Lucky country and its toxic mix

S P SETH

Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck, so said Donald Horne, a journalist/academic in his book of the same name. This adage has come to define Australia in a broad sense. Not that many people have heard of or read Horne’s book, but in this age of instant images flashed all over the world through television and internet, many people have an impression that Australia is a rich and fun loving country with love of sports and sun bathing on the beaches. It would appear that at times even this could become a bit mundane for the locals and hence the need for some distraction, at least on the part of its politicians, to be doing something ‘real’ like in other countries where there are so many real problems requiring urgent solutions. And this is what Australia’s conservative government, led by Tony Abbot, is doing these days. For instance, believe it or not, it has brought back the British system of honours to make some top people knights and dames. Tony Abbott loves everything British, particularly the monarchy, to bring Australia even closer to the old home country. And the revival of the honours system is an example of this. This was sensibly abandoned in mid-eighties, replaced with Australia’s own independent honours system for its distinguished citizens.

As it is, it is embarrassing to be sharing the British monarch when Australia claims to be an independent country. An earlier conservative government in a referendum torpedoed the prospects of Australia becoming a republic any time soon by framing the question in a way to divide the republican vote. And now we are back to the ‘good old days’ when a royal edict making someone ‘sir’ or ‘dame’ was such a satisfying moment. Such mundane and anachronistic acts would simply show how much out of touch the Australian government and many Australians are with rest of the world, still seeking comfort and security in a non-resident monarch who lives and functions in a far-off land. And, incidentally, it seems to validate Horne’s observation, quoted above, as quite apt.

Another odd, but potentially harmful, move by the Abbot Government, particularly for the country’s racial minorities, is to draft legislation for amending the Racial Discrimination Act in the name of free speech. It arises from a case where a powerful conservative media commentator, Andrew Bolt, found himself on the wrong side of the law for casting aspersions on the identity of Aboriginals (native Australians) of fairer skin. In the relevant case, the judge found that the columnist’s articles did not qualify for free speech protection as they “contained erroneous facts, distortions of the truth and inflammatory and provocative language…” And that it “…was reasonably likely to have an intimidatory effect on some fair-skinned Aboriginal people and in particular young Aboriginal persons or others with vulnerability in relation to their identity.”

Ever since the white settlement of this vast continent more than two centuries ago, resulting in the massacre of Aborigines and dispossession of their land, they remain the country’s most marginal racial minority. Some relevant statistics speak for themselves. It is reported in the Sydney Morning Herald that, “Aborigines make up 2.5 per cent of the Australian adult population but account for 26 per cent of all adult Australian prisoners.” To put it another way, “Our [Australian] rate of indigenous imprisonment is 18 times that for the rest of us.” Now that the Racial Discrimination Act is about to be amended they, like other minorities, will lack even basic protection from racial abuse and humiliation. This protection, available under the Act for nearly 20 years, will be further watered down in the name of free speech to abuse and/or humiliate racial minorities, just because one powerful conservative commentator wasn’t happy as it ‘restricted’ his right to say things about the Aborigines without any basis in facts.

For a long time Australia was seen as a racist country for whites only. Around the seventies, this policy was relaxed, under a strictly controlled and monitored system, to let in some Asian immigrants. Though the country is still predominantly white, you can now come across a range of people of different ethnicities and cultures, particularly in the main cities. Which has added some welcome ‘colour’ to the country’s bland image. But, predictably, some Australians aren’t happy about it. They want to go back to the ‘good old days’ of being able to use offensive language to insult and humiliate minorities.  And they want this ‘freedom’ in the name of free speech. Believe it or not, the country’s highest law officer, Attorney General, George Brandis, has virtually endorsed this right. According to Brandis, “ [Australian] people have the right to be bigots.” What a bright future for the country where bigotry will be celebrated, like when the white Australia policy was!

With such way of thinking, it is not surprising that Australia has virtually declared war on the desperate people fleeing murder and mayhem in their countries to reach Australia by leaky boats in the hope of seeking asylum, simply because they are not ‘like us’. Australia’s clarion call and policy of Operation Sovereign Borders is designed to prevent any of these people to reach Australia. The country’s customs and naval resources are policing the approaches to Australia, and towing back the rickety boats back to Indonesia, the country of transit for most of these refugees. In the process, they have encroached into Indonesian waters quite a few times, claiming to have done it unintentionally. And in the case of boats that are leaky and might sink with their human cargo, Australia is sending them back to Indonesia in floating lifeboats, like cattle.

There are stories of some refugees suffering burns from being forced to touch the boat’s engine, when towed back to Indonesia. The country’s state-funded television station has been virtually accused by Prime Minister Tony Abbot of lack/absence of patriotism for running such a story. In any case, Australia has set up its refugee ‘gulags’ (some calling them Australia’s own Guantanamo Bay for refugees) in impoverished neighbour states of Papua New Guinea and the tiny state of Nauru. These and some other poor counties, like Cambodia, are being asked to settle these refugees in their respective areas, with Australia rewarding/bribing them suitably with financial incentives. Imagine a rich country like Australia professing to be caring and freedom loving seeking to force these desperate people on countries that can hardly even look after their own people!

This cocktail of bigotry, racism and declaring war on asylum seekers led a young woman on a TV panel discussion to call it a toxic mix.

Note: this article was first published in the Daily Times.

Contact: sushilpseth@yahoo.com.au