Howard's Australia Home to Roost
Let's make no mistake about who was responsible
for the racist violence we saw on the beaches of Sydney on December 9th 2005. It
can be sheeted home to the master of dog whistle politics, John Winston Howard.
The man who won an election by demonising refugees, who supports the torture
gulags across the world run by the 'freedom loving' United States, who advocates
the invasion of an Arab nation to support his masters, and who supports
draconian laws to deprive people of due process, has set the tone. He can
deplore the violence all he likes, but it was his supporters, flying the flag he
loves, wallowing in the jingoism he bathes in, who were marching to his drum
beat of insinuation and fear.
Howard's form goes back a long way. He was the
only member of Prime Minister Fraser's cabinet to oppose the then Government's
decision to allow Vietnamese refugees to enter the country thirty years ago, and
as we have seen with his long standing hatred of the trade union movement and
his recent efforts to outlaw them, this leopard does not change his
spots.
Of course Howard will deplore
the violence. He will advocate the rule of law. But he will not criticise the
dangerous jingoism which sees his supporters waving the Australian flag, which
sees them singing Walzing Matilda, and chanting the "Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie - Oi Oi
Oi" inanity, because this is his anthem, his jingoism, and his beat. With his
infamous "We will decide who comes into this country, and the circumstances in
which they come," mantra, Howard decreed that those who may have had
reservations about any latent racism they held, could now let it out. His
disgraceful incarceration of the Tampa boat refugees, who were rescued from a
sinking ship by the captain of an oil tanker, but refused entry into Australia
(practically all of whom were shown, in due course, to be genuine refugees) gave
a diagonal nod to the the racist supporters of Pauline Hanson, and helped him to
win an election. He also, of course, was party to accusations that refugees from
another boat had thrown their children overboard during this election campaign,
subsequently shown to be a total lie, but precisely the kind of politics which
has contributed towards the scenes on Sydney
beaches.
The Government recently passed
'anti-terror' laws allowing internment without charge, and laws against even
revealing that a family member has been arrested. It instigated the deportation
of a peace activist for no discernible reason (the discretion of the Attorney
General apparently, being all that was required), and has passed other laws
which seem to be the very opposite of the 'freedom' we are supposed to be
defending. It is possible that blogs such as these could be termed 'seditious'
although I doubt that there will be enough jails to hold us all (perhaps we
could be shipped to one of George Bush's torture gulags, under the
"extraordinary rendition"
euphemism which sees
the US sending faceless, nameless people across the globe to be tortured.) What
you will not see, is John Howard condemning, in precise terms, the people who
waved his flag, sang his song, and marched to his beat on the streets of
Cronulla. These are people who put him in power. These are people who love him.
These are the people he loves, though he can't say so. They are the people who
have taken to heart his inferences that we have been too politically correct in
the past, and they will have little to fear from any of his latest legislation.
The tactics have served Howard well, but it will be virtually impossible to
re-bottle and cork this ugly genie. Howard has done virtually everything he has
always wanted to do in politics (although the emasculation of the ABC, and the
the granting of carte
blanche to the two largest media mongrels cannot
be too far away).
The only consolation I
can see in all this is that Howard will go down in our history as being the most
divisive, manipulative, dishonest and racist Prime Minister this country has
ever seen, but that is no consolation at all, and the damage he has wrought in
this once tolerant country is unlikely to be ameliorated in my lifetime. What
else can one say to end on a positive note? That the passage of a hundred years
will (possibly) redress the damage? That the Australian people will put aside
their jingoism and greed, and turf the bastard out? That eventually he will grow
old and die? I'm afraid there's not much to hang a hat of hope on to in John
Howard's Australia, circa 2005.
Posted: Thu - September 21, 2006 at 04:05 PM