Lembaran baru dalam kehidupan rakyat dan negara Australia telah terjadi. Kevin
Rudd PM dengan chidmad, suasana di gedung parlemen dipenuhi selain kegembiraan,
juga perasaan lega dari seluruh hadirin disitu, yang menyaksikan ditutupnya
lembaran sejarah yang kelam.
Aku sendiri yang meluangkan waktu untuk menghadiri peristiwa ini di
Redfern(tempat dimana banyak Aborigine bermukim), walaupun sempat diselingi
hujan, tapi banyak yang merasa terharu, mengucurkan airmata mengikuti pidato PM
di layar TV gede.
Sempat aku ber-bincang2 dengan hadirin yang baru sempat aku sapa, orang2
Aborigine, mereka merasa lega, se-olah2 beban yang di pikul selama berdasa
warsa terasa terangkat dan mereka bilang ..."I'm and feeling like an Australian
now" Masa depan terasa akan dan diharapkan akan lebih baik karena perbaikan
nasib Aborigine yang banyak terdiskriminasi, sekarang dengan kekuatan
bi-partisan,Pemerintahan Kevin Rudd./Labor akan bersama-sama dengan pihak
oposisi/Liberal akan giat menuntasin apa yang terbengkalai selama puluhan tahun.
Mereka(pemerintah plus oposisi) akan mulai dengan membenahi dalam aspek
perumahan/kesehatan dan edukasi para Aborigine.
Diseluruh Australia peristiwa ini di rayakan sebagai tindak pertama menuju ke
rekonsiliasi, berkat pemerintah dini tidak ragu ragu menyatakan...sorry.
Inilah contohnya dimana kesalahan masa lalu di garap, dituntasin dan siapa yang
berbuat kesalahan sanggup minta maaf demi kemajuan bersama seluruh rakyat
Australia di masa mendatang.
Inilah suatu cara untuk menatap masa depan dengan gemilang, perbaiki
kesalahan masa lalu, minta maaf dan marilah kita bergandengan tangan maju
bersama.
Gimana nih dengan Indonesia? Boro2 rekonsiliasi, lha wong anak, cucu cicitnya
yang sudah dicap masa itu(tahun 1965) sebagai seorang anggota atau didakwa
sebagai PKI sampai sekarangpun masih menyandang sebagai wn kelas dua dengan
segala pen-diskriminasi-an. Belum lagi suku2 lain di luar Jawa misalnya rakyat
Papua dan Aceh setelah di-rampok kekayaan alamnya dibiarkan sengsara.
Dari itu aku bilang, obati luka masa lalu dengan menuntasin semua kejahatan,
para kriminal terhadap kemanusiaan harus diadili, baru orang yang bijak mau
memberikan maaf-nya dan setuju dengan rekonsiliasi. Boro2 rekonsiliasi, aku
bilang sekali lagi, lha seorang Munir saja meninggal ngak ada yang ngegubris
tuh! Gimana bisa rekonsiliasi......ngenes, tragis dan buram masa depan negara
Indonesia ini. Gara2 ulah para koruptor, gara2 ngak ada hukum beserta
enforcement-nya maka rakyat akan jadi kurus kering di-isap luar dalam.
Harry Adinegara
http://au.news.yahoo.com/080212/2/15tfp.html
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Provider navigation: Summary | AAP | ABC | Photos
Wednesday February 13, 11:19 AM Apology to stolen generations applauded
Indigenous men and women gave Australia's federal politicians a long, standing
ovation after MPs formally apologised for the pain and suffering inflicted on
the stolen generations.
There were emotional scenes across Australia as thousands of people,
including some of those forcibly taken from their families, watched the
historic, formal apology delivered by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
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In Canberra, hundreds packed into the House of Representatives as Mr Rudd
moved a motion that the parliament apologise for the "laws and policies of
successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief,
suffering and loss" on the stolen generations.
Some people in the public gallery, indigenous and non-indigenous, wept as Mr
Rudd read out the 361-word apology, which was supported by the federal
opposition.
At city squares and parks across Australia, and on the lawns outside
parliament house in Canberra, people cheered, applauded, hugged and cried after
the apology was delivered.
But some also jeered and turned their backs when Opposition Leader Dr Brendan
Nelson spoke, at times emotionally, in support of the formal apology.
In his accompanying speech to parliament Mr Rudd said there came a time in
history when people had to reconcile the past with their future.
"Our nation Australia has reached such a time and that is why the parliament
is today here assembled," he said.
"To deal with this unfinished business of the nation.
"To remove a great stain from the nation's soul and in the true spirit of
reconciliation to open a new chapter in the history of this great land
Australia."
Mr Rudd told the story of an "elegant, eloquent and wonderful" elderly
indigenous woman, a member of the stolen generations, who he visited a few days
ago.
Mr Rudd said there was something "terribly primal" about such first hand
accounts.
