Graham wrote:
While I am often of the view that a gently gently
>approach is the best way to proceed, this is not one of those cases. If
>John Howard wants to be the odd man out on this, then he has to be visibly
>left out there on his own. If he doesn't think that Reconciliation is the
>right model, then he has to be forced to state that, not have the whole
>issue fudged as being one of gradualism - another step on the way.
I agree with this Graham and would say Gus Nossal and maybe the
reconciliation council have lost the plot. His comment on the 730 Report
last night was that: "My plea is that that one what I call respectful
difference of opinion should not derail the whole
reconciliation process. The PM, John Howard, respects the council's
position favouring an apology. I believe the council respects his sincerity
when he says he does not want cross-generational
guilt -- they're his words, not mine, his words -- and I think this is a
question of where, respectfully, we can agree to disagree and move
on, putting the apology into the basket of unfinished business."
Well the bloody 'basket of unfinished business' is pretty much overflowing
last time I looked. If we stick something else in there -especially an
apology - when does he intend we get back to it? When JH is no longer PM?
Why? Howard is just one person and even the office of PM doesn't warrant
this sort of kid-glove treatment, let alone this level of influence. The
office isn't even mentioned in the Howard's precious constitution.
So this is not a 'respectful difference of opinion' as Nossal claims; it is
an out and out disagreement. To apologise or not is not a matter of
choosing between two opposite opinions that are equally valid - one of them
is wrong and one of them is right and people like Nossal should stop being
appeasers, stop trying to find some mythical middle way, stop encouraging
people not to get upset and should just say that the PM is wrong and he's
dragging us all down. We are not choosing wallpaper here where there can be
a 'respectful difference of opinion'; we're making moral decisions.
Tim
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