By Siaan Matthews, PhD Candidate, Faculty
of Asian Studies, Australian National University, Siaan.Matthews@anu.edu.au
Australia and Malaysia have a close bilateral relationship.
They share similar British government backgrounds, they are both federal
systems, they both have multiethnic communities, they enjoy extensive trade
and educational links, they live in the same geographic region ... the list
goes on. But given all this, why haven’t Australia and Malaysia developed
an even closer bilateral relationship?
One answer lies in unmistakable differences in their approaches to government,
that is, the how and the why of policy making. For example, Australians
emphasise the importance of policy analysis, wide consultation and internal
coordination. Australia also places importance on public servants being
frank and fearless, apolitical, and on policy-making being generally transparent
and democratic.
Malaysian public servants openly admit they are politically driven, particularly
in the context that there is only one major coalition and this means that
almost everyone (including public servants) fall within the coalition’s
sphere. (This continues to be the case despite the swing away from the coalition
in the recent Malaysian elections.) This political public service is considered
strength because it encourages a focus on meeting the country’s development
goals, something public servants willingly admit leads to some lessening
of democracy and the dampening of freedoms.
Policy development in Malaysia is also highly centralised. Key policies
are sometimes developed and implemented by central agencies, such as the
Economic Planning Unit, which then direct the relevant line ministry to
take over the policy maintenance and implementation.
The factors which shape public servants’ ways of operating in Malaysia
and Australia are also distinctly different, with an interesting example
being the different emphases on counter-terrorism. Malaysia visibly demonstrates
its commitment to overcoming terrorism by hosting the Southeast Asia Regional
Centre for Counter-terrorism (see http://www.searcct.gov.my).
Apart from that, Malaysian policy-makers say considerably less about terrorism
than those in Australia
My examination, as part of my doctoral work, of the last five federal budget
speeches in each country highlights this. In Australian budget speeches,
the words ‘terrorism/terrorist’ were referred to every year,
with a total of 32 references in the five speeches. In the Malaysian budget
speeches ‘terrorism/terrorist’ was only raised (eight times)
in one year, 2004. I also found different attitudes when interviewing senior
Malaysian public servants and opinion leaders. When given a selection of
12 key policy considerations, no Malaysian interviewee selected counter-terrorism
as a top priority in policy-making (selections available included trade
and economic growth, arts and culture, education and counter-terrorism).
This analysis suggests that, although counter-terrorism is important in
both countries, the way it is handled and the emphasis placed on terrorism
within the context of other policy considerations is distinctly different.
So how does this affect the relationship? Both Australian and Malaysian
public servants need to have an understanding of how their approaches differ.
Equally, both sides need to develop a deeper understanding of what factors
will affect a policy decision in both countries. This two-fold need is demonstrated
by the protracted Malaysia-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations
which began in May 2005, were due to conclude in mid-2006, but which are
still ongoing, perhaps due to very different negotiating styles. (The Singapore-Australia
FTA was concluded in just 18 months (April 2001 to October 2002)).
With new governments now in power in both countries, public servants have
a well-timed opportunity to incorporate new understandings about approaches
to public policy into the daily policy-making process. Ultimately, these
considerations will assist both Australia and Malaysia by further strengthening
the bilateral relationship.
Links:
Profile
This month we profile Francesca Beddie, editor of Asian
Currents and former diplomat, who served in Jakarta, Moscow and Berlin. fbeddie@infinite.net.au
Q: When did you become interested in Asia and why?
A: I joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in
order to go to Moscow. It was the early eighties and I wanted to see how homo
Sovieticus lived. I applied for Moscow – I’d done Russian and
German history and spoke good German. No-one in my year spoke Russian. My
second preference was Paris; my third – for reasons I cannot now imagine
– Lima. I was told I was going to Jakarta. I protested. I was told again
and six weeks later found myself at the RAAF School of Languages at Point
Cook, an honorary lieutenant learning Indonesian. The classrooms were weatherboard
structures, a good walk across the windswept airfield. They were either hot
or cold and we stayed there all day every day to learn Indonesian. At night
we studied. And as a result most of the class, nearly all army people, graduated
ten months later with Interpreter status.
