Asylum seekers and the language of war
Updated Tue 14 Jan 2014, 8
Abbott's policy, that boats would be "turned back when it is safe to do so", was always dubious, and depended on Indonesian co-operation. This was never going to be forthcoming and again last week both the foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa, and the office of president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reiterated that the policy was unacceptable. Any hope that it might be tacitly approved, as suggested by reports that the Indonesian military chief General Moeldoko had given a nod and a wink to his Australian counterpart General David Hurley, were firmly repudiated.
And now the United Nations High Commission on Refugees is demanding an explanation of the incidents from Canberra, and also of reports that Australia had bought large lifeboats from Singapore, which will be used to facilitate further turn-arounds from unseaworthy Indonesian vessels. This totally unprecedented idea has been widely ridiculed in the Australian media, but it is another indication of Abbott's obsessive single-mindedness: stop the boats at many cost, and we do mean any.
But the stakes are getting higher. The head of the Indonesian parliament's foreign affairs committee, Mahfudz Siddiq, has said that the lifeboat ploy means that he Australian government plans to become a people smuggler itself, despatching boat loads of unauthorised immigrants into another country's territorial waters. And, as the Australian Navy has been used to repel boats from Indonesia, so the Indonesian navy may have to repel the boats from Australia. The situation could escalate quickly and very dangerously. Suddenly Kevin Rudd's pre-election warnings of a possible military confrontation between to the two countries look a lot less fanciful.
The air needs to be cleared, urgently, and a full and frank public statement by Abbott would appear to be the only way to do it. Both the Indonesian government and people and the Australian people need to be told just what the policy is, what if any are its limits, and how it works on a day-by-day basis. As it is, trust and support are being dissipated in a cloud of rumour and scuttlebutt. And, as Bill Shorten and numerous others have pointed out, it is ludicrous that Australians are getting more information from the Jakarta Post than from their own government. Even if this was a real war, the situation would be unacceptable.
In the eyes of the rest of the world, Australia's hardline approach looks selfish and primitive - even barbaric. In Australia, a total of 7,983 boat people arrived in 2011-2012 - the time the great panic over unauthorised arrivals set in. In Italy, 30,100 migrants arrived by boat from North Africa between January 1 and September 30 last year. Yet the Italian government handled the situation calmly and humanely - there was never any talk of using military operations to turn boats back, or of offshore prison camps, or of temporary protection visas or any of the paraphernalia of cruelty successive Australian governments have employed as a deterrent. Instead, the asylum seekers were recognised by everyone from the Pope down as neighbours in need - not always refugees in the full and technical sense, but the wretched of the earth, to be treated with compassion and understanding.
But far from following this pontifical lead, Abbott and Morrison have consistently taken the low road of persecution, secrecy and shame. And, like their operational matters, they have ended up lost and confused - and all at sea.
full article : http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-13/maccallum-operation-sovereign-borders/5196708
time to know what is being done in my name
I should not have to resort to OS news sites .
the bitter little comrade, the lefts answer to all their prayers along with the mindless commentariat claque
