Address by
H.E. Mr S. Wiryono
Ambassador of the
Republic of Indonesia to Australia

At The Asia-Australia Institute's
Cliffbrook Dinner
Sydney, 2 October 1996

President of The Asia-Australia Institute, Professor Fitzgerald, Ladies and Gentlemen,,

Let me begin by thanking you Mr President and The Asia-Australia Institute for inviting me to be the guest speaker at this evening's Cliffbrook Dinner. The Asia-Australia Institute's dedication to the promotion of strong relations and efforts in building a bridge of greater mutual understanding between Australia and Asia, based on mutual respect and benefits as well as shared responsibility deserves the support of everyone. The Institute's Cliffbrook Dinners provide an important social and intellectual forum for the discussion of pertinent issues regarding Asia and its place in the world in general and in its relations with Australia in particular. Indonesia is not only part of Asia but the closest Asian country to Australia and therefore I feel privileged to be a part of this evening's forum.

I am happy to be here at the University of New South Wales, a prominent university which has had a long-standing relationship with Indonesia, and from which many Indonesian students have graduated. I am also happy to be here in Sydney. As you may recall. it was here in September 1945 that the Waterside Workers' Federation (WWF) agreed to boycott Dutch ships loading for Indonesia. Only a few days ago we were faced with a similar situation. However, this time it was the Maritime Union of Australia boycotting our ships. How things have changed.

I intend to share with you a few thoughts and views, not about Asia in general because that would be too large a subject, but about Indonesia and about the current relationship between Australia and Indonesia. I believe this would be of great interest to all of us so soon after Prime Minister John Howard's successful first visit to my country. I consider the visit, the first by the Prime Minister to a foreign country, as reflecting the new Australian Government's strong and important commitment to the bilateral relationship. Indonesia appreciates this gesture and indeed Australia is clearly important to Indonesia in every area of cooperation, such as political and security dialogue, trade, investment, education, tourism as well as science and technology.

It has often been said that no other two countries could be so geographically close to each other and yet be so vastly different from each other. This I do not dispute, for we differ in our historical experiences, in our political system, and in our cultures and social structure, as well as in many other ways. And although we are neighbours, we do not really know each other very well, a state of affairs which I feel needs rectification, through cross-cultural dialogue and the promotion of mutual respect of each other's value systems. Your Institute has been playing a constructive role in that respect.

Indonesia is no different from Australia or any other country in the world in its striving to achieve prosperity through social and economic development under a stable and yet dynamic political system. Today, with a GDP of $210 billion, Indonesia is the largest economy in Southeast Asia and for over 25 years has been consistently growing at an average rate of seven percent annually. Considered by misleading observers as one of the "dominoes" in Southeast Asia during the Cold War, it has in recent years won recognition as one of the "dynamos" in an economically dynamic region. As a result, Indonesia has become more able to fruitfully interact with all its neighbours, in particular within ASEAN as well as with the developed countries of the world. For if Indonesia is to continue to make further economic development she needs to increase her exports, encourage greater investment and cooperation to improve her human resources and obtain the necessary technology from her neighbours in the region and from any country in the world.

Trade between Australia and Indonesia has been growing at an encouraging rate during the past several years. It reached a total value of over US$3.7 billion in 1995, with the balance in favour of Australia and Prime Minister John Howard, during his recent visit to Indonesia, said that he expects trade between Australia and Indonesia to reach US$10 billion by the year 2000. The level of Australian investments in Indonesia have also been encouraging. In 1995 alone, approved Australian investments totalled US$3.71 billion in 38 projects making total Australian investment US$6.1 billion. Australia is now ranked 9th among 51 foreign investing countries.

There are a large number of Australian companies making good in Indonesia but, of course, we feel that there should be.a larger number of them in such fields as telecommunications, power generation and transmission, conservation of the environment, infrastructure building and development of tourism facilities. Indonesian companies, although to a lesser degree, are also endeavouring to establish a growing presence in Australia. However, it has to be acknowledged that neither country counts as among the top trading partners or investors of the other. Indonesian exports still account for only 1.7 percent of Australia's total imports and only some 3.2 percent of Australia's total exports go to Indonesia. Therefore we need to look more closely at how the bilateral economic relationship can be further promoted. As the two countries continue to pursue their intensive deregulation programmes and get to know each other better there are reasons to be optimistic that the economic relationship will grow.

Cultural and educational relations between Australia and Indonesia are flourishing. Our cultural and historical backgrounds, even though vastly different, provide us with the impetus to further our knowledge of each other. Indeed, we have much to discover and learn about the differences that make us two very distinct nations with great potential to develop a synergistic and mutually fruitful partnership. We have to recognise that we are uniquely different and the challenge is how to best learn and grow from this element of difference.

In this respect, it is important to know that the number of Indonesian students choosing to study in Australia is continually growing. At any one time, there are some 15,000 Indonesian students enrolled at various educational institutions all over Australia. Australia is the first choice among Indonesian students who wish to study abroad due not only to geographical proximity, but more importantly to the high standards of Australia's tertiary institutions. These students, also Indonesia's future generation of business and government leaders, take away with them memories of a pleasant and fruitful chapter of their lives and friendships forged whilst in Australia will certainly contribute to the broadening and deepening of the relations between our two countries. In addition, I am pleased and impressed by the enthusiastic effort among Australian schools - primary and secondary, as well as tertiary institutions - to teach Bahasa Indonesia. To me, this bespeaks a keen desire to promote the relationship between our two countries and educate students so that any remaining barriers of ignorance can be broken down. Either way, we deeply appreciate such a sensitivity and responsiveness to our culture.

