Indonesia – perceptions & reality

This article in Eureka Street looks at the gulf that often exists between Australian perceptions of Indonesia and the quickly changing reality of that country. It argues that Australians have good reasons to know more about their most important neighbour, and is online here.

In the article I quote Indonesia’s ambassador to the United States talking about why Americans should care about Indonesia. The full text of what Dino Djalal said:

If you count the things that are dear to America, Indonesia’s got plenty of them. America prides herself on being the beacon of democracy. Well, Indonesia is the third largest democracy in the world. America wants to extend her outreach to the Islamic world. Well, Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world. There are more Muslims in Indonesia than in the entire Middle East. America wants to save planet Earth and have clean air. Well, much of the air that you breathe now comes from Indonesia because we have 30 per cent of the world’s tropical rainforests, and we have been providing free environmental service to America and to humanity.

America wants to fight terrorism around the world. Well, Indonesia’s counter-terrorism efforts to capture and neutralise terrorist networks have been an outstanding success. America wants always to be a Pacific power. Well, Indonesia is the largest country, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, the largest archipelago in the world, and with Malaysia and Singapore we occupy one of the most strategic straits in the world, the Strait of Malacca.

But Indonesia is also important because it is a tricky experiment that worked. The Indonesian democratic experiment was full of danger signs. If we failed, the consequences were very worrying: collapse of democracy, breakdown of law and order, return to authoritarianism, economic crisis, ethnic warfare, dismemberment of Indonesia and who knows what else.

Read more at Reality-based Community