A focus of this disenchantment is the growing erosion of public support for a close relationship with Indonesia. The contrast between Australia's affluence and Asia's travail was evident again Tuesday when the Australian government presented a high-growth, surplus budget to Parliament amid further reports of violence in East Timor. The Australian media gave graphic accounts of attacks by East Timorese militia groups, backed by Indonesian troops and police, against supporters of independence, and threats by the same groups against Australian journalists. The Indonesian government this week denied a visa to Laurie Brereton, the Labor opposition spokesman on foreign affairs and a strident critic of Indonesian military abuses in East Timor who has suggested that Australia should send in its own troops to disarm the militias. But Mr. Woolcott and other analysts worry that Australia's ''Asia fatigue'' goes beyond East Timor and the chronic instability in Indonesia, to Asia's troubles as a whole.
Some Asian officials share that concern.
In an appeal to Australia to become more deeply engaged in the region now that it is in difficulty, Mr. Goh said that by doing so, Australia ''can persuade the badly hit Southeast Asian countries that there is no alternative but real reform. This is a delicate task that will require patience, sensitivity and the support of a sophisticated public understanding of the issues and stakes. The financial turmoil and recession that spread through much of East Asia since July 1997 has reduced the economic attraction of the region, so much so that Asia accounted for only half of Australian exports in 1998, down from two-thirds in 1997. We are less preoccupied with rationalizing our role in regional affairs,'' Prime Minister John Howard told a conference in Melbourne last week. ''We no longer agonize over whether we are 'in,' or 'part of,' or 'enmeshed with' Asia.