Soon after I found myself in Yogyakarta, enrolled for six
weeks with a tutor who was to polish the training Point Cook had given me.
I studied every morning then took a becak through dead quiet streets –
in those days nothing was open between midday and three – to the Taman
Sari, where I dabbled in batik painting. I could understand neither the becak
driver nor most shop owners. I was desolate.Eventually, I got to Jakarta and
started work, in what was to become the most satisfying professional assignment
of my life, which included interpreting for ministers and ambassadors and
reporting on political Islam. It also heralded a deep fondness and fascination
for Indonesia, many lasting friendships and perennial concern at the vulnerability
of political relations between Australia and Indonesia.
Q: What are your current preoccupations?
A: I did get to Moscow, after a second assignment
in Indonesia, in December 1989. I stayed until 1993. When I eventually got
back to Australia in 1995, I was struck by the contrast between attitudes
in Indonesia and Russia to the value of education and those prevailing in
Australia. The concern to improve that situation eventually led me to my current
job in vocational education research.
Many training providers are looking eagerly to Asia for new
markets. They are attracting students to Australian-based courses and some
are establishing operations abroad. Few, however, are thinking about the Asia-related
skills needed to make this business sustainable or, indeed, about preparing
Australia’s future workforce to operate anywhere in the world.
Q: What are your hopes for Asian Studies in Australia?
A: My mastery of Indonesian proved temporary. While I can revive
my skills to some degree, these are in marked contrast to my ability to rekindle
my German language, learned from the age of eight until I was twenty. That
contrast underlines the necessity for broader recognition of the needed to
learn a language; and to learn not only its structure and vocabulary but its
heritage through its poetry and literature, politics and history. This is
an investment in an Asia-literate society, in the platform for securing Australia’s
well being.
Postgraduate of the month
Wasan Panyagaew, wasan.p@chiangmai.ac.th,
now a lecturer in Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Faculty of Social
Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Thailand, is the recipient of the 2007 ASAA
Presidents’ prize for his doctoral thesis, ‘Moving Dai: Towards
an anthropology of people “living in place” in the borderlands
of the upper Mekong’. completed at the Australian National University
(ANU).
Wasan’s journey in pursuit of a PhD degree began in 2001,
when he was awarded a scholarship by the Regional Centre for Social Science
and Sustainable Development (RCSD), Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai
University. He applied for study places in the United States and in England,
and received an offer from the University of Leeds. Finally, however, he decided
to go to Canberra, even without any knowledge of that most quiet and mysterious
place.
The reason for his decision to study anthropology at the ANU
was the existence of a Thai-Yunnan Project in the Department of Anthropology,
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, which had attracted many prominent
scholars, including Professor Nicholas Tapp, an expert on the Hmong people.
To have a chance to study with these scholars might be good, he thought! And
it was indeed good, although Wasan had to adjust to undertaking a research
degree rather than doing course work. He got into the rhythm and now back
in Chiang Mai he even sometimes misses that life in Canberra, and the routine
of seeing the Telstra Tower, perched on the top of Black Mountain, as he walked
home from the Coombs Building each evening.
In announcing their decision to award him the Presidents’
prize, the judges said that Wasan had written a theoretically sophisticated
and highly original exploration of Dai identity with excellent ethnographic
content that made light of difficult fieldwork conditions. Wasan continues
to explore issues to do with the place of minorities in the Upper Mekong.
Website of the month
www.grenzenlosmusic.org
www.grenzenlosmusic.org
is the website for a performing arts organisation, dedicated to intercultural
collaboration through music. While based out of New York City, Berlin and
Melbourne, its activities are becoming more and more engaged in Asia, with
collaborations planned in China and India in 2008-2009. The members of Grenzenlos
are specialists in the language of contemporary classical western music, but
many are also involved in other areas of the arts, sciences and the humanities.
Recent article of interest
Onze Ong, Onghokham dalan Kenangan, is a collection
of essays in Indonesian, English and Dutch commemorating the life of Indonesian
historian and bon vivant, Onghokham. It was published in December 2007 by
Kommunitas Bambu (kommunitasbambu@yahoo.com).
