Category: human rights

Maintain the rage

I don’t remember where I was the day the Governor General was lambasted from the steps of Parliament House. In a tyre swing in the front of our house at Essington Avenue, Clare, I’m guessing. But certainly, the incident shaped my early childhood – I was simultaneously mortified and proud to be driven around a small conservative town in a car covered with stickers proclaiming in red, ‘Don’t blame me, I voted ALP’ and the pretty bloody dreadful ‘Tammy’s got one, Mal is one’.

My attachment to the ALP has been as much emotional as it is political, but like a lot of people, I lost any real sense of belonging at the time of Tampa. I was deeply disappointed in my father then. I could not understand how he continued to support a party which was so clearly disconnected from the values that he had taught me were non-negotiable. My mother would have left, I’m certain of that. We fought about it, my father and I, in a way we had never fought about politics and values before. It was a confusing time, because we had never been separated in such a way before. You fight for change from within the party, my father said. Or you fight it from outside.

I had heard the argument all my life, but this time, I wasn’t convinced.

That was about the time his own, personal fight began, so I guess I’ve forgiven him for letting the ALP battle go.

Maybe all of this has coloured my reaction to Malcolm Fraser’s resignation from the Liberal Party, because do you know what?

I am maintaining the rage.

I thank Malcolm Fraser for his stand against the Howard government and I thank him even more for his stand against the possibility of one led by Abbott. But equally, I hold him responsible for creating a political environment in which a Howard government could exist.

Fraser’s government came to power driven by an unwavering belief in it’s own privileged entitlement to power. Whatever else they did or did not do, this was the foundation on which their power rested. How could the people of such a government escape a ‘born to rule’ mentality, how could they not learn to view the electorate with contempt?

It wasn’t an inevitablity. I’m not saying the Howard government is a natural outcome of the Fraser government. But I don’t think it’s any surprise that the one led to the other.

I have no scientific evidence for my belief, no psychological, sociological or even political insight. It’s just a personal observation. And perhaps it’s not even a very sophisticated way of thinking. Maybe I’m just clinging to my rage, because if I don’t, then that’s just one more piece of Dad that doesn’t exist anymore. An essential piece. Perhaps I’m directing my rage towards a man I don’t even know because it’s easier than asking yet another question of my father and my relationship with him.

Whatever the reason, I thank Malcolm Fraser for his continued commitment to human rights, but I harbour no fondness for the man.

We interrupt this metaphorical flow…

I will never forget the night of the last election, and by the time my dad got to our place, they were already saying Bennelong was too close to call and what a night it was, and my children will always remember that they were allowed to stay up until midnight playing computer games, only we kept making them come and stand in front of the television because this is history and the next day I felt like this great veil of mean-spirited conservatism had lifted from us all.

We drank too much sparkling red, but the hangover was worth it.

We knew, we always knew, that this wouldn’t be a revolutionary government, that things would carry on much as before but we believed that now we would be led by people who, even if they were conservative, would lead with more generous spirits. We believed that the lines in the sand would shift (oh, a metaphor, how did that sneak in?).

That’s why this whole asylum seeker and ringing the Indonesian government and expanding the Christmas Island detention centre is utterly and absolutely depressing. There’s some actions on the Amnesty International website and doing them will make me feel better about myself, but not about much else.

And what I’m also remembering is the day my dad and I had another of our heated discussions, back when Latham let Howard set the agenda on refugees and asylum seekers once again, and I could not believe that Dad could still be a member of the ALP. One of those times when Latham didn’t just say, as he should have done, ‘No, enough is enough’. (It might have been the Tampa, but who knows, I mean there have been so many moments where I’ve thought, ‘Well, it can’t get worse’, but then it has). Surely, I said to Dad this, this is the tipping point, and he gave his old, once-relevant, but to my mind no-longer-so, speech about change from within. He remained loyal to the ALP, and he probably still would.

I feel let down.
(updated to add: as would he)

China

These are three of my not unrelated opinions:

China’s human rights record is appalling.

Sport is not free of politics.

Words matter.

International PEN is holding a Poem Relay for free expression in China (this last is not an opinion, it’s an event, but you’ve worked that out, haven’t you).

The death penalty is wrong

I am against the death penalty in all cases.

And yet, Kevin Rudd, I do feel for people who lost family members and friends in the Bali bombings.

The two positions are not mutually exclusive. In fact, for me, the two are inextricably intertwined.

“The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. It violates the right to life. It is irrevocable and can be inflicted on the innocent. It has never been shown to deter crime more effectively than other punishments.” Amnesty International.

10 October is World Day against the Death Penalty. The World Coalition against the Death Penalty will focus on the proposed UN General Assembly resolution for a universal moratorium on executions. You can read more about it and sign the international petition at their website. I’ll be doing it even if Kevin Rudd isn’t.

Hope there will be change #2 (or: every now and then, you get a little hint you’re on the right track)

So I’m on the corner of South Terrace and Morphett Street, holding my placard

RELEASE AUNG SAN SUU KYI

with my back to the traffic because I am watching my boys and their after-school friend sitting too high in the tree while they eat their apples;

and then I am watching them kicking a ball around the parklands;

and I am waving madly at them when the ball gets too close to the road;

and I am waving madly at them when they chase the ball too far in the other direction;

and I am waving madly at them when they all pile on the littlest boy and squeeze the breath from his lungs;

and I am shouting at them in a very not-silent-vigil way when they taunt the littlest boy;

when my eldest boy joins me for a moment and looks at my placard, then looks at me, then says in a very stern way ‘Mum! I can’t believe you’re advertising‘.

Hope there will be change

I know you don’t come here for the politics, but anyway…

Tomorrow night, demonstration in support of the demonstrators in Myanmar. Have you seen them? Really, how courageous are they. I’m leaving the question mark off that last statement.

So, if you live in Adelaide, you can join the demonstration in support:

Where: Outside the AI office 80 South Terrace, Adelaide
When: 27th September 5pm – 6pm
What: Placarding action

And if you live elsewhere, you can find out where your local demonstration might be held by visiting here.

“Hope there will be change, for all the military have is guns.” Aung San Suu Kyi.

House arrest

Aung San Suu Kyi’s period of house arrest has just been extended.

“Aung San Suu Kyi will have spent more than eleven and a half of the last eighteen years arbitrarily detained under house arrest. For much of the remaining time her movement has been heavily restricted by the authorities. She has never been charged or tried with any offence” (from the AIA website).

On June 19, she will be 62. Over here they are suggesting that you send her a birthday card, and they’ve included her address.

Sometimes, letter writing does feel like an aneamic effort. You know, in comparison. And I imagine her mail is intercepted. But then I remember all the people who say they’ve drawn a lot of support from receiving letters and messages of support.

I don’t think I’m being cyber-hoaxed or cyber-hoaxing you when I write this. I’ve had a few emails about it as well as seeing it all over the web. But do let me know if you think I’m being naive.