Australia, Indonesia 'share a future', Penny Wong assures youth amid concerns about gaps in bilateral ties
Politicians do not usually get sung to, but Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong managed to close a panel discussion in Indonesia to an a cappella rendition of Bill Withers' "Lean On Me" on Wednesday.
Turning on the charm offensive with Indonesian youth as she advanced plans to deepen relations with Southeast Asia, Wong held an hour-long dialogue session at the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia think tank amid her commitments at meetings in Jakarta with Asean counterparts this week.
As discussions came to a close, host and former Indonesian ambassador to the United States, Dino Patti Djalal, asked Wong if Indonesia and Australia could lean on each other in difficult times.
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"Absolutely, we share this region, and we share a future," she said, as members of the think tank stood delivered the rehearsed song.
Looking bemused and thrilled, Wong was also presented with a T-shirt that read "#AussieBanget", referring to a cultural campaign promoting Australia in Indonesia launched by the former Australian ambassador to Indonesia, Paul Grigson, in 2019.
Despite a warm welcome and farewell, panel discussions revealed a darker shade to the relationship between the two countries.
When asked, through a show of hands, if a strong relationship between the two countries was an asset to Indonesia's foreign policy, many raised their hands, but when asked if there was "a high degree of trust" between the two countries", few did.
While many indicated they would like to study in Australia, others raised their anxieties about Aukus, Australia's trilateral security alliance with the US and Britain.
These comments and responses indicate a long-standing gap in the relationship between the two countries.
In education, Indonesia ranked tenth as a source of international students in Australia, based on the number of enrolments in the first four months of this year according to the Australian education department. China is first with nearly 130,000 enrolments, while Indonesia had just over 16,000.
Australia has few direct investments in Indonesia despite being neighbours, and an Asean business summit in Sydney last month revealed many Australian entrepreneurs remained wary of risks in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.
In the 2023 Lowy Institute Poll, 12 per cent of Australians saw Indonesia as Australia's "best friend in Asia", less than Japan, India and Singapore. The Lowy's 2021 Indonesia Poll, which surveyed 3,000 Indonesians, revealed 55 per cent trusted Australia, a 20-point drop from 2011.
One Indonesian attendee asked Wong: "Past polling has consistently shown that Australians do not view Indonesia as a democracy. Why is that? And what does Australia expect of Indonesia in this regard?"
Wong responded by saying that both countries had "different political systems" but avoided answering the question.
"We have different ways of mediating power within our countries and yes, we can probably both learn more about our democratic systems," she said.
A question about the availability of Bahasa Indonesia language studies in Australia also led Wong to say these were insufficient in Australia. The issue is an ongoing concern in Australia, with research showing the number of students studying Bahasa Indonesia in Australia had plummeted since 1992.
Another attendee asked Wong how Australia's membership in the Aukus security alliance with Britain and the US was a move towards "lowering conflict" in the region.
Others asked Wong how Australia and Indonesia could collaborate on climate change action and poverty eradication.
Wong has sought to foster closer ties with Asean and Southeast Asia since taking up office last May following the election of the Albanese Labor government.
"Asean matters to Australia," she said in a press conference before the panel discussion.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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