The editors, David Reeve, JJ Rizal and Wasmi Alhazari, managed to pool reflections
from an extraordinarily diverse range of academics, journalists, diplomats
and even the actor Miriam Margoyles, who writes very fondly of her friend,
Ong. It is a study in how one man can build bridges across cultures using
food and ideas. To buy the book, please contact editor JJ Rizal at komunitasbambu@yahoo.com
Did you know?
Until Easter, Dr Peter Friedlander was a lecturer at La Trobe
University, where he taught Hindi language both on campus and via distance
education. Hindi is only available at tertiary level in Australia from three
institutions, La Trobe University, Sydney University and ANU. La Trobe was
the only provider of Hindi as a distance education subject in Australia and
is now almost certain to drop Hindi from the end of 2008. Dr Friedlander's
decision to take up a post at the National University of Singapore has been
informed by the ongoing lack of funding and support for teaching Hindi in
Australia. While it might not be essential to know Hindi to study India or
to do business there, it is worth remembering that less than five per cent
of India's one billion people speak English. Hindi is not only the official
language but is also spoken by around half a billion people in India and is
the main language of at least 40 per cent of print and broadcast media.
Diary dates
EU-ASIA RELATIONS: A CRITICAL REVIEW, 27-28 March,
Melbourne. This international conference hosted by the Contemporary
Europe Research Centre, University of Melbourne, will examine the EU’s
external relations and objectives in Asia-Pacific. To capitalise on the conclusions
of the conference, a policy workshop on 27 June 2008 in Brussels is to follow.
These events are organised with the European Institute of Asian Studies in
Brussels. See http://www.cerc.unimelb.edu.au/events/EAR-conf
"MIGRATION TO PAPUA SINCE 1963: GO EAST, YOUNG
MAN", 4 April, Sydney. The mass migration that has occurred
since Papua became part of Indonesia in 1963 has caused great changes to Papua's
people. This presentation by Stuart Upton will look at the history of this
demographic transformation. There are also political dimensions to this movement,
with many Indonesians seeing the area. 5.50 pm, University of Sydney, Rm 331,
Old Teachers College, see
http://db.auth.usyd.edu.au/directories/map/building.stm?location=12G
INTIMATE ENCOUNTERS INDIAN PAINTINGS FROM AUSTRALIAN
COLLECTIONS, 22 February to 4 May, Sydney. The Art Gallery of NSW
is hosting an exhibition drawing from collections throughout Australia, to
survey the major schools of Indian painting, highlighting the rich interactions
that inspired each tradition. http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/coming/intimate_encounters
THE FUTURE OF THE MULTILATERAL TRADE SYSTEM –
7 April, 2008, Melbourne. The Centre For Public Policy is holding
a symposium to reflect on the key challenges facing the World Trade Organisation
(WTO), and discuss the findings and recommendations of the Warwick Commission
report on the Future of the Multilateral Trade System, which can be downloaded
from http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/research/warwickcommission/.
This event will be held at the Melbourne Business School, 200 Leicester Street,
Carlton. Registration is $275. For more information http://www.publicpolicy.unimelb.edu.au/events/trade_symposium.html
WORKSHOP ON LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT IN RESEARCH
ON ASIA AND THE PACIFIC: Calls for Expression of Interest by 15 April 2008.
The ARC Asia Pacific Futures Research Network is seeking EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
from members to run another two to three day workshop aimed at training postgraduate
students and early career researchers in research leadership and management.
The Network will provide $20,000 to the successful applicants for the workshop.
For more information contact: Nicki.Davies@uts.edu.au
CRITICAL HAN STUDIES SYMPOSIUM & WORKSHOP, 24-27April
2008, Stanford University. Han is a colossal category of identity
that encompasses ninety-four percent of the population of mainland China,
making it the largest ethnic group on earth. Participants in the first-ever
Critical Han Studies Symposium & Workshop will help develop materials
to be published in two path-breaking volumes: Critical Han Studies, an edited
volume, and the Critical Han Studies Reader, a collection of primary source
materials in translation. For more information contact Professor Thomas S.
