Hip To The Pacific Vibe
The Sunday Age
Sunday August 24, 2008
The string of island nations to the north is a potential Haiti on Australia's doorstep.
John Howard never liked South Pacific Forums, but Kevin Rudd seems serious about engaging with the region and its leaders. SOUTH Pacific Forums might be a hoot for Australian journalists. They can, however, be somewhat less of a blast for Australian prime ministers.First, the Australian PM is usually among just two or three whiteys on the stage. Second, he has to forgo reassuring suit and tie for lairy shirt and comfy chinos. And third, the scent of colonialism hangs about him like a Fiji-Indian takeaway in a lift.Apart from all that, he's all set for a carefree island ball ... content in the knowledge that practically every other Pacific leader would prefer to: a) ignore him if it wasn't for the massive Australian development aid cheque that came their way each year; b) ignore him anyway; or c) roll him in the mud, dress him in a grass skirt and make him swim with the sharks.Such South Pacific Forum sentiments were never more pointedly directed than at John Howard. Try and try as he might to look like he was enjoying himself, he just couldn't.Howard, curiously for one of Australia's most successful prime ministers, had by the end of his tenure utterly perfected an excruciating propensity for walking into a crowded room and standing awkwardly alone. It was a skill he honed at South Pacific Forums - or those, at least, that he couldn't avoid.Like Kiribati 2000. What a forum that was. Clever Howard was the only Australian who didn't get crook - mainly because he scarcely left his doctor's side and didn't eat or drink anything for three days. Unlike the rest, who gorged on lobster grown corpulent on you know what (sanitation isn't what it could be on sinking Kiribati) and paid heavily.Howard had not been to the previous two forums, and his officials were too slow to get to Kiribati for the requisite diplomatic spade work. So by the time the PM arrived, other leaders had already conspired to raise the thorny issue of human rights in West Papua (part of Indonesia and therefore not a forum member). Howard spent much of the next three days ensuring, for the sake of already cool relations between Canberra and Jakarta, that the final communique did not question Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua. He had some wins, too, not least on dealing with recalcitrant members such as Fiji and Solomon Islands.At the end, however, the Howard delegation couldn't get on the plane at Bonriki International quickly enough.(Meanwhile, there was a hitherto unreported diplomatic incident of sorts involving a vehicle driven by "Bevan" of The Bugle carrying the Australian Fourth Estate's finest, Kiribati's only road and a presidential motorcade, a ditch and the country's secret service, and - I think, but can't be sure - a kava or two. But that, as they say, is a story for another day.)Fast forward to last week and the island state of Niue. Kevin Rudd seemed ready to move in. There was much back-slapping and bonhomie among Rudd and other leaders. And what with that yellow and blue psychedelic shirt stretched across a recently acquired Melanesian belly, accessorised with a puka shell necklace and acid rock shades, Rudd exuded the Cheech and Chong air of a Jefferson Airplane roadie circa 1972.This relaxed Pacific look was, however, quite deceptive because Rudd seems very serious about engaging closely with other Pacific leaders and their unique problems.Rudd began engaging with Papua New Guinea while shadow foreign minister in the belief that while the Howard government was right to insist on increased governance in return for its annual $350million in development aid, the Australian tone was both condescending and hectoring. A diplomatic priority of the Rudd Government has been to repair relations with PNG.Rudd travelled to PNG on one of his first official trips as prime minister. A few weeks later, he went to China. The visits should not be seen in isolation.PNG Prime Minister Michael Somare, who had fallen out badly with the Howard government (fault lay on both sides), said it was the first time an Australian leader had made such a substantial visit.Rudd was also feted in China, not least for his capacity to engage the Chinese leadership in Mandarin. But those who subsequently dismissed Rudd as some sort of sycophantic Sinophile missed the point. While he understands more about Chinese culture, language, politics and military brinkmanship than any Western leader, he should not be mistaken for being in the Chinese tent.While his predecessors have sweated over Indonesia's potential military threat to Australian interests in the Asia-Pacific, the Rudd administration is focused on China.Chinese aid and investment in the Pacific is already rivalling Australia's. It is, perhaps, a small matter of time before the Chinese military machine looks for greater interests in a region where it already has some satellite support technology.A senior military source recently told me that the Government's forthcoming defence white paper will reflect Rudd's wariness of China as a potential threat to smaller, weaker Asia-Pacific nations, including Australia, in an uncertain world of massive population growth, where food, energy and water are increasingly scarce.Problems with governance, poverty, poor security, mismanagement of natural resources and corruption make the string of island nations to the north a potential Haiti on Australia's doorstep. Failed states are, of course, the perfect digs for stateless terrorists. They are also begging to be swallowed by ambitious neighbours.Rudd's announcement this week of a Pacific guest worker scheme should be welcomed as an important economic and cultural bridge to countries we understand so little but to which Australia's future is so intrinsically tied.Friendship and co-operation to the north is a far better starting point than hostility and resentment.Paul Daley is The Sunday Age's national political columnist.
© 2008 The Sunday Age