by Professor Purnendra Jain, Head of Asian
Studies, the University of Adelaide purnendra.jain@adelaide.edu.au
Australia–Japan relations have entered new diplomatic
waters since Kevin Rudd became Prime Minister late last year. Two events in
particular have shifted gear in what has been a stable, amicable relationship
through most of the post-war period.
The first ‘jolt’ concerns the Rudd government’s declaration
on Japan ‘to bring an end to whaling once and for all’, a diplomatically
sensitive expectation of a Japanese government in some ways beholden to pro-whaling
domestic interests. The second is Rudd’s first official overseas tour
in March–April to key countries including the US and China but not to
Japan. Australia and Japan have recently formed a trilateral framework with
the US to deal with regional security concerns and last year Canberra and
Tokyo signed a defence agreement to cooperate closely on wide-ranging security
issues. Assuming Tokyo’s importance to Canberra, some in Tokyo felt
snubbed by this official exclusion of Japan.
Some observers see these two developments as sources of bilateral tension
and division that need to be addressed swiftly. Others recognise the developments
as a sign of the maturity and steadiness of the relationship while both nations
adjust to rapidly evolving power dynamics across Asia-Pacific.
The security of both nations depends on a peaceful and economically solid
Asia-Pacific. Today Japan remains Australia’s largest export destination,
although China has replaced Japan as Australia’s largest trading partner.
Japan and Australia have cooperated actively to pursue a number of regional
and global initiatives including establishment of the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation Forum (APEC) and reform of the UN. Recently Australian forces
protected Japan’s Self Defence Force personnel in southern Iraq. Japan
remains a strong supporter of Australia in regional forums and successfully
argued for Australia’s inclusion in the East Asian Summit Process.
Given the shared economic and strategic interests of these two nations, why
did Rudd as newly elected Prime Minister take these two steps that were potentially
harmful of strong bilateral relations in the short term?
On both sides the government’s stance on whaling is driven by domestic
politics. Conservation and other civic groups in Australia have long opposed
Japan’s whaling, which Tokyo claims is for ‘scientific’
purposes. Rudd’s sensitivity to these groups ensured a stance on this
issue tougher than that of his predecessor. But by shunning diplomatic channels,
Rudd has angered Tokyo’s political and diplomatic circles that see Japan
as an all-weather and trusted friend for Australia.
Rudd’s exclusion of Tokyo on his first major overseas tour appears
to be even more damaging. Tokyo was seriously concerned about Rudd’s
pro-China stance before he became prime minister and being bypassed on his
first official trip confirmed Tokyo’s apprehension.
Japanese trust towards Australia has been tested. Short term, the Australia-Japan
Free Trade Agreement negotiations will be delayed, if not derailed. Longer
term, Japan may not support Australia’s case in regional and international
institutions such as Rudd’s aspirations for Australia’s membership
of the UN Security Council.
It is clearly in Australia’s interests to maintain strong relations
with Japan. Indeed this understanding may have undergirded Rudd’s recent
actions––signalling expectation of shared understanding and maturity
of the relationship, especially now while its strategic dimension firms.
Shared interests in peacekeeping, environmental protection, developmental
activities and good governance promote partnership in jointly initiating and
implementing policies. With the onus on Canberra to extend a firm friendly
hand to Tokyo, proposals to establish and fund a Japan Studies Institute and
an Australia–Japan Regional Peacekeeping Centre as discussed at the
2020 Ideas Summit in Canberra are positive moves in this direction.
Links:
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The National Library of Australia has a Japan Study Grant
to assist scholars use its rich collection for Japan-related research.
See
http://www.nla.gov.au/grants/jsg
Applications open until 30 September.
Profile
This month we profile Dr George Quinn, Head, Southeast Asia Centre, Faculty
of Asian Studies, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University,
George.Quinn@anu.edu.au
Q: When did you become interested in Asia and why?
A: I was born and grew up in New Zealand. In January 1966,
aged just 23, I visited Indonesia. The country was in turmoil after an army
coup (or in the eyes of some, an attempted communist coup) the previous year.
Hundreds of thousands of people had been killed. Inflation was running at
around 600% and services were minimal. Government was still nominally in the
hands of the incompetent President Soekarno but the country was emerging from
the paranoia he had imposed over the previous seven years. For me Indonesia
was an exciting world, dramatically different from that of remote, tranquil
New Zealand, and I was determined to learn more about it. I returned to Indonesia
as a volunteer teacher between 1967 and 1970, and in 1973 completed a Bachelor
of Arts degree in Indonesian at Gadjah Mada University, Jogjakarta. These
years set a kind of career agenda for me that has revolved mainly around the
teaching of Indonesian and Javanese. My experience as a student in Indonesia
also gave me an abiding interest in the development of in-country study programs
and I have remained curious about Indonesia’s literary and religious
life.
