The world looks different from "down under." Recent changes in the region are pressuring Australia to rethink its policies.
by Melvin Rhodes
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA: Australia is the
only country that is an entire continent. It's as big as the 48 contiguous
United States of America, but has only 18 million people, most of them
living a Western lifestyle under the belly of a huge expanse of land
with more than two billion people living in Third World conditions.
Asia lies to Australia's north. Clearly,
it's always been there, but only fairly recently has it become of paramount
concern to Australians and the Australian government.
Australia is the odd man out in Asia. The
people are predominantly of a different race with a different culture
and a different religion from most of the other nations in the region.
Prior to World War II Australia was very
much a part of the British Commonwealth and saw its security lying
within that multinational association. At the same time most of Asia
was ruled by one European colonial power or another.
Australia's closest neighbor, Indonesia,
was a Dutch colony. The French ruled Indochina. Great Britain still
possessed the Indian subcontinent, Malaya and some of the islands of
the Pacific and Indian Oceans. New Zealand to the east was also a member
of the British Commonwealth. Australia felt secure.
That security ended abruptly when Japan
started moving south, bombing the Australian city of Darwin and taking
control of most of the islands immediately north of Australia, islands
that seemed like stepping stones from mainland Asia across the ocean
to Australia itself.
Japan was defeated, but the world was never
to be the same again. The colonial powers tried to go back to their
former possessions, mostly without success. The Dutch lost control
of Indonesia and the French Indochina. America had lost the Philippines,
though retaining vital military bases right up until this decade. The
British went back into their former colonies, but soon handed over
the reins of power to new leaders, granting independence to all its
Asian colonies within a few years of the end of World War II.