"The pain is searing, it screams from the pages, the hurt, the humiliation,
the degradation and the sheer brutality of the act of physically separating a
mother from her children is a deep assault on our senses and on our most
elemental humanity," he said.
The formal apology came more than a decade after the release of the Bringing
Them Home report, which documented the stories of some of the tens of thousands
of Aboriginal children taken from their families by governments between 1910
and the early 1970s.
"Instead, from the nation's parliament, there has been a stony and stubborn
and deafening silence for more than a decade," Mr Rudd said.
"A view that somehow we the parliament should suspend our most basic
instincts of what is right and what is wrong, a view that instead we should
look for any pretext to push this great wrong to one side to leave it
languishing with the historians, the academics and the cultural warriors, as if
the stolen generations are little more than an interesting sociological
phenomenon.
"The stolen generations are not intellectual curiosities, they are human
beings, human beings who have been damaged deeply by the decisions of
parliaments and governments.
"As of today the time for denial, the time for delay, has at last come to an
end."
The former Howard government, which lost last year's election, refused to
issue a formal apology, claiming it would leave the commonwealth liable to a
flood of compensation claims.
Some coalition MPs were obviously displeased with the apology and some were
absent from the chamber as it was delivered.
One Liberal MP, Chris Pearce, read a magazine during the motion and the
speeches, refusing to get to his feet for several standing ovations.
He stood begrudgingly only when MPs were asked to vote on the motion.
Outspoken West Australian Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey was present in the house
for a prayer before the apology but left when Mr Rudd rose to his feet.
Mr Rudd said he knew the apology would not take away the pain the stolen
generations had suffered.
He said he hoped today would not be just a moment of sentimental reflection,
and invited the opposition to join the government in forming the equivalent of
a war cabinet to tackle indigenous issues
Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson accepted the invitation.
The prime minister said the joint policy commission would first develop and
implement an effective housing strategy for remote communities during the next
five years.
If that was successful the commission would then work on the constitutional
recognition of first Australians.
While the formal apology said "sorry" three times, Mr Rudd's speech also
offered personal apologies to the stolen generations.
"As prime minister of Australia, I am sorry," he said.
"On behalf of the government of Australia, I am sorry.
"On behalf of the parliament of Australia, I am sorry."
Mr Rudd's speech was greeted by a prolonged standing ovation from fellow
Labor MPs, the opposition and those in the packed public galleries.
Dr Nelson then rose to speak "strongly" in support of the apology, saying the
nation had today crossed a threshold.
"We formally offer an apology, we say sorry to those Aboriginal people
forcibly removed from their families through the first seven decades of the
20th century," Dr Nelson said.
"In doing so, we reach from within ourselves to our past, those whose lives
connect us to it, and in deep understanding of its importance to our future."
Dr Nelson called on Australians to focus on the contemporary problems of
their indigenous counterparts including lower life expectancy, alcohol abuse,
corruption, nepotism, political buck passing, lack of home ownership,
under-policing and tolerance by authorities of neglect and abuse of children.
Dr Nelson was clearly emotional as he re-told the stories of some members of
the stolen generations.
But as Dr Nelson began speaking, some people in Parliament's Great Hall,
outside the parliamentary chamber, turned their backs on the large screen on
which the speech was being televised.
They began clapping and yelling "shame", and some started to walk out.
In Melbourne's Federation Square and on Perth esplanade, many jeered or
turned their backs as Dr Nelson spoke.
Inside the parliamentary chamber, some were clearly agitated by Dr Nelson's
speech, particularly when he mentioned the Howard government's Northern
Territory intervention.
Nonetheless, he received a standing ovation at the conclusion of his speech.
Mr Rudd and Dr Nelson leant across the dispatch boxes to shake hands.
Speaker Harry Jenkins invited MPs to rise in their places to signify their
support for the apology, a move that also prompted sustained applause.
Mr Rudd, Dr Nelson and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin then moved
to greet guests, including Aboriginal leaders and members of the stolen
generations, seated in the distinguished visitors' gallery on the floor of the
chamber.
Applause again erupted as Mr Rudd embraced one indigenous elder as he and Dr
Nelson made their way along the line of guests.
Mr Rudd and Dr Nelson received a gift of a coolamon - a wooden dish
traditionally used by Aborigines to carry light objects and even young babies.
They then stood together on the government side of the parliamentary chamber
before handing it on to Speaker Harry Jenkins.
"The stolen generation representatives here today have asked me to make this
presentation on their behalf to you as the speaker of the parliament," Mr Rudd
said.
"I gratefully receive this gift on behalf of the house," Mr Jenkins said.
"It will represent a very important point in the history of not only this
chamber but our nation."
Former prime ministers Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke and Paul
Keating were all present in the house for the apology.
John Howard was absent.
Related links: No opposition dissent on apology: Pyne
Rudd: We say sorry
Apology overwhelms central Australian woman
Apology will allow healing: Macklin
Aussies support apology: Reys
Hundreds gather for apology
Apology will help heal hurt Stolen Generation
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