Stereotypes do our peoples an injustice

SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO

I was taken aback when I learnt that in a recent Lowy Institute survey, 54 per cent of Australian respondents doubted that Indonesia would act responsibly in its international relations. Indeed, the most persistent problem in our relations is the persistence of age-old stereotypes – misleading, simplistic mental caricatures that depict the other side in a bad light. Even in the age of the internet, there are Australians who still see Indonesia as an authoritarian country, or as a military dictatorship, or as a hotbed of Islamic extremism, or even as an expansionist power.