Wednesday, April 06, 2005
From the ashes of ignorance and fear
Australia, under John Howard's stewardship, currently basks in a historic double whammy of South-East Asian attention, with Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi in Canberra and following hot on the heels of the just-departed President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia.
The visit of President Yudhoyono, leader of the world's fourth largest (and largest Muslim) nation and immediate northern neighbour of Australia, is being hailed as an outstanding success.
Prime Minister Badawi, on the other hand, has not hesitated to raise some thorny issues in advance of a head-to-head with Howard.
However, the mere fact of the Malaysian leader's presence in the united continent, anytime let alone at a contiguous juncture to that of the leader of Malaysia's contiguous neighbour and brotherly rival, is a seminal event.
Mr. Badawi's famously outspoken predecessor, Prime Minister Mahathir Muhammed, aggressively clashed with Howard predecessor Paul Keating, and there has not been a tremendous amount of joy in an icy south world relationship ever since.
Not that there was notable warmth beforehand.
It is said in some quarters that Dr. Mahathir's poor impression of Australia might have been cultivated during a visit in his student days. The odour of perceived racist condescension is rumoured to be at its root (this type of thing).
Whatever the reasons, Australian (Labor Party) Prime Minister Keating was bucketed with the brunt of (PM) Muhammedan wrath. This embarrassed him. Keating had been loudly trumpeting economic integration between Australia and Asia at the time.
And so, in a sense, the Hawke-Keating Australia-Asia initiative (Bob Hawke was Keating's Labor predecessor) commenced in bright idealistic hope and ended in smitherines. PM Howard's efforts in the same sphere may be heading in the opposite direction.
*************
The symbolic nadir of bad blood may have peaked in the early millenial years.
Australian troops spearheaded UN-backed intervention in then-Indonesian East Timor. Volleys were fired between Australian and Indonesian troops. Following this was the Islamo-fanatic nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia. Amongst hundreds of dead western revellers there was a majority of - holidaying - Australians .
Now we have seen another catastrophic event, the 2004 Boxing Day earthquake-tsunami. The politically adept Howard has recognised and seized upon this variable to showcase Australian goodwill and empathy towards Indonesia.
The last-mentioned event - involving substantial financial and on-the-ground assistance - was the true precursor for the new Indonesian President's visit.
This ostentatiously upward beat in Australia-Indonesian relations - combined with the retirement of Dr. Muhammed - has set off a cascade enabling Malaysia's new Prime Minister to visit Australia.
Such a turnaround is apparently much to the chagrine of Mr. Keating.
The colourful former Australian PM, locally famous as a master of the obnoxiously barbed - and extremely quotable - political quote, has long rued his demise at the hands the man he once derided as "Little Johnny" Howard.
"Little Johnny" dumped Keating on his political behind in 1996, ending Keating's Prime Ministership after just one term. 10 years and three terms later, Little Johnny still rules the roost. The retired Keating evidently still values a legacy .
(To continue ...
... and I never did. Will return to this very important topic sometime though. luv spinbad 2005/5/6)
