Indonesia-Australia Relations in the Era of Democracy: The View from the Indonesian Side

Abstract

Despite the fact that much has been written about the relationship between Indonesia and Australia with emphasis on the role of government, little has been done in terms of examining Indonesia's changing domestic politics and the role of non-state actors in maintaining the bilateral relations between the two countries. With the emergence of democratic governments in Indonesia since 1998, there has been an increasing public interest in Indonesia in debating the complexity and the importance of this bilateral relationship. This article examines the deepening of democracy under the Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) government and its impact on Indonesia's foreign policy towards Australia.

Notes

¹Many recipients of the Colombo plan scheme in the 1960s now occupy important positions in Indonesia. One of them is Boediono, who is currently the Vice-President and is working together to govern the country with his counterpart, Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono, starting from 2009 until 2014.

²The Constitutional Court (Mahkamah Konstitusi, MK) is invested with the only legal jurisdiction to solve constitutional crises occurring between president and parliament in Indonesia. The Constitutional Court was established in 2003 as a result of an amendment of the 1945 Constitution.

³Among them are the Centre of Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Habibie Centre, the Freedom Institute, and also the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia, LIPI). They will be discussed further later in this article.

⁴For instance, public intellectuals who are regularly involved in debating the bilateral relationship between Indonesia and Australia include Sabam Siagian (a journalist and former Indonesian Ambassador to Australia), Dewi Fortuna Anwar (a researcher and former foreign policy adviser for President B.J. Habibie), Ikrar Nusa Bhakti (a researcher) and Rizal Sukma (a researcher).

⁵Dino Patti Djalal obtained his doctoral degree in international relations under supervision of the late Michael Liefer, a well-known scholar in the field of international relations of the Asia-Pacific region.

⁶For example, Dewi Fortuna Anwar obtained her doctoral degree from Monash University in Melbourne. She was also a foreign policy adviser for President B.J. Habibie (1998–99) and she was involved directly in advising Habibie about the changing views of the Australian government on the future of East Timor endorsed by Prime Minister John Howard in late 1998. Meanwhile, Ikrar Nusa Bhakti received his doctoral degree from Griffith University in Brisbane, and he has excellent knowledge about Papua and Australia's foreign policy.

⁷See ‘Network for Tsunami Aceh Inc’ at URL: <http://www.communitywebs.org/Network forTsunamiAceh/>.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Priyambudi Sulistiyanto

Priyambudi Sulistiyanto is Lecturer at Flinders Asia Centre, School of Political and International Studies, Flinders University. His current research looks at the politics of reconciliation and local politics in post-Soeharto Indonesia. He is the author of Thailand, Indonesia and Burma in Comparative Perspective (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2002), co-editor (with Maribeth Erb and Carole Faucher) of Regionalism in Post-Suharto Indonesia (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2005), and co-editor (with Maribeth Erb) of Deepening Democracy in Indonesia: Direct Elections for Local Leaders (Pilkada) (Singapore: ISEAS, 2009). This is a revised version of a paper the author presented at the workshop ‘Re-engaging Asia’. The author thanks the workshop participants for their constructive comments. Special thanks to Juanita Elias and Carol Johnson for their kind support.