Australia's ambivalence to Asia under discussion A
lively panel discussion featuring three prominent academics sharing their views
on Australia's current relationship with Asia was the highlight at a function
last week to launch a new book published by Monash Asia Institute Press.
The Monash Asia Institute (MAI) and the Institute of Postcolonial Studies - an
autonomous educational institution based in Melbourne - jointly presented the
event to launch the book, Australia's Ambivalence Towards Asia.The panelists
were Professor Ashis Nandy, an internationally acclaimed political psychologist
and cultural theorist based at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
in New Delhi; Professor Joseph Camilleri, politics professor at La Trobe
University and a major commentator on Australian and international politics; and
Professor David Walker, professor of Australian Studies at Deakin University and
author of Anxious Nation: Australia and the Rise of Asia 1850-1939.
The book, co-authored by Professor J. V. D'Cruz, adjunct professor in
Australia-Asia relations at MAI, and Mr William Steele, an honorary research
associate at MAI, analyses the difficulties Australia has in establishing a
meaningful relationship with Asia.
Consideration is given to contemporary and historical examples from
Australian culture, politics, media and society contrasting Asian traditions and
the experience of non-Anglo migrants in Australia.
According to Professor D'Cruz, the trigger to write Ambivalence was Blanche
d'Alpuget's novel Turtle Beach, set largely in Malaysia, which depicts Asians in
grossly unflattering ways.
"We found that while the broad lines of Australia's race relations are drawn
from its past history, the novel pointed to equally large issues in Australia's
recent and contemporary social and political practices.
"It then dawned on us that Australia's race relations at home were running a
course parallel to its relations with countries in Asia," he said.
"If Australia is serious about succeeding in Asia, it first needs to reach
for and come to terms with the 'other' who is already in Australia - in
particular, Aborigines."
"The path to Asia begins at the doorstep of Aborigines and other people of
colour in Australia. There is simply no way around that. Failure to relate
effectively with the 'other' at home and abroad also explains to date the marked
failure of Australian post-colonialism."
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