The number of tourists from each country visiting the other has been constantly on the increase and there appears to be a growing number of Australians who have finally realised that Indonesia has a great deal more to offer for the wholesome enjoyment of the traveller than the beaches of Bali. In 1995, Australians travelling to Indonesia increased by 62 percent to 452,000 whilst Indonesians visiting Australia increased by 29 percent to 280,000. In turn, Indonesians are choosing to visit Perth more than any other tourist destination in the world. Such exchange of visits at the grassroots level occasions goodwill, mutual understanding and opportunities for cooperation in other fields.

Now, I have given you a rather optimistic view and the reason for this is that Indonesia has been consistently achieving sufficiently high economic growth of more than 7 percent during the last 25 years. Although the achievements of Indonesia's economic development have sometimes been described as "miraculous", we have no illusions that we have solved all our problems. We know, for instance, that some 25 million Indonesians or 13.5 percent of the population still live below the poverty line. Yet, only some 25 years ago, the population of Indonesia was 145 million and 70 percent of that population lived below the poverty level. This is no less than a two-thirds reduction of the incidence of poverty. Indonesia's high economic growth has also led to the creation of 45 million new jobs between 1970 and 1994. However, we are well aware that we have to watch our current accounts deficit, currently at US$7.3 billion, which represents 3.3 percent of our GDP. In addition we also have to carefully watch our external debt, which now stands at about US$100 billion, making Indonesia the fourth largest debtor country in the world, after Mexico, Brazil and China. Indonesia's Debt Service Ratio (DSR) is approximately 32 percent of its GDP. We need to lower it to about 25 percent. However, importantly, our savings have been continually growing, the latest figure being 28 percent of our GDP.

Apart from facing these economic and financial problems, we also have to confront the complexities of trying to achieve two objectives which, at least at the beginning, could and often do contradict each other: economic development and democratisation. Indeed these twin objectives have been subjects of continuing debate in the world, particularly among leaders of developing countries. One view, propounded by former Prime Minister and now Senior Minister Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore, is that democratisation should not be a priority in a developing country, as discipline rather than democracy, is what is needed to achieve economic growth and social progress. A contending view, held by Madame Aung Sang Suu Kyi of Myanmar, is that the length of time it took Western countries to achieve democratisation should not be used as a valid reason for Asian countries to be slow in its implementation within their own countries. Indonesia has chosen to take the middle path towards democratisation. as we are aware of the complexity of the effort in realising these twin objectives. All our endeavours in this development process have been guided by a philosophy concerning the relationship between stability and progress. In our view, there is no choosing between democratisation on one hand and stability and development on the other. We must strive for all three simultaneously or else we can never be really assured of any of them.

Meanwhile the reality is that as countries attain more prosperity, as the middle class grows and the people no longer have to worry about their day-to-day basic needs, they tend to grow more politically active: they want to participate in the decision-making processes which impact on their lives, they want to take charge of their own destiny. This is a tremendous force which could threaten the social and political stability and integrity of the nation. On the other hand, we are also aware of the fact that some segments of our population are left behind in the process of economic development and it is also understandable that some of them become impatient. It should not be allowed to become such a threat, it could and should be harnessed to enhance the stability of the nation.

For the process of democratisation is never easy, nor is it ever quick and simple. Many nations have taken centuries to become democratic. Of course, it is our hope that it should not take that long in the case of Indonesia, but we do need some time to fine-tune our social institutions and to become the nation that we aspire to be. We are now convinced that we have taken the right direction and that we are on the right road. Naturally, in the process we may experience some hiccoughs and what we are doing may become an object of critical observation both in Indonesia and abroad. Such criticism however, should not paralyse us because in the final analysis, the process of democratisation is the responsibility of the people and the country themselves. This we are determined to achieve. not at a pace that is dictated by external influences, nor as demanded by a vocal and violent minority in the country, but one that is comfortable to the majority of our people. I am confident that it will be achieved and we just have to make sure that rising political activism is neither a mask nor an excuse for anarchy and gross irresponsibility.

However, the media here in Australia generally take a different view and negative reporting regarding Indonesia's efforts to balance democratisation and economic development is neither helpful nor reflective of a good understanding of the political, economic, social and cultural complexities faced by Indonesia. We have the utmost respect for Australia's freedom of the press, yet such a system will not necessarily work in Indonesia as our need for political stability, unity and cohesion of the nation are imperative for the maintenance and continuation of our economic development. Indonesia is a country in transition: economically, it is moving towards industrialisation, politically it is moving towards greater democratisation. The nation-building process goes on and these multiple transitions, in a nation of 195 million people, living on 17.000 islands and consisting of more than 300 ethnic groups, are complex and need to be acknowledged, understood and managed correctly if we are to become the nation we have set out to be.

Returning to our bilateral relations, I believe that the relationship has now matured considerably and is therefore strong and able to withstand the sparks that sometimes occur. There are also now enough responsible people within the political elite, private sector and academia on both sides of the relationship, who are continuously strengthening the ballast of the relationship.

Let me now conclude by saying that geography has made Australia and Indonesia neighbours, our early history has made us friendly,, and economic and security necessities have made us partners who share the responsibility of maintaining peace and stability, as well as promoting prosperity within the region. We realise that political and cultural differences have sometimes caused misperceptions and misunderstandings but we must be willing to have honest disagreements and be able to manage them rationally. Therefore, what nature and necessity have joined together, it is our duty to nurture carefully, so that we can all benefit and learn from what has become a synergistic and vital bilateral relationship.

Thank you.