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https://theconversation.com/theres-no-country-more-important-to-australia-than-indonesia-trouble-is-the-feeling-isnt-mutual-256900>
"Making Jakarta their first overseas visit has become a set piece for newly
elected Australian prime ministers dating back to John Howard in 1996.
So, we should not be surprised that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese flew to
Jakarta soon after his landslide re-election, just as he did in 2022. In fact,
it would be very surprising if he did not.
These visits are now an obligation for a newly elected PM. Failing to jump on
the plane would be seen in Indonesia as an intentional snub.
The visits follow a familiar pattern. The prime minister offers some sort of
paraphrase of Paul Keating’s famous tag, “There is no country more important to
Australia than Indonesia”. (Albanese actually quoted Keating word for word.)
There is a carefully planned photo op, such as riding bamboo bikes, visiting a
crowded marketplace or, this time around, a golf cart ride at the presidential
palace.
The brief visit ends with a joint press conference, where both leaders pledge
to “strengthen the relationship”. With occasional exceptions, their
announcements are vague and aspirational. Sometimes they just restate what
they’ve said before.
In other words, these performative post-election prime ministerial visits have
become an essential, symbolic part of Australia’s bilateral relationship with
Indonesia, but they too often lack substance.
This is a pity, because Australia needs to work much harder to achieve its key
aims with Indonesia, which Albanese defined in Jakarta as closer economic and
defence engagement.
To put it bluntly, Australia struggles to get Indonesia’s attention. It is an
uncomfortable truth that, from an Indonesian perspective, Australia’s leverage
and importance is limited. Jakarta sees Canberra as the junior partner in the
relationship.
An Indonesian president is hardly likely to say, “There is no country more
important to Indonesia than Australia”, let alone make a post-election visit to
Canberra a fixture."
I briefly studied Indonesian at school in the 1980s because the government of
the time also thought it would be useful to engage more with our immediate
neighbours, though not much has happened in the intervening decades.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
