Page 2 of 2 Australia's new PM is old Asia
hand By Andrew Symon
Asia and in some ways more of a 1950s and
'60s man, preferring an old-fashioned Australia
tied closely to Britain.
Yet many overlook
the fact that Howard presided over an
unprecedented strengthening of Australia's
economic links with China, driven especially by
exports of Australian mineral, energy and
agricultural commodities and increasing Chinese
investment in Australia. There has also been
remarkable growth in the numbers of immigrants
from China settling in Australia as well as
growth in students studying
and tourists visiting down under.
Under
his watch, China's Hu addressed the Australian
Parliament in October 2003, the first time this
was done by any Asian leader, a day after the
address by George W Bush. Negotiations for a free
trade or preferential trade agreement with China
were also begun, following the US-Australia Free
Trade Agreement signed in 2004.
The Howard
government also differentiated - although probably
regretting that it did so publicly - Australia's
policy over Taiwan from that of the US. In August
2004, then foreign minister Alexander Downer
during a visit to Beijing said that under the
ANZUS Treaty, Australia was not automatically
committed to provide military support to the US in
any Taiwan Strait crisis.
This is true as
the treaty in fact is short and quite general
although Australia is still obligated under the
treaty to act diplomatically with the US in such a
situation. Rudd, then shadow foreign minister,
more carefully stated that Australia’s interest
was to see the use of peaceful means to deal with
tensions and that Australia was not obliged to say
what it would or would not do in the event of a
crisis in the Taiwan Strait.
As far as
Southeast Asia is concerned, Howard also sought to
strengthen relations after a fairly passive start.
Relations with Indonesia, especially, plummeted as
a result of Australia's military support for East
Timor's independence as the head of the UN force
sent in 1999 to pacify the country after
Indonesian military inspired militias went on a
rampage. Here the US alliance was important as
Washington pressured Jakarta to "invite" the UN to
send the force, although the US did not contribute
American troops.
Relations though have
been rebuilt with Jakarta, as symbolized by
Howard's effort to attend Yudhoyono's inauguration
in August 2004, the only leader outside the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to
do so. Underlining further the effort that
Howard's government has put into
Indonesia-Australia relations is the new and broad
security pact signed between the two countries in
November 2006, replacing a 1995 agreement that was
jettisoned by Jakarta during the Timor crisis.
As far as Southeast Asia and Asean as a
whole are concerned, again the Howard government
can boast of real advances. Australia is pursuing
a free trade agreement with ASEAN and on the
diplomatic and security front has signed the 1976
ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, after some
concern that it might cut against ANZUS, so that
Australia could become a founding member of the
East Asia summit, first held in Kuala Lumpur in
December 2005, joining the 10 ASEAN countries,
Japan, China, South Korea, India and New Zealand.
Despite all this, Australia's relations
with Asia have probably been hurt by measures
Howard took in response to Islamic extremism and
terrorism internationally and the possible threat
to Australia domestically, especially in the wake
of the Bali bombings in October 2002.
The
specter of Islamic terrorism within Australia has
led to an alarming degree of xenophobia. As many
leading figures - from former conservative prime
minister Malcolm Fraser to former Labor prime
minister Paul Keating - warn, Bali has encouraged
a climate of suspicion, insularity and narrow
nationalism, seriously eroding the strong
multicultural and multiracial policies and
attitudes that had developed under both
conservative and Labor governments since the
1970s.
Severe new security laws have been
established, there has been often heavy-handed
detention of illegal immigrants from the Middle
East, an "Australian knowledge and values" test
has been established that immigrants must pass
before gaining Australian citizenship, and there
have been some nasty cases of street abuse and
racism towards Australians of Middle Eastern and
also African background.
All this has
reinforced the still sometimes strong view among
people in Asia that Australia is still beset by
racism. So a critical task of the Rudd government
will be to re-cast and re-assert a
non-discriminatory and "fair go" Australia. This
will in turn enhance Australia's moral capital and
"soft power" in regional and international forums.
To this end, what also will not have
escaped notice in Asia is the fact that Rudd's
daughter, Jessica, recently married an Australian
of Chinese background. In election night
celebrations on Saturday in Brisbane they were
both on stage and under the spotlight with the
rest of the immediate Rudd family. While
interracial marriages are hardly a big deal in
Australia - and of course there are plenty in
Asia, Europe and North America - it does help to
promote Australia as the open, tolerant and
inclusive country that Rudd has declared is his
objective to strengthen.
Andrew
Symon is a Singapore-based journalist and
analyst. In Australia he worked in the Senate of
the national Parliament and as a ministerial
speech writer in the 1980s. He has been working in
Southeast Asia since 1992.
Andrew.symon@yahoo.com.sdg
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