Capturing the Year — 2007
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Capturing the Year — 2007 i Capturing the Year 2007Writings from the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific Edited by Barbara Nelson with Robin Jeffrey ANU College of Asia and the Pacific Canberra ii Capturing the Year — 2007 National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data Title: Capturing the year 2007 : writings from the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific / editors, Barbara Nelson, Robin Jeffrey. Publisher: Canberra : ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, 2007. ISBN: 9781740762199 (pbk.) Subjects: Australian National University. College of Asia and the Pacific--Press coverage. International relations. Australia--Foreign relations--Asia. Asia--Foreign relations--Australia. Australia--Foreign relations--Pacific Area. Pacific Area--Foreign relations--Australia. Other Authors: Nelson, Barbara. Jeffrey, Robin. Australian National University. College of Asia and the Pacific. Dewey Number: 337.07119471 Production by Asia Pacific Press Printed in Canberra by University Printing Service, The Australian National University Capturing the Year — 2007 iii Contents Introduction vii People Ross Garnaut, Professor Sir John Crawford (1910–84) 1 Shakira Hussein, Pakistan: the night business 8 Ross Garnaut, Tale of a scholar who made a contribution 12 Culture and Language Geremie R. Barmé, Telling selves and talking others 15 Shakira Hussein, Islamist women play a key role 20 Tim Hassall, Thanks in Indonesia? No thanks! 22 Robin Jeffrey, Ignorance as a second language 25 Shakira Hussein, Voices muffled by the offence forces 28 War and Weapons Ron Huisken, Utopia is not out of reach 32 Robert Ayson, Hopes for sanity not yet lost in space 34 Stuart Harris, Chinese flex their star war muscles 36 Brett Bowden, ‘It produces more wicked men than it takes away’ 39 Hugh White, Don’t mention the bomb 45 Hugh White, US–China nuclear arms race 48 iv Capturing the Year — 2007 Defence and Security Hugh White, The Howard doctrine runs into the sand 51 Hugh White, Future challenge in regional threats 55 William Maley, To start with, know your enemy 57 Hugh White, Anzac, our Achilles heel? 60 Clive Williams, Big Brother keeps a growing eye on the British 63 Paul Dibb, The death knell of the defence of Australia? 66 International Relations Paul Dibb, What are the real existential threats? 69 Hugh White, Australia, Japan and the strategic future of Asia 72 Richard Mulgan, Is power-sharing the answer? 76 Brian Hocking, Public diplomacy: changing the rules of the game? 78 Robert Ayson, Hu’s on first 81 Economics Dominic Meagher, Energy, environment and economic growth in China 84 Jeff Fountain, Broadband development: one policy size does not fit all 87 Philippa Dee, Economics, multinational corporations and Pacific regionalism 90 Jack Pezzey and Frank Jotzo, Avoiding the greenhouse grab 93 Australia Glenn A. Withers, Public entrepreneurship: why it’s not a contradiction in terms 96 Hilary Charlesworth, The saga of David Hicks 101 Richard Mulgan, Democracy and good governance 104 Richard Mulgan, Americanising our universities? 106 Christine Winter, Still guilty of overreaction to radicals in our midst 108 John Uhr, Federalism can rescue the federal government 110 William Maley, History repeats unless the wise learn its lessons 114 Capturing the Year — 2007 v China Geremie R. Barmé, The burdens of spoof 117 Prema-chandra Athukorala, China’s rise and East Asian export performance: is the crowding-out fear warranted? 121 Korea Ron Huisken, Pyongyang plays its last card 127 Stuart Harris, Korea deal could end Asia’s cold war 130 Gavan McCormack, A deal in Beijing 133 Tessa Morris-Suzuki, 93,340 ‘returnees’ 144 Japan Rikki Kersten, Lest neither of us forget 149 Indonesia James J. Fox, Perspectives on development in Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) 152 Ben Hillman, Aceh’s rebels turn to ruling 156 Peter McCawley, Indonesia’s battle to rebuild 162 East Timor George Quinn, Presidential election results a worrying portent for East Timor 166 George Quinn, Securing peace a matter of mediation 169 India Raghbendra Jha, Bring India into the club 172 Robert Ayson, India as a great nuclear power 175 McComas Taylor, Friend in Asia 177 vi Capturing the Year — 2007 Fiji Nicole George, Coup spells more trouble for long-suffering Fijians 180 Brij V. Lal, Fiji: turmoil in troubled islands 183 Brij V. Lal, Relocations 188 Philippines Ben Kerkvliet, Philippine President Arroyo’s political killings 193 Iraq Derek Woolner, Iraqi politics, not foreign militaries, will settle the future 197 Paul Dibb, Why did America get Iraq so badly wrong? 201 Clive Williams, Australia’s continuing presence in Iraq remains unclear 204 Russia Paul Dibb, A resurgent Russia? 