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Gareth Evans: Indonesia Relationship 'Catastrophic'
Veteran official cites need for cultural, educational linkages
Former Australian Foreign Minister and International Crisis Group President Gareth Evans in Melbourne on Feb. 21, 2011. (Asialink-Asia Society Australasia Centre)
Veteran official cites need for cultural, educational linkages
MELBOURNE, February 21, 2011 – Former Australian Foreign Minister and International Crisis Group President Gareth Evans didn't mince words here when discussing the current state of Australia's relationship with Indonesia.
In his keynote speech at the 2011 Asialink-Asia Society AustralAsia Centre Chairman's Welcome, Evans told listeners, "We've gone backwards ... (a focus on) Indonesia has dropped away and that’s catastrophic."
Evans singled out the relative health of relations on an intergovernmental and policy level, but said that wider cultural and societal linkages were lacking.
He highlighted Indonesia's importance in ASEAN and from "every conceivable perspective" and expressed disappointment in the decline in take-up of Indonesian language study in Australia.
"We're just not doing enough and we need to get our consciousness and our act together across the whole spectrum," he said.
When you take "a pragmatic rather than a principled stand [which] is what national foreign policy is all about"; when you signed the Timor Gap Treaty without moral and legal claims; when you reimpose your claims when Timor became independent while weak, you should not expect respect even from your co-conspirators.
Your brilliant policy papers in the International Crisis Group are indeed brilliant, but will remain papers as long as you lead it.
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