Mullaney at tsmullaney@stanford.edu
or James Leibold at Latrobe University: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/socsci/staff/leibold/
leibold.html
INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON ASIAN BUSINESS (ICAB),
30 June to 3 July 2008 Bangkok, Thailand. The colloquium invites
abstracts and papers concerned with Asian business and management issues.
Topics to be discussed include intellectual property, brands and branding,
finance, managing risk, corporate social responsibility, disaster management,
market entry, leadership, and a host of others. The conference particularly
welcomes papers that employ novel or interdisciplinary approaches, perhaps
drawing from areas of sociology, economics, psychology, cultural studies,
history, gender studies or politics. See http://www.bkkconference.com
or email mark@bkkconference.com
IS THIS THE ASIAN CENTURY? 17th Asian Studies Association
of Australia Conference, 1-3 Jul 2008, Melbourne. The biennial Asian
Studies Association of Australia conference is the largest gathering of expertise
on Asia in the southern hemisphere. The theme for 2008 invites you to assess
how the regions and issues in which you are interested are faring. The ASAA
conference is multi-disciplinary and covers Central, South, South-East and
North East Asia and the relationship of all of these with the rest of the
world. See http://www.conferenceworks.net.au/asaa
THE POLITICS OF ISLAM IN OUTER INDONESIA, 22-26 July,
Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Indonesia. This is the 5th International
Symposium sponsored by Jurnal Antropologi Indonesia. These symposia are now
among the world's largest gatherings of Indonesianists, primarily but not
exclusively anthropologists. Ian Chalmers and Greg Acciaioli are calling for
papers to be submitted to the panel: 'The politics of Islam in Outer Indonesia'
This panel will explore the political, social and cultural dynamics of Islamic
revitalisation today. To express your interest in presenting at this panel,
please contact Greg Acciaioli, > Anthropology, University of Western Australia
Gregory.Acciaioli@uwa.edu.au
or Ian Chalmers, Indonesian Studies, Humanities, Curtin University of Technology
(I.Chalmers@curtin.edu.au ).
For an overview of the conference theme see: http://www.fisip.ui.ac.id/antropologi/index.php?option=com_content&ta
BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES, 8-24 August 2008 http://en.beijing2008.cn/
TRANSITION AND INTERCHANGE Ninth Women in Asia Conference,
29 September-1 October 2008, Brisbane. The University of Queensland
is hosting the ninth Women in Asia (WIA) Conference, to be held from 29 September-1
October, 2008. Call for Papers: Contributions are invited from various disciplines
on a large number of themes concerning the lives of women in Asia. Participants
are encouraged to submit proposals for panels (with 3-4 papers per panel).
Individual proposals are also welcome. Enquiries can be addressed to wia@uq.edu.au
ARTSingapore, 9-13 October 2008, Singapore.
This contemporary visual art fair is both a trade and consumer fair, and thus
a platform for art dealers and galleries to network and foster business relationships,
and for art collectors to acquire new works http://www.artsingapore.net/indexas.html
You are welcome to advertise Asia-related events in this
space. Send details to: fbeddie@ozemail.com.au.
Feedback
What would be useful for you? Human interest stories, profiles
of successful graduates of Asian studies, more news about what's on, moderated
discussions on topical issues? Send your ideas to fbeddie@ozemail.com.au
About the ASAA
The Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) promotes
the study of Asian languages, societies, cultures, and politics in Australia;
supports teaching and research in Asian studies; and works towards an understanding
of Asia in the community at large. It publishes the Asia Studies Review
journal and holds a biennial conference.
The ASAA believes there is an urgent need to develop a strategy
to preserve, renew and extend Australian expertise about Asia. It has called
on the government to show national leadership in the promotion of Australia's
Asia knowledge and skills. See Maximizing Australia's Asia Knowledge Repositioning
and Renewal of a National Asset http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/ASAA/asia-knowledge-book-v70.pdf.
Asian Currents is published by the
Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA). It is edited by Francesca Beddie.
The editorial board consists of Robert Cribb, ASAA President; Michele Ford,
ASAA Secretary; Mina Roces, ASAA Publications officer; and Lenore Lyons, ASAA
Council member.