Q: What are your current preoccupations? And how do
these fit into the contemporary scene?
A: Currently I am completing a survey of sacred
sites and local pilgrimage on the islands of Java and Madura. Islam in Indonesia
is nurtured and transmitted through a number of powerful
institutions, most prominently the family, the state, the mass media, and
the hajj pilgrimage to the Islamic holy land in Saudi Arabia. Other key institutions
are the mosque, Islamic schools (especially pesantren schools), sufi brotherhoods
and local pilgrimage. All of these institutions have been researched to some
degree, but the least known among them is the practice of pilgrimage to the
local shrines of saints and learned clerics. Pilgrimage places are not only
significant as centres of religious practice, but they also have historiographical,
political, geographical, economic and conservational functions. In Java and
Madura today local pilgrimage is experiencing an extraordinary jump in popularity.
I am hoping that my work will help draw greater attention to this important
facet of Indonesian Islam and provide a broad-brush context for further studies
in the field.
Q: What are your hopes for Asian Studies in Australia?
A: At the recent 2020 Summit I heard a phrase that still resonates
in my mind: “Reverse Colombo Plan”. Devised in 1950, the Colombo
Plan was originally intended to kick-start education and development in the
newly independent countries of Asia. Over more than five decades it has brought
thousands of Asian students to Australia. Now it is time for Australians to
reverse the flow. The economies of Asia are awakening in an unprecedented
fashion, and Australia is not well prepared to engage creatively with this
new regional reality. Our country needs to renew its challenge to the curiosity
and adventurousness of its young people and send them to study in Asia in
their tens of thousands. Cultural provincialism and arrogance, penny-pinching,
fear of the terrorist bogeyman, administrative inertia... these and many more
obstacles that weigh heavily on our education system must be put aside. Young
Australians must be given incentives and on-the-ground support to help them
learn about Asian societies from the inside.
Postgraduate of the month
Nichole Georgeou (ncg61@uow.edu.au)
is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Wollongong and is affiliated
with the Centre for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies (CAPSTRANS).
Nichole’s thesis contributes to the “Australian Volunteers Abroad
in Communities in the Asia Pacific Region” project, which is funded
by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant and involves a collaborative
research team including an industry partnership between volunteer sending
organisation Palms Australia and CAPSTRANS researchers.
Nichole’s interest in the relationship between government
policy and models of volunteering was first piqued in Japan where she founded
and ran a volunteer organisation which raised funds for women’s literacy
and income generation projects in Northern Vietnam. Working alongside UNICEF
Hanoi and the Vietnam Women’s Union, this experience raised many questions
about ‘development’ both as a concept and industry, and in particular
the role of volunteers in sustainable development projects. After experiencing
first hand the shifts and changes in attitudes to volunteering as well as
national policy after the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake that hit the
city of Kobe in Japan, the experience also inspired a curiosity
about the way in which state-citizen relations impact on notions of volunteering.
These two focuses have converged in Nichole’s current
research which is concerned with the subjective experiences of Palms Australia’s
cross-national volunteers. The thesis examines the relationship between development
theory, policy and practice in order to analyse the ways in which Australian
cross-national volunteers think about development throughout their volunteer
experience. The research involves case studies of volunteers clustered in
East Timor and Papua New Guinea. Nichole has conducted field work in both
of these countries visiting, observing and interviewing each of the volunteers
in placement.
Nichole also has a Masters of Social Change and Development,
(Research) from the University of Wollongong. She has previously presented
at several national and international conferences and is currently the student
representative for the Asia Pacific Sociological Association.
Links:
Website of the month
http://www.sueztosuva.org.au
The ARC Asia Pacific Futures Network has a new look website:
http://www.sueztosuva.org.au The
Network’s broad goals are to provide stimulus for innovative research
that makes links across disciplinary and area boundaries to enhance Australia's
interactions with and knowledge of the Asia Pacific region.
