Re Let's Get Behind Our Ethical Politicians

Response to New Matilda: Let's Get Behind Our Ethical Politicians

the article easily encapsulates what is wrong with the federal government's stance on asylum seekers from bob hawke to julia gillard. we, as a country, have little to guide our thinking on these human rights issues. historically there were the original boat-people of 1788 and the
entrenchment of a white racist system that was then incorporated into the laws of the invaders as the 'white australia policy' that existed only to make australia a white country. that the original inhabitants were most certainly not white was of little consequence to the invader's governments and the policy was duly enforced. we aboriginal and torres strait islander peoples have been fighting for over 200 years to make the racism and outright discrimination stop.

the next load of boat-people to arrive happened under the malcolm fraser government in 1975/76 after gough whitlam pulled our troops out of vietnam in 1972, the defeated americans also left. whitlam also hit the delete button on the white australia policy, also in 1972. so our vietnamese asylum seekers, most of whom came from sth vietnam, came to our shores by the boat load. australia could hardly send them back to a 'communist' country after we had been there fighting for their freedom, so in the spirit of the un declaration on the rights of refugees, they were allowed to stay. between 1976 and 1982 some 2000 arrived by boat. fraser decided that to stop the boats he would reduce the numbers in the asian refugee camps and took a further 50 000 plus from them.

they were, of course, not welcomed by all because after all, they were asian. and different. and definitely not like the white australians. it is noted that one new minster at that time, a john howard, was bereft at fraser's actions, as were a large part of the white australians. but like the chinese before we got the taste for asian cuisine and they were, after all, small in number but prolific breeders we were warned.

unfortunately for us and other non-white australians even though gough had taken the w-a-p out of the books it did not die but it is still heavily breathing today as it fights for its twisted social experiment. migrants flocked to the 'lucky country' (for some) and our appetites were whetted with the aromas and tastes of the world. we actually grew as a nation, not only in numbers but in our edible savior-faire.

and so we drifted along with very little if any change of attitude towards the traditional owners and the call for assimilation was still heard from the 'british-to the-bootheels-brigade' but it now had a much larger audience. mostly however the call fell on deaf ears. again it was malcolm fraser who introduced sbs tv and radio and multiculturalism was born. that allowed many cultures to bloom and i firmly believe we became a greater nation because of it. viva le differance!

in 1983 hawke beat fraser (after assassinating hayden) and it was he who reintroduced the detention camps for boat arrivals from cambodia in 1992. it was also hawke who introduced the racist and pejorative language of 'queue jumpers' and that the asylum seekers were economic rather than political. a lie of course but few were checking. the miracle government
of paul keating went even further by legislating indefinite mandatory detention in 1994. the so-called workers party, the labor party, have yet to learn that when they attack the rights of workers, migrants, refugees, among many others, they just make it that far easier for liberal
sociopaths like howard and abbot to go so much further to meet their ultra-right agendas.

tweedledum and tweedledee.

melinda mcpherson's article needs no help from me as she blasts away the political spin and racist xenophobia that was made into an art form by john howard and his too many painful years in office. that such deviousness has even been further honed by krudd and then the dancing dolls of power, julia and tony. whilst i have the knowledge that for australia's best interests it is better that julia reign rather than tony, when it comes to the asylum seekers, both disgust me. both have come to the same dismal argument: you might die getting here but we will send you mad if you do.

why does julia favour malaysia and tony nauru? simple. out of sight - out of mind. ours and theirs.

the hypocrisy of the crocodile tears at the sinking and drowning of men, women and children by their pure political obstinance that neither party must be seen to be caving into the other is nothing but sheer criminal lunacy. a homicidal lunacy that could be stopped by julia right at this moment. if the labor party is genuine, along with the greens and the independents, then all they have to do is go to the indonesian and malaysian refugee camps and take not 8 000 but 10 times that number. over some years of course. when those who brave the boats with their women and children see the detention camps emptying then the boats would lessen to
the point of, perhaps, stopping. allowing people to die at sea or face years of mental torture has not stopped one boat from coming. for those who cheer that howard stopped the boats, that is a lie and a mutation of the facts. there were other extenuating world circumstances at play also.

