Australia and Asia Transformed

Week 1 My reflection is based on There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia by Michael Wesley. After reading this book, I have come to realise that Australia is close (geographically) to competing great powers i.e. Asian countries. As a result, economical and political issues between these two nations need to be addressed. Due to the trade which occurs between Australia and Asia and also the fact that it did not get affected much by the global financial crisis, Australia is richer than it has ever been after about twenty years. As a nation, Australia has become more narrow-minded, content and incurious about the world. However, I found it interesting that Australia does not see Asia as inferior anymore, but at the same time they do not think of what this could unfold in the future for Australia. Asia is continuously developing to the point where some of its parts are more technologically advanced than Australias, yet we are not even aware of this. However, one thing I found interesting was the fact that Australians are not interested in leaders who are more engaged in the world, yet we need leaders who take Foreign Affairs seriously.

Week 2 During the lecture, we were taught about the ANZUS Alliance, which has been ongoing for 60 years. However, in the tutorial and the readings covered the White Australia Policy. This policy was one of the first Acts to be implemented by the Australian Federal Government in 1901. It can also be referred to as the Immigration Restriction Act as it was a means of controlling who could enter Australia by having an education (language) test. This was put in place as Australians of that time had a vision of having a white society; since they thought that the Aboriginal population would die out. Having said this, there were also Asians in Australia some of them were used for cheap labour and were denied socio-economic and political equality. Suggested reasons for this policy are: fear of the other, jobs and building economy as migrants tended to send money back to their countries. As a result, Australians were actually being racist and excluding and these are traits they have had to live with for years. None-the-less, the White Policy gradually died between 1960s-1980s, though it was removed in 1973 by Whitlam. Now the Australian nation is that based on multiculturalism.

Week 3 Indonesia became independent recently and it is now the third largest democratic country, after America and India. Their main focus was to build the world anew. Indonesia has now become a country which is interested in building relationships as they are reasonably respectful, however, it has been a rocky-road in terms of its politics (dictatorships, communists etc) and this has been the same for most Asian countries too. Australia has been involved in a lot of Southeast Asian

Australia and Asia Transformed

Wars, including, Malayan Emergency, Indonesian Confrontation and Vietnam War between the years of 1955-1972. Britain was the reason for Australias involvement. This is so because many years ago, Britain used to play a huge impact on Australias institutions, political and economic life, culture and its tensions. During the Malayan Emergency Australia helped Britain to fight against the Malayan communists. From around 1966, Australia then got involved in the Indonesian Confrontation, as Britain was fighting with Indonesia for Malaysias independence. Out of all these wars, the most controversial one which received a lot of media coverage was the Vietnam War. Australia and Britain were mainly involved because of the rise of communism in Southeast Asia. They withdrew in 1972 due to Whitlams orders.

Week 4 During the lecture, I learnt about how much Australia has grown economically since 1945. This has been due to internal (agriculture, services etc) and external inputs (foreign capital, expertise etc). However, what really interested me the most was learning about whether there is tension or not between Australia and Indonesia (tutorial). What I have discovered after reading the readings and doing more research is the fact that there used to be tension between these nations, but overtime time they became close. The fact that Australia and Asia had very different political cultures (1980-1990s) worsened the tension as the Australian press criticised Indonesia. Another recent tension was the Indonesian asylum seekers (2006). Both countries need to recognise their differences as they have the potential to be a huge source of tension. However, culture does not always matter, as countries can just have a business relationship. Having said this, the good relationship between Australia and Indonesia is important due to their close proximity which also impacts on their communication as the two share borders. Therefore, both nations should find ways to handle their differences if they should arise. Since Indonesia has been independent, the two nations have been closer.

Week 5 In the lecture, I learnt about the different forms of security military, economic and human security. One thing that fascinated me the most was the fact that Singapore has is the only country which has invested heavily economically... this money is enough to last them more than a decade. The fact that the new emerging powers are Asian countries (India, China, Japan, and Indonesia) makes me slightly terrified because I have heard people say that eventually the Asians are going to take over the world and I think it might happen sooner than we think. In terms of the tutorial, I learnt about the difference between the values of Asians and Westerners. Most Asian counties tend to have undemocratic systems whereby there is order (discipline), communitybased relationships and hierarchies whereas it is the opposite for western countries. Also, I learnt that just because a country is undemocratic, it does not mean that development will not occur,

Australia and Asia Transformed

however, democracy helps promote development. This is because corruption will not occur and government money is not used for personal needs as much as undemocratic nations do. For example, Burmas Governor-General who bought Manchester Football Club even though the nation is poor.

Week 6 One thing I found interesting from the lecture this week was the fact that most illegal immigrants are Europeans, not boat people, but surprisingly they are presented negatively in the media, despite the fact that most of them are actually genuine refugees. I suppose, this might be because the Australians fear that they might lose their identity. This then brings us what this weeks topic was all about. The relationship between Australia and Asia continuously changes as the political power lies in different PM from the two main parties. Over the years, the Labour Party has mainly focused on creating a relationship with Asian nations; on the other hand the Liberal Party has mainly focused on business partnership. This is why the Holt Government (Liberal) dismantled the White Policy and the Whitlam government (Labour) ceased it. Due to such issues, depending on how one perceives it, Australia can be seen as both the odd man in and the odd man out in Asia and I believe that this might also be partly the reason why Australians have this fear. If their relationship becomes stronger, maybe more Asians might migrate to Australia and this might disrupt the Australian culture.