,000 young Indonesians to holiday and work in Australia; up from the previous quota of 1,000. Sadly, the current criterion used by Australia to grant the holiday-work visa is complex, costly and expensive.

Indonesia has 95 million people under the age of 30. Most of them use a smartphone, are tech-savvy and are keen to learn, progress and see their country develop into becoming a member of the G7, as predicted, by 2050.

By mid-year, both nations will have concluded their national elections, and the new leadership teams will have the rare and simultaneous opportunity to not only implement this new trade agreement, but more importantly create the environment whereby our relationship with this huge and diverse neighbor to our north can move from one that is essentially transactional to one that really brings our two nations together, and in doing so create security and opportunities to this dynamic part of the world.

The challenge, of course, will be whether politicians in both nations have the vision, interest and foresight to actually make this happen?

__________________

The writer is the president of the Perth-based Indonesia Institute Inc., and a former National Vice-President of the Australia-Indonesia Business Council.

Popular

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Analysis: Indonesia denies normalization with Israel to enter OECD

Citroen to produce electric cars in Indonesia