yes labor initially lessened the choke-hold on the asylum seekers, and so they should have. we have now asylum seekers who are afghani, iraqi, iranian, burmese, tamil, and others. we now have asylum seekers of different religions, especially the muslim sects. australians of all
ethnicities, including some aborigines, have been whipped up into a lather of fear and hate for 'the other' by government cowardice and lies and the verbal vomit that scream even bigger lies. when i visited villawood i met with men who want the 'fair go', who want a bit of the 'lucky country,' who want and need a bit of human bloody kindness, and i see nothing wrong in that!

when governments of whatever hue demonise asylum seekers they always add, as if in some way that the foul act becomes justified, that this is what real australians want. and to some extent that is true but it is not true for me. we must start telling our governments that on this issue they most certainly do not speak in my name. contact macklin and bowen and inform
them that they do not have your consent to abuse the human rights of anyone, be they aboriginal torres strait islander, asylum seeker, refugee or migrant. not in our name. ever!

for those others, be they white, black, brown, asian, whatever, who argue that asylum seekers are somehow terrorists in disguise or as angry anderson is quoted as saying, "that australia is only for australians" and other such unmitigated garbage then i have a message for you and your government that continues to vilify your names.

recently a young tamil man was forced on to a plane to fly from sydney to bangkok to sri lanka because of a very secret asio assessment that was unfavourable to him. pleas to the un for him to stay here to better protect his life counted for nothing. he was hastily bundled on a plane because the federal government believed the government of sri lanka when it said he would be safe to return. the president of afghanistan also parrots the cry that nothing untoward to returning afghan hazaris. all out and out lies.

our tamil brother never made it through the colombo airport. by now he could be tortured and dead. afghani returnees have also been tortured and/or killed. for the tamils to return to sri lanka is a death sentence from an uncaring government who are still abusing the tamils. the same for the afghani hazaris. it is obvious that our federal government and their racist supporters could not care less. the bad asio reports for the tamils can only be coming from one source and that is the current sri lankan government. it is well known that both sides committed human rights abuses and war crimes but history and its interpretation belongs to the victor.

as aborigines we are quite well aware of that fact.

we are returning the tamil asylum seekers to a very, very dangerous place. whilst i suppose it could be possible for the tamil mother to be sent from melbourne to sydney due to another secret asio report, what i need to know is why are her two children also locked up in indefinite attention? what war crime could they be guilty of? i believe her husband and father of the two boys was killed during the fighting. she and her children were granted refugee status and that was overturned by the spooks who are even more a law unto themselves than our police forces. with so many children behind razor-wire how can we even be compared as being a country of justice.

to me, and perhaps others, australia has committed a war crime and they should be made to pay for their criminal actions. this homicidal game of 'return the refugee' has been participated in by all governments from hawke to gillard with deadly results for those involuntary involved. and in the name of their supporters. but then history shows us that the
non-white citizen is somehow expendable, as were the aborigines that were massacred to make the lands theirs. their history will attempt to write them out of history, or at least to be able to explain why it was necessary for the benefit of their white society in a white country that they needed to act as they did. in their name.

but definitely not in mine. no bloody way.

i say welcome to the asylum seekers. they are not here to kill us, to trick us, or to even rob us.

as the first boat people and their governments have done since the 1788 invasion.

welcome. welcome. welcome.

ray jackson
president
indigenous social justice association

isja01@internode.on.net
(m) 0450 651 063
(p) 02 9318 0947
address 1303/200 pitt street waterloo 2017

www.isja.org.au

we live and work on the stolen lands of the gadigal people.

sovereignty treaty social justice
.

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