Reviving the teaching of Indonesian:

Why bother?

Colin Brown

Parahyangan University,

Bandung, Indonesia and

Griffith Asia Institute,

Brisbane

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

• Smarttraveller: http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/

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Lowy Institute poll, 2011

61% of respondents thought Indonesia posed a military threat to Australia; 69% thought Indonesia was “essentially controlled by the military”

Fergus Hanson, Australia and the World. Public Opinion and Foreign Policy, Lowy Institute, Sydney, 2011, p 15

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Lowy Institute poll, 2011

Only 52% agreed that “Indonesia is an emerging democracy”.

Hanson, Australia and the World, p 15

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DFAT Travel Advisory

• Category 3: Reconsider your need to travel• Category 2: Exercise a high degree of

caution

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DFAT Travel Advisory

You should take particular care to avoid places known to be terrorist targets. Tourist areas and attractions throughout Indonesia and tourists travelling to or from these places, including those in tour groups or tour buses, could be targeted.

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DFAT Travel Advisory

Other possible targets include international hotels, clubs, sporting clubs and venues, restaurants, international fast food outlets, bars, nightclubs, Western-branded venues, cinemas, theatres,

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DFAT Travel Advisory

Jakarta’s embassy district and diplomatic missions elsewhere, international schools, expatriate housing compounds and Western interests and businesses. Places frequented by foreigners, central business areas, office buildings,

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DFAT Travel Advisory

churches and other places of worship, airlines, airports, public transport and transport hubs, shopping centres, premises and symbols associated with the Indonesian Government, and outdoor recreation events are also potential targets.

Indonesia, DFAT, Canberra, 20 September 2012 available at http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/Indonesia accessed 24 September 2012

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Islam

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Islam

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David Hill, Indonesian Language in Australian Universities

The Travel Advisory has had a disastrous impact upon educational links. The advisories are frequently misinterpreted by state education departments, schools and universities as a “ban” on travel, despite various explanations to the contrary by DFAT staff.

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Hill, Indonesian Language

Schools find they cannot get travel insurance for student language study trips, and have little choice but to cease school exchange visits.

David Hill, Indonesian Language in Australian Universities. Strategies for a stronger future, Australian Learning and Teaching Council National Teaching Fellowship Final Report, Murdoch University, Perth, April 2012, p 26. http://altcfellowship.murdoch.edu.au/finalreport.html accessed 24 September 2012

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Hill, Indonesian Language

[Recommends the government] “... undertake a review of the wording and impact of the DFAT Travel Advisory for Indonesia, with a view to making it more nuanced, and noting explicitly that the advice is not intended to be interpreted as a ban upon educational exchanges with Indonesia.”

Hill, Indonesian Language in Australian Universities, p 4.

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Hill, Indonesian Language

[Recommends the government] “... ... collaborate with the insurance industry to assist those educational institutions wishing to travel to Indonesia to gain access to appropriate insurance cover.”

Hill, Indonesian Language in Australian Universities, p 4.

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Indonesia from the ground up! (IFGU!)

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ACT NSW NT QLD SA TAS VIC WA TOT.

Catholic 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 3

Independent 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 5

State 6 3 0 0 3 2 0 9 23

8 6 0 1 3 3 0 10 31

IFGU!

http://www.acicis.murdoch.edu.au/hi/tours1.html

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Alan Oxley, The Australian, 19 Sept 2012

... Indonesia ... now has a population of 240 million. It has a wealthy middle class that is probably bigger than our total population. Its economy has grown an average of 6 per cent for the past seven years and is likely to continue to grow. The major driver is rising consumption in Indonesia, not Chinese growth which drives most markets in Asia.

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Alan Oxley, The Australian, 19 Sept 2012

Indonesia is now our biggest beef and grain market. It is a natural market for other major exports such as education and tourism. And as Indonesia grows, it will offer important opportunities for Australian construction and infrastructure industries.

Alan Oxley, “Sour times with a big neighbour”, The Australian, 19 September 2012 at http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/sour-times-with-a-big-neighbour/story-e6frgd0x-1226476843784, accessed 20 September 2012

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Distribution of income

• Australia, China, Indonesia, United States• Gini coeffficient: the lower the score, the

more even the distribution of income

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Distribution of Income

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Country Gini Coefficient

Australia 0.35

Distribution of Income

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Country Gini Coefficient

Australia 0.35

United States 0.41

Distribution of Income

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality

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Country Gini Coefficient

Australia 0.35

Indonesia 0.37

United States 0.41

China 0.42

Professor Kishore Mahbubani, ABC Radio National, 8 Sept 2012

Just because Asians speak English well, it doesn’t mean they think in English or feel in English. You don’t get a window into their hearts and minds [through English].

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/kishore-mahbubani-1/4248928, accessed 25 September 2012. I thank Dr Phil Mahnken for referring me to this interview.

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David Hill, Indonesian Language

[My] discussions with young adults studying in Australian universities revealed the image of Indonesia (and therefore Indonesian language) among their peers was unflattering, and outmoded. This contrasted with the vibrant, innovative and popular contemporary images of comparator countries like Japan, Korea and China.

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David Hill, Indonesian Language

These students suggested Indonesian language and culture needed to be “re-branded” to capture and communicate to their contemporaries its relevance to global youth culture, new technologies, and the region’s economic dynamism.

Hill, Indonesian Language, p 27

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Kishore Mahbubani

There are two countries clearly that will have a major impact on Australia’s future: Indonesia and China. If young Australians are not learning either ... Indonesian or Mandarin, then I think they will be at a severe disadvantage in preparing themselves for the Asian century.

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/kishore-mahbubani-1/4248928 accessed 25 September 2012

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Alan Oxley

Australia needs a successful and co-operative relationship with Indonesia. We cannot achieve that using European perspectives. Only a highly pragmatic, sympathetic and rational approach will deliver the sort of relationship we need as Indonesia emerges as a large economy and power in Southeast Asia.

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Alan Oxley

That is the major political challenge for Australia in the Asian Century.

Oxley, “Sour times with a big neighbour”

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Revive Indonesian?

We must bother!

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