The following Editorial was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of
the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, October
22nd, 2003. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney.
2010 Australia.
Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795.
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Editorial: Our one-sided commemorations
The Howard Government and Howard personally are conducting a relentless
campaign to militarise the thinking of the Australian people in pursuit
of the phoney "war against terrorism". Howard has gone to the APEC heads
of government meeting in Bangkok pushing this Western-promoted "war
without end" high up the agenda. His aim is to involve the other nations
in the US's imperialist campaign for global domination.
The commemoration conducted in Bali was also used towards the same ends.
Sheriff Howard once again pushed himself into the front row, this time
to promote his cynical sympathy for the Australians killed in the Kuta
blast.
The cynicism of this display of compassion was rather unexpectedly but
none-the-less dramatically revealed by the photo of Howard holding hands
with two children whose Indonesian mother had died in the blast. The
bereaved children had been specifically denied a visa to visit their
father who is locked up in a camp in Australia. He is a refugee from
Iran and is on the list to be deported. Their father is the children's
only living parent. But does this engender any sympathy from the
Australian immigration authorities? Absolutely not!
Even after the publication of the photograph and the publicity given to
the children's plight, Minister Amanda Vanstone calmly offers the
response, "I have asked my department to pursue with vigour the man's
reunion with his children in Iran". A reunion but not in Australia! The
father must first accept deportation back to where he fled from.
However, this is only one facet of the Bali commemoration. The tragedy
is being squeezed relentlessly by the media and the government. We are
regaled with stories of heroism that are undoubtedly true but presented
in such a way as to suggest that it is only Australians who display such
heroism and compassion for others.
But the people of many other countries are experiencing Bali tragedies
every day. What of the people of Palestine whose homes are being
flattened by Israeli bulldozers and tanks and many men, women and
children killed. Do those who die not deserve to be remembered? Do the
Palestinian people not also show compassion to those rendered homeless
with family members killed?
What of the victims of the war in Iraq? What of the people of Bolivia
where government police and military have killed about 70 people
demonstrating against the grinding poverty inflicted by the policies
imposed by the World Bank and the IMF? Do they not also suffer and cry
and help one another?
What about the people of Vietnam who are still suffering the
consequences of Agent Orange sprayed on them by the US military invaders
so ably helped by Australian forces? What of the mothers who bear
deformed children? How often is a commemoration held for the many more
victims of Australia's invasion of their land. The Vietnamese were not
invading Australia. It was Australia that was invading their homeland.
We do not even have to go overseas to show that the compassion of the
Government, media and, unfortunately, many Australians is very one-sided.
Just recently the Indigenous newspaper Koori Mail recalled the 75th
anniversary of the massacre by police of up to 100 Aboriginal men, women
and children at Coniston in the Northern Territory in 1928. (See story
opposite.)
Where are the monuments erected by any Australian government? When have
the white Australian population lit candles in memory of those killed -
possibly a larger number than the 88 Australians who lost their lives in
Bali? Which church commemorates this act of genocide - only one among
the many massacres of the Indigenous people as the invaders stole their
land and attempted to eliminate them completely? The Government cannot
even say "Sorry".
It is suggested that the tragedy of Bali will be commemorated "for
ever". The Indigenous people merely request that the massacre at
Coniston should be taught as part of the history of Australia.
As part of the Remembrance Day commemorations (November 11) the Prime
Minister is to go to London to open yet another war memorial. And so the
hypocrisy goes on.
The commemoration of those who lost their lives is a normal human
reaction, but if we fail to act decisively to eliminate war, ever more
statues, war memorials and candles will be lit to mark the inhumanity
committed while some make use of this sentiment to hide their real
monstrous agenda.
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