Red-tape still a barrier to closer Indonesia-Australia relations.

By Ross B Taylor AM

Jakarta

Over many years much has been said and written about the importance of Australia’s relationship with its large and near neighbour, Indonesia.

Australia’s former prime ministers also were clear about the importance of being good neighbours: Paul Keating said, ‘Indonesia is our most important relationship’. Tony Abbott famously talked about, ‘More Indonesia and less Geneva.’ NGO’s, bureaucrats and academics talk continuously about the need to ‘get more ballast into the bi-lateral relationship’, and the Indonesia-Australia Business Council openly states that trade and business between our two countries is ‘underdone’.

Yet despite all the cliché’s and hand-shaking between politicians and senior bureaucrats, the bi-lateral relationship struggles to progress to become deeper and more substantial. Why?

At the risk of over simplifying the state of this critical relationship between Indonesia and Australia – which at at senior political level is actually quite warm at present – our two countries are very different. 

For the average person on the streets of Sydney or Perth, Indonesians are often viewed with a mix of ignorance and suspicion, whilst in here in Indonesia Australians are viewed more warmly, but still with a mix of ignorance and ambivalence. Perhaps this should not be surprising as after all, Indonesians don’t swim at the beach, drink beer, play rugby, Aussie football or cricket, and the population mostly embraces Islam. 

We then add high-profile issues that have often defined the relationship, including the live-cattle debacle, Schapelle Corby, asylum seekers, spying on the istri of SBY and of course the Bali bombings and terrorism along with the independence of East Timor. 

Yet here is the paradox: No two countries in the region need each other like Indonesia and Australia; although now Australia probably needs Indonesia more than Indonesia needs Australia. Regional security, trade and tourism are a just a few core reasons why we need a mutually close and trusting.

So what needs to be done to progress our apparent mutual desire for a broader, deeper and more productive relationship? There should be no doubt the future lies with our youth. Indonesia has 90 million people under 30 years of age. Even in the kampungs (small villages) young people now have smartphones. They are deeply into social media, just as President Jokowi, who rode into power on the back-of huge social media support, found out.

The importance of youth has been recognised by Australia’s foreign minister Julie Bishop and her DFAT team who oversaw the introduction of The New Colombo Plan that creates opportunities for young Australians to live and study in Indonesia. Under the direction of Professor David Hill from ACICIS the program has been highly successful. Yet Indonesian bureaucrats still make it very hard for our students to obtain internships and even get a visa to carry-out  study programs with reams of red tape to test the most patient of applicants. 

The bureaucracy also extends these blockages to broader business relations: Tourism Australia has been trying to establish a representative office in Indonesia for three years, and is only now getting close, and Indonesia is making it increasingly difficult for expatriates to obtain work permits and visas so we now see less – not more – Australian business people establishing businesses in Indonesia.

Ironically, in Jakarta the Australian Embassy is home to many highly experienced and dedicated staff who understand Indonesia intimately, yet in Australia the Immigration and Border Force bureaucrats seem happy to reciprocate with our own red-tape that sees young Indonesian backpackers only being able to obtain a one-year Holiday-Work visa whereas Japanese or Singapore nationals receive two years up-front. Young Indonesians must also have a minimum of $5,000 in their bank account and obtain a letter of recommendation from their government.

Only three months ago tourists from Indonesia finally became eligible to apply for an Australian visa online, yet they still must pay A$140.00 each (or $560.00 for a family of four) just to apply for the holiday visa. Add to this cost is 15 pages of questions to be answered for each applicant. 

Last year 9.1 million Indonesians travelled overseas and many now seek-out last minute cheap online airline tickets for a long-weekend holiday in neighbouring countries. Australia misses out on this market as the process is too expensive, too slow and bureaucratic, costing Australia huge tourism dollars whilst our two nations miss out on our respective citizens getting to know each other better.

It is interesting to note that when Indonesia removed the Visa-On-Arrival fee that was applied to all Australians heading off to Bali, it came at a cost of $50 million to the Indonesian government. The following year saw the number of Australians holidaying in Bali increase by over 16%, adding A$145 million to the local economy. Imagine if Australian bureaucrats followed Indonesian lead an issued a free visa or even a $20.00 fee - that is currently available to nationals from Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and Brunei for example - to Indonesians wanting to spend their holiday and money ‘down under’.

The primary reason why on both sides we see these blockages is because some bureaucrats still see the relationship through eyes that are tainted with suspicion, ambivalence and ignorance. Until our political leaders break-through these blockages and create an environment where the people of out two wonderful nations can meet each other more frequently and travel to see what we both have to offer as destinations, we will sadly struggle to progress this critical relationship to where most visionary people wish it to go.

It’s nice to hear experts say we need to get more ‘ballast’ in the bi-lateral relationship, but as professor Colin Brown (formerly of Curtin University in WA) once quipped, “Getting more ballast in the ship might stop it from sinking; but it really doesn’t take it anywhere”.

Ross B. Taylor AM is the president of the Perth-based Indonesia Institute Inc and a former WA government commissioner & regional director in Jakarta.

January 2018.

This article first appeared as an Opinion piece in The Jakarta Post Newspaper on 

Friday 12th January 2018.