Bruce Haigh's letter in the Canberra Times today caught my eye. I assume it is the same Bruce Haigh who served as an Australian diplomat in South Africa during the Apartheid years:
“John Howard, “As ye sow shall ye reap”. Having unleashed the rabid dogs of xenophobia and racism in the so-called war on terror, Howard can hardly be surprised when it appears that many Australians have followed him after all. That’s what leadership (or lack of it) is all about.
Schappelle Corby is now a metaphor for the failed relationship between the Australian Federal Police and the Indonesian Police. This relationship was forged in corruption and as a means of ending the flow of refugees to Australia.
Howard has failed to draw a distinction between the corrupt military and police and ordinary long-suffering Indonesians.
Angry Australians and angry Indonesians have much in common.”
And we will soon have another ‘facility’ to help manage 'who comes to Australia and the manner of their arrival', whether their flight to our shores was in search of genuine sanctuary or not. Christmas Island will build a reputation that surpasses Baxter in notoriety - as you sow John as you sow…
During an early part of my career with AusAID I worked on a program to assist black South Africans seeking refuge from the Apartheid regime to receive training in various disciplines such as teaching and journalism. These young asylum seekers, who had fled to the front line states and elsewhere in the face of persecution at home, were destined to play an important part in the emerging South African reality. Australia stood with them in their time of greatest need and peril.
Now we have become the persecutors of people in similar cicumstances and I still can't believe how low we have stooped...and how quickly we got there.
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