What Do Australians Know About Asia?

Are Australians ignorant? While that might well be the perception in some parts of the world Australians tend to believe the opposite. Then why do two-thirds think Indonesia isn’t a democracy?

We’ve written previously on both Asian soft power and influence in Australia and the recent Lowy Institute poll. However one finding from that poll, discussed at a late July panel event in Melbourne, was possibly surprising: Australians know a lot less about Asia than you’d think they would. The Asian Century is well enough regarded and trade with China encouraged and supported by Aussies in the main. However, though there are great economic hopes for the ChAFTA (despite union worries of it costing Australian jobs via agreements to allow in Chinese workers), not so many actually know who runs China. They also don’t know who Shinzo Abe or Narendra Modi might be. Only slightly over a third think that Indonesia is a democracy.

That second one is in some ways more surprising than not knowing the president of the largest nation and second largest economy in the world is. As for Abe and Modi, Abe might be more prominent than many other Japanese prime ministers save Koizumi, but Japanese domestic politics is of little interest to Australians and even news of giant India is not terribly common in Australia. What has been reported on more extensively has been Greece and the Chinese stock market crash. Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis might be better known, partly thanks to his time spent in Australia.

Whereas correspondents have been pulled from many parts of the world by Australian news organizations and often the international pages of newspapers is content pulled from wires and other newspapers there’s a reasonably strong Australian media presence in Jakarta still. The coverage of the executions of Bali Nine members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran was intense. Indonesia is second only to the U.S. as a destination for Australian travellers. The Indonesian democracy protests and East Timor’s bid for freedom were the biggest international news items at the time. How, in over a decade and a half, has everyone forgotten Indonesia’s transition to democracy? And why don’t they know more about their own part of the world even as U.S. and Russian presidents command recognition? (Though in Putin’s case it may also have been Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s macho posturing last year that’s led to good brand retention).

Is this down to a new kind of news consumption in general? As we’ve previously reported, a lot of Australians get their news via social media, Facebook especially. Given Facebook’s algorithms for setting an individual’s feed, world news may just no longer show up on the radar. And whilst it’s possibly unfair to blame celebrity culture as one recent panelist did, even if he was right in pointing out that Taylor Swift in China and a Tiananmen Square clothing line is more interesting than either China in general or Tiananmen specifically, the information Australians are getting does seem to be narrowing.

Meanwhile Asian studies courses are being closed down at universities and Bahasa is taught less frequently in schools, and while the general talk on export to Asia, from the ChAFTA, KAFTA or JAFTA – referring to free trade agreements with China, Korea and Japan, respectively – is endlessly optimistic there remain non-tariff barriers that are often cultural. Understanding of local cultures and investment in knowledge is seen as integral to building deeper and better trade partnerships.

At the same time there can be a reflexive cynicism in Australia. Things that seem “unAustralian” are viewed with skepticism or even worry. This also partly explains the recent Reclaim Australia rallies. Indonesia, with its systemic corruption and vast patronage systems as well as very different cultural values, may not be regarded as a democracy simply because it is a different kind of democracy. One audience member pointed out as much in the Q and A session. That Joko Widodo campaigned as an outsider separate from the typical corridors of power might have escaped many.

As my stablemate Elliot Brennan wrote recently, “The Lowy Poll shows an Australia that is inward looking and comfortable with a status quo that doesn’t rock the economy.” Inward looking it might be, but only because these days there seems to be less access to views from the rest of the world.