208 Cuba Ben Hillman, Cuba after Castro 215 Contributors 220 Introduction vii Introduction This is our second endeavour to ‘capture the year’—to compile a selection of popular writing by members of the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific. Capturing the Year 2006 got a heartening welcome from diplomats, public servants, journalists, academics and people who work in the Asia–Pacific region. They found the short, authoritative pieces useful and digestible, and they particularly liked the focus on important issues for Australia and its neighbours. One of our reasons for publishing Capturing is to ensure that such writing has a longer life than today’s newspaper or this month’s magazine. To a certain extent, the web has changed things: newspaper writing is available longer and more readily than before. But there is no substitute for a book that slips into a pocket for a journey and serendipitously brings together authors, topics and views that one would not have assembled for oneself. Another reason for Capturing is to show off the talents of the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, where we have an outstanding and diverse assembly of scholars of the region and of Australia’s relations with it. The college, we believe, has depth as well as diversity: only 14 of the 38 authors in this year’s volume were represented last year. The opening essays underline that diversity. Ross Garnaut, one of Australia’s best known economists, writes memoirs of two doyens of ANU and of Australian economics—Sir John Crawford and Heinz Arndt. Sir John’s name is commemorated in the Crawford School of Economics and Government, one of the college’s core units. Arndt was responsible in large measure for our deep commitment to viii Capturing the Year — 2007 the study of Indonesia. Both men moved at the highest levels of education, economics and government. The research of the college extends from banks and boardrooms to brothels and back alleys. Shakira Hussein’s essay, ‘Pakistan: the night business’, illustrates the contrast with its finely drawn portrait of Kiran, a prostitute in Lahore. There is other powerful ‘life writing’ in this year’s Capturing. In reflecting on Fiji after the coup of December 2006, Brij Lal describes a visit to his home and family and examines the consequences of unstable, authoritarian governments for his relatives and for the quiet corner of the world in which he grew up. And William Maley tellingly recalls the story of George Archer-Shee, inspiration for the Terence Rattigan play, The Winslow Boy, to highlight the injustice done to Dr Mohammed Haneef, detained on charges of association with terrorists but later grudgingly released. Like Maley’s, most of the essays in Capturing hang on current events. But when Hilary Charlesworth, Paul Dibb, Stuart Harris, Hugh White or Clive Williams (to choose five regular contributors) write on contemporary law, security or defence, they draw on lifetimes of research and scholarship. From the perch of current events, we get a perspective to take a snapshot of the year1—albeit an arbitrary one. It was a year in which Japan unexpectedly changed prime ministers, East Timor held elections, Australia and South Korea geared up for elections, an APEC meeting was held in Australia along with the visit of the Chinese president, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan festered and India became ‘the new China’, at least in the eyes of many business journalists and authors of airport paperbacks. ‘Climate change’ and ‘global warming’ passed into the daily vocabulary of television news bulletins and newspaper headlines. These great environmental challenges recognize no boundaries, and Australia must confront them in partnership with its neighbours. How does a sparsely populated, English-speaking place work effectively with those neighbours, whose languages and cultures are notably different, yet whose links with Australia (not least in trade) grow every year? ANU has been committed to intellectual exchange with Asia and the Pacific for more than 50 years. In that time, it has helped to equip both Australia and its neighbours with knowledge, skills and personal connections that promote genuine understanding and effective relationships. As interactions multiply and intensify—everything from Victorian veterinarians visiting India to Introduction ix Sydney bankers bobbing up regularly in Beijing—the capacity to talk to, feel at ease with and understand the cultures of the region needs to grow. Tim Hassall neatly makes a point about cultural foot-in-mouth disease in ‘Thanks in Indonesia? No thanks!’ Quite simply, Australia needs to invest more in language-learning and genuine student exchange (see ‘Ignorance as a second language’) if it is to hold its own in a dynamic neighbourhood in which it is dwarfed by giants like China, India, Indonesia and Japan. Readers may puzzle at the balance among the essays in this year’s Capturing. Why, for example, are there more items on Korea than Indonesia? The answer probably relates to the nature of news: dangerous news gets more attention than happier tales. The essays on Indonesia by James Fox, Ben Hillman and Peter McCawley are relatively hopeful accounts of a country overcoming problems and positioning itself for better times.