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.

The balance of power had changed in Asia. As the European colonial empires withdrew from the area, the Americans took over as the dominant military power. Australia still felt secure.

The balance of power is changing again. Its impact on Australia has suddenly become cause for concern among many of its citizens.

Rapid Changes Among Neighbors Leave Aussies Anxious

Rapid changes in Asia and the Pacific have left Australians anxious about their own future as the realization has slowly sunk in that the island nation cannot remain unaffected by what happens to its neighbors.

Foreign news in Australia frequently focuses on events in Papua-New Guinea (PNG), close neighbor to Australia and very special to older Australians who remember the support of the people there during World War II. Recent political upheavals in the new country are cause for concern. Papua-New Guinea, once a colonial possession of Australia itself but independent since 1975, has suffered a major breakdown in law and order, its economy severely affected by its political instability.

When PNG's government recently decided to recognize Taiwan in return for massive loans, the Chinese government reacted with considerable anger, contributing to the downfall of the PNG government and further destabilizing the country, with ripple effects throughout the region.

Indonesia, with the fourth largest population in the world, is of greater concern. Its 130 million people live mostly in poverty. Only recently have the Indonesians come out from under 50 years of dictatorship, following centuries of colonial rule. Now the people are demanding that their lot be improved. The 33-year rule of President Suharto came to an end last year and the country has been unstable since. Recent elections resulted in the opposition party of former President Sukarno's daughter Megawati Sukarnoputri winning the biggest single number of votes, but not enough to clearly show who is going to be the new civilian president.

Added to the internal division is the uncertainty over East Timor, a Portuguese possession until 1975 when it was taken over by Indonesian forces without the consent of its people. A rebellion has been taking place ever since. Deciding to cut its losses, the new temporary Indonesian government announced that the East Timorese people would be allowed to vote on whether or not to stay in Indonesia. Violence did not end, as there is a sizable faction in the country that wishes to remain a part of Indonesia. Others want independence. The outcome is uncertain.

President Suharto's downfall was a wake-up call for Australia. Months of turmoil in Asian financial markets, rising unemployment and economic recession led to the downfall of an administration that was universally seen as corrupt. The army could not maintain control. Not only was the government overthrown. Ethnic conflict led to the deaths of thousands of Chinese residents, resented because of their dominance in trade. Other non-Indonesians were killed in separate incidents of ethnic strife, sometimes in a very gruesome manner.

The volatile racial, cultural and religious mix in nations to the north is an explosive situation that could seriously impact Australia. With a long coastline and few inhabitants, Australia has had difficulty keeping illegal aliens out of the country, announcing new measures to try to stem the flow of economic refugees recently.

U.S. Tariff on Australian Lamb Impacts Farmers

Another item dominating the nightly news in the first two weeks of July was America's imposition of a tariff on Australian lamb exported to the United States, a move which will seriously impact Australian farmers. Older Australians remember too well Great Britain's turning its back on trade with the country in favor of joining the European Common Market more than 25 years ago, a decision that severely affected the nation's economy as it struggled to find new trading partners. Australian farmers, like their American counterparts, are having difficulty staying in business.

The decision is also very short sighted on America's part, impacting one of Washington's most reliable allies negatively. Australians ultimately depend on the United States for their security, but America has derived great benefit from its military alliance with Australia for almost 60 years, ever since General Douglas MacArthur moved his headquarters to the country following the fall of the Philippines. The two countries were allies during World War II and have remained close friends ever since.

The priorities in Australia's news media are certainly different from those in the United States. It's always interesting to travel to another country and see the world from a different perspective. WNP