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  • Lilik and Nina Hamid in their Christchurch home. Photo: David Hallett
  • Knowing Indonesia

    Indonesia is the fourth-most populous country on Earth and in New Zealand terms a stone's throw away. Why do we know so little about it? WARREN GAMBLE reports.

    • O
      ver delicately flavoured Indonesian dishes, William Sabandar and Lilik Hamid have a bone to pick, politely of course.

      The Indonesian friends living in Christchurch are frustrated that the only images New Zealanders seem to have of their country are terrorist bombings.

      And they say media coverage of the latest attack outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta last week quickly focused on its political and security impact across the Tasman rather than on the human tragedy of the nine Indonesians killed or the 180 injured.

      There was little subsequent coverage of the ruinous impacts such bombs have on the struggling Indonesian economy, or of the anger at the terrorists felt by the majority of Indonesians, signalled in widespread protest marches.

      Sabandar, a PhD geography student at the University of Canterbury, says incomplete media coverage is part of the wider lack of understanding about his homeland.

      Many New Zealanders he meets are keen to know what he thinks of this country; but few ask about Indonesia.

      "We are such a close neighbour but we don't have such a close relationship." He says.

      Perhaps many New Zealanders already have the former Dutch colony pegged as Bali beaches and bombings - "terrorism and tourism" to use an unwelcome catchphrase.

      There is naturally much more in the archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, stretching from Indian Ocean west of Malaysia down to the Timor Sea, off Australia's northern tip. It is a country emerging from three decades of authoritarian rule into full democracy while dealing with a poor economy, corruption, separatist conflicts and the sheer complexities of hundreds of ethnic groups.

    • There is no doubt that terrorist activities targeted at westerners - the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing killed scores of Australians, three New Zealanders and residents of 19 other countries - have widely damaged Indonesia's reputation.

      But Sabandar, a Christian, and Hamid a Muslim, say it is important to know that the radical Muslim group blamed for the bombings, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), has a tiny support base.

      For the vast majority of Indonesian Muslims - who make up about 90 per cent of the population - their faith is peaceful, tolerant and non-political, as reflected by their non-secular Government.

      Dr Anthony Smith, a New Zealand senior research fellow and Indonesian specialist at the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Hawaii, says the extremist campaign against the West is not popular among Indonesian Muslims. Supporters of JI probably only number in the hundreds he says.

      Smith argues that the problem is more to do with denial then sympathy.

      Many Indonesians appear to have trouble accepting that JI even exists, he says, a sentiment echoed by a neighbour of a suspect in the latest bombing who told Australian journalists there was no such organization.

      Smith syas the Indonesian Government also largely ignored the small number of radicalised groups lik JI would have been interpreted as caving in to pressure from the United States and its war on terror, a war many Indonesians suspect as a means to weaken Islam.

      After the Bali blast, the Government stepped up its efforts, in conjunction with Australian police, to track down the offenders. They have been successful in catching many, although two of the JI masterminds, Malaysian explosives experts, are still on the run.



    • For Hamid and Sabandar, the bombs have a wider impact, damaging Indonesia's reputation in the West, directly harming industries like tourism and deterring vital foreign investment.

      And this goes to the crux of Indonesia's biggest problem, felt by far more of its 238 million people than terrorist-inspired fear.

      The economy has not recovered from the effects of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

      The crisis, which made millions unemployed, led to the overthrow of President Soeharto, who ruled the country for 32 years with an iron, and often bloody, fist.

      But despite the return to democracy - which will be completed with the country's first direct presidential election on Monday - no subsequent government has been able to right the economy which is still growing at half the pre-crisis rate.

      The new president, either incumbent Megawati Sukarnoputri of former army general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, have daunting challenges, including somehow ending the widespread corruption that pervaded many levels of Indonesian life.

      The banking section and justice system are two other massive areas requiring reform.

      The financial crisis and terrorism partly explain New Zealand's subdued relationship with Indonesia.

      A small but growing Indonesian tourist market to New Zealand was stopped in its tracks by the economics crisis. New Zealand tourist numbers to Bali have dropped in the wake of the bombings.

      Indonesians have historically also been less inclined to migrate, unlike the residents of nearby countries such as Philippines.

      Trade between Indonesia and New Zealand has continued to grow recent years, but not at the explosive rate of pre-1997.

      Another factor affecting the relationship has been the negative public attitude here to Indonesia's bloody occupation of East Timor and massacres during its path to independence.

      The brutal actions of Indonesian security forces in the 1999 massacres led to New Zealand cutting its military links with Indonesia. They have not been restored.

      Last month the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Phil Goff, hit out at the Indonesian judicial process which has sentenced only two of 18 security officers charged with crimes against humanity in East Timor. He called for an international tribunal to investigate.

      Continuing conflicts between the Indonesian military and populations in Aceh, in eastern Indonesia, and in West Papua, continue to alarm human rights activists here.

      But overall government to government relations are rebuilding. With visits from Prime Minister Helen Clark to Indonesia two years ago after the 2001 visit of former President Wahid to New Zealand and there have been return visits by Goff and his foreign minister counterpart.

    • Goff also attended a counter-terrorism conference sponsored by Indonesia and Australia in Bali this year, calling for clear channels of co-operation between Asia-Pacific countries.

      New Zealand also provides $8 million in aid programmes to Indonesia aimed at reducing poverty.

      Smith says New Zealand's direct national interests are tied up with Indonesia's stability, "but there is little Wellington can do about that except to pitch in with a wider international effort to shore up Indonesia".

      Outside of tourism, there are few links between the two countries. In 2002 there were about 750 Indonesian students studying in New Zealand, a small proportion of the export education market. Most Indonesian students head to the United States or Australia.

      Sabandar estimates there are about 200 Indonesians in Christchurch, about half of them students.

      Auckland University used to have an Indonesian language course, but it was dropped several years ago because of funding constraints and insufficient interest.

      By comparison, Indonesian is taught in Australian secondary schools.

      One explanation for the lack of interaction may be historical ties - New Zealanders have looked toward the former British colonies of Singapore and Hong Kong for their Asian experience, flying over Indonesia.

      The crowded streets of Jakarta are also not everyone's cup of tea, but Hamid and Sabandar says more New Zealanders should experience travelling in the quieter countryside.

      The people, says Hamid, whose wife has made an Indonesian meal for this interview, are as hospitable as New Zealanders.

      Sabandar says another reason for the limited interaction may be that Indonesians tend to lump New Zealand and Australia together.

      But he says the two countries are very different. New Zealanders have a better awareness of their indigenous culture, and also a "more human approach" than Australians, he says.

      "This difference is something that needs to be known in Indonesia," he says.

      "It's a shame we don't know more about each other."

      Despite all the problems to be overcome in his homeland, Sabandar is hopeful. "I'm very optimistic about the direction that the Indonesian political system is going." He says.

      "We need a very strong democratic base to bring a very strong economy." "it takes time because we are developing it from nothing, but this is the right directions to go."

      Extracted from THE PRESS, Christchurch, main society, Saturday, September 18, 2004, D3