SYDNEY, 7 January 2005 — Australia’s billion dollar ($764 million) Indonesian tsunami aid package shows Canberra’s eagerness to permanently improve a relationship with its largest northern neighbor too often strained by cultural, religious and economic differences, analysts said yesterday. Experts said tensions were inevitable as “an accident of history” had placed Australia — a prosperous, Western democracy — alongside Indonesia — impoverished home to the world’s largest Muslim population.
“Of all Australia’s bilateral relationships, the one with Indonesia is the most delicate and the most subject to flux,” said Malcolm Cook, the Asia-Pacific program director at the Lowy Institute for International Affairs. “There’s always a lot of white noise in there (but) this has the potential to be a watershed that could change things for the better and overcome past differences.”
The scale and speed of Australia’s response to the Dec. 26 tsunami has raised hopes that it will now be seen as a good neighbor, rather than a brash upstart prone to “megaphone diplomacy” as it seeks to do Washington’s bidding in the region. “This is a historic step in Australia-Indonesia relations,” Prime Minister John Howard told reporters when unveiling the billion-dollar package, one half of which will be delivered in direct aid grants, the other in interest-free loans. The package makes Australia, with a population of just 20 million, the world’s largest tsunami aid donor. It has also been praised for the rapid deployment of aid and rescue resources in the aftermath of the catastrophe that killed more than 145,000 people in eight Asian nations, nearly 100,000 in Indonesia alone.
World Vision Australia chief Tim Costello said the aid package was “magnificent” and would help dispel hatred of Australia promoted by Islamic fundamentalist groups. “I understand the politics, the concern that Australia proves it’s a great neighbor to 212 million (Indonesian) Muslims ... and proves we shouldn’t be the target of fanatical bombs,” he told reporters. Canberra-Jakarta relations reached a low point in 1999, when Australia led a UN-peacekeeping force into East Timor to end a 24-year occupation after a landslide vote for independence sparked a violent backlash from Indonesia-backed militias.
There was a thaw in late 2002 as Australian and Indonesian police successfully combined to hunt down the extremists responsible for the Bali bombing, where 88 Australians were among the 202 dead. But more recently, Jakarta has voiced concerns over Canberra’s purchase of long-range cruise missiles and its unilateral declaration of a 1,000 km (620 mile) maritime security zone off its coast. Howard also ruffled feathers during last year’s election campaign by saying he would authorize pre-emptive strikes against terrorist threats in South East Asia, although he retracted the statement after the poll. The prime minister has been accused of downgrading ties with Asia in favor of close links with traditional allies such as Britain and the United States, seen in Australia’s participation in the US-led Iraq war.
Cook said the cumulative impact of the tensions was a deteriorating opinion of Australia among the average Indonesian. He said the generosity of tsunami response should reverse the trend. “I think there will be a ripple effect, with good will spreading from the places where Australian aid is most visible, Aceh and Jakarta, across Indonesia,” he said. However, Sydney University Indonesia expert Peter King said aid efforts could feed fundamentalist resentment if Australia and other foreign nations were not mindful of local sensitivities when organizing aid relief. “There’s a chance that a massive foreign presence in Indonesia could actually restart the jihad if it’s seen as an intrusion in the guise of relief and reconstruction,” King told AFP.