Recent article of interest
In ‘Facing Up to Our Responsibilities’, an article
in The Guardian, published on 12 May, Gareth Evans, President of the International
Crisis Group, has posed the question whether ‘what the [Burmese] generals
are now doing, in effectively denying relief to hundreds of thousands of people
at real and immediate risk of death, can itself be characterised as a crime
against humanity’. If it can, he asks, whether in the name of humanity
some international action should be taken, even against the regime’s
will – like military air drops, or supplies being landed from ships
offshore. Is this the international community’s ‘responsibility
to protect’, in accordance to the principle endorsed at the 2005 UN
World Summit? Evans’s article can be found at http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5430&l=1
Did you know?
Applications are open for the 2008 Australia Indonesia
Governance Research Partnership (AIGRP) Young Scholars Workshop.
The Young Scholars Workshop is designed to encourage a new generation of prospective
researchers (Honours and post-graduate students) from Indonesia and Australia
who are working on contemporary governance issues in Indonesia (politics,
economy, law, environment, society). Funding is available on a competitive
basis to bring scholars together with senior academics to Jakarta in December.
Successful candidates will have the chance to showcase their research, develop
presentation skills and forge links with key research institutions. They will
also receive mentoring from leading academics and attend the AIGRP Policy
Research Forum. See website for more details and how to apply: http://www.crawford.anu.edu.au/AIGRP/scholars.php#app_apply
Diary dates
IDIOSYNCRATIC VISIONS by three Kobe Artists 19 May
to 24 May, Canberra. Exhibition at the School of Arts Gallery, Australian
National University. www.anu.edu.au/art
TAISHO- CHIC: JAPANESE MODERNITY, NOSTALGIA AND DECO
22 May to 3 August, Sydney. Featuring about 70 paintings, prints,
textile and decorative arts, the exhibition encapsulates the clash and embrace
of Western modernity and traditional Japan in this transitional period (the
greater Taisho- period 1910–1930). On Saturday 24 May 2008 a series
of lectures will consider modernity and Japanese-ness. 9.30am – 4.30pm,
Domain Theatre, Lower level 3, Art Gallery of New South Wales http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/coming/taisho_chic
SADANAND DHUME IN CONVERSATION WITH LINDA LOPRESTI
26 May, Melbourne. Sadanand Dhume is the author of My Friend the
Fanatic - an original and thought-provoking analysis of transnational Islam.
Linda Lopresti of ABC Radio National will introduce and join Sadanand Dhume
in conversation at 6.30 pm in the 1st Floor Executive Lounge, Alan Gilbert
Building - 161 Barry Street, The University of Melbourne
RSVP: Essential, email events@asialink.unimelb.edu.au
with 'Sadanand' in the subject line.
AN UNIMAGINABLE TALK BY IMRAN AHMAND, 27 May, Canberra.
Imran Ahmad’s autobiography traces Imran's life from his birth in Pakistan
to the end of his university education in Scotland. 6 - 8pm at the Asia Bookroom,
Lawry Place, Macquarie (adjacent to the Jamison Centre) RSVP: 26 May to 6251
5191 or books@AsiaBookroom.com
A NEW ERA FOR GLOBAL BUSINESS: SUSTAINABLE GROWTH FOR
CHINA AND THE WORLD, 28-30 May, Tianjin, China. Business figures
and government leaders from around the world will explore Asia's economic
future in the context of China's growing stature to examine strategic models
of sustainable development. How are China and other Asian nations integrating
with global markets while maintaining a focus on sustainable development?
What will be the impact of Asia's rapid capital growth in bolstering world
financial markets? How can Asia collaborate in seeking green solutions to
address heightening environmental concerns? For more information about the
2008 Asia Society conference, email Tianjin2008@asiasoc.org
or see http://www.asiasociety.org/conference08
ASIA SOCIETY AUSTRALASIA CENTRE, Annual Dinner 2008,
4 June, Sydney. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is the guest speaker at
this event. For more details please contact Daphanie
Teo, Programme Officer. Media Enquiries: Please contact Fiona
Wallace-Smith.
SECURING HEALTH IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC, 5 June, Melbourne.
SARS, Bird Flu and other regional pandemics have highlighted that infectious
disease and health issues for Australia has to be seen in the broader context
of a healthy and prosperous region. This event will be chaired by Associate
Professor Peter Deutschmann, Director of the Nossal Institute for Global Health
at The University of Melbourne and will feature Mr Murray Proctor and Reverend
Tim Costello - CEO of World Vision Australia. 6.30pm Carrillo Gantner Basement
Theatre, Sidney Myer Asia Centre, The University of Melbourne. To reserve
a seat, please send an email to Asialink Events at events@asialink.unimelb.edu.au
with "JUNE: Asia Pacific Health" in the subject line.
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 July 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. See http://www.freewebs.com/womeninasia
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/index-as.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.
