Radio Australia Today Editorial
Archive for June, 2009
Fraud, Forgery, Fake. We have a good ol’ scandal.
23 June 2009
I thought the Australian prime minister had to know something we didn’t. When he went on any media that would listen yesterday and repeatedly claimed that the email at the root of the so-called OzCar scandal was a fraud, a fake, a forgery, he had to be absolutely sure that he was right. If the email turned up and was found to not to be a fraud, a fake, and a forgery, then it could have been argued that his position as prime minister was untenable. (To recap, the email was alleged to have come from the PM’s office and was supposed to be asking for favoritism for a car dealer known to the PM).
In making his strong statement about the fakery of the email, the PM was, in essence, placing his future in the hands of the people who assured him that the email was a fake. Probably to his relief, the federal police confirmed later that the email was a fake, and didn’t come from the prime minister’s office.
Even so, the PM must’ve known that he was taking a risk. No-one can ever be 100% sure of the loyalty of every single person in his office, especially in an office that at times has seen some fiery exchanges. As it worked out, the risk paid off. His name has been cleared. His office has been cleared. The email was a fraud, a fake, a forgery.
This takes us back to Malcolm Turnbull, the Opposition leader. He is the one left with the mess, or, as the Melbourne Herald Sun puts it: in a Car Wreck.
Malcolm Turnbull has shown his inexperience in political leadership. He believed what he read in the papers. He started making demands for the PM and the Trasurer to resign over an email that was a fake. He was taken in, like the reporter who wrote the original story. Experienced politicians do not jump onto easy bandwagons. They check their facts, think about where the rook is positioned, then go for their checkmate. Malcolm Turnbull clearly thought the chessboard was laid out for him, and he jumped in yelling Check! before he saw that the defence was pretty solid and the Queen loomed on his left.
One thing’s for sure, he’ll not make the same mistake again, and he’ll be a better leader for it.
If he survives this.
– Phil
OzCar. When politics gets in the way of ethics.
22 June 2009
The OzCar affair started as a simple allegation of favoritism to a car dealer.
Simply put, the claim is that the prime minister, Kevin Rudd’s office asked for departmental assistance for a car dealer in his constituency. A newspaper claimed the request was made in an email.
Now, under our mixed Westminster-Washington system of representative government, a member is entitled to ask for help to be given to a constituent, but in this case, if true, the PM may have overstepped the mark by showing special favouritism to this car dealer, who had allegedly lent him a car for personal use.
The Opposition leader, Malcolm Turnbull, sniffed blood and made a series of demands, including the resignations of the PM and his Treasurer (who had made some statements on the matter in federal parliament.
Unfortunately for Malcolm Turnbull, he had never seen the alleged email, and it appears he was being a tad reactionary.
The prime minister has certainly come out fighting over this, calling in the federal police and the auditor-general to investigate the email allegations, and demanding that Malcolm Turnbull either produce the email (the PM knows this isn’t going to happen, because Turnbull has stated that he has seen no such email), or apologise and resign.
It is unlikely that Malcolm Turnbull is about to accept these conditions. He is most likely to say that it is inappropriate to comment further while the federal police investigation is underway, and then hope that the matter goes away. His resignation is about as likely as the Iranian government deciding to step down over the allegations of vote rigging in last week’s election.
What this OzCar story does bring out is that a serious allegation has turned into a story about simple one-two politics. Premature calls for resignations has brought return calls for resignations. The Australian people are now looking to today’s sitting of parliament to see that what started as a political drama has lost all its gravitas, and become a soap opera farce. If a head does roll over this, the genesis of the matter will be forgotten. Allegations of favoritism by the two most powerful people in the land will matter less than who will be embarrassed more and who will be under pressure the most, and who will be the most likely to resign.
All this on a day when the Senate will be debating the government’s Emissions Trading Scheme, the core of its battle against climate change. Whole countries are threatened with being swamped by rising sea levels, but this is not the most imporrtant political story in the media in Australia today.
As I said in the title, pity us all when politics gets in the way of ethics.
– Phil
Iran. A protest that leads to a protest.
19 June 2009
The Iranian leaders are in a spot of bother this morning, and they know it.
After thirty years of having virtually absolute power, the Mullahs are faced with a conundrum.
They allowed elections to take place, elections which went the way they would have liked, with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being re-elected. The problem for the Mullahs is that tens of thousands of their citizenry were not content with the election result. Within days of the election, hundreds of official complaints about electoral impropriety were lodged. When it appeared that the complaints would be ignored (which often happens in totalitarian countries), the protests got louder and bigger.
At some point, someone in authority decided the best way to deal with this bit of fledgling democracy was to act violently against the demonstrators. The result has been horrendous, with up to fourteen people killed by security forces.
If history tells us one thing, it is that rule by fear works for only so long. It takes a cathartic moment for dissent to become ill-will. We have seen overnight that the protests against electoral processes turning into protests against authoritarian bloodshed.
In light of this escalating tension, Iran’s Guardian Council has finally agreed to accept and examine the 646 complaints about the election.
One of our analysts, Professor Amin Saikal from the Australian National University, said that there was little chance of the Mullahs agreeing to a new election, even if substantial irregularities were proved in the last one. He says more likely is a role being offered to the Opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, with an outside possibility of a Government of National Unity being formed, with shared responsibilities between the current government and the current Opposition.
He does make one point though: something will have to give, because neither side wants civil war. There are obviously plenty of aggrieved Iranians this morning, and the actions of the past week have proved that forcing them into silence will only make them louder.
– Phil
Graffitists get jail in the U.K. A good thing?
18 June 2009
Graffiti artists say they have been misunderstood. Just last month we had a group of graffiti guys in the studio telling us that what they were doing was pure art (and a difficult art considering that they paint using spray cans, not brushes), and pure self expression.
Then today came the news that a group of six Australian self-expressionists have been jailed in the U.K. for self-expressing all over walls and trains that didn’t belong to them, in a spree that would invariably be cleaned off using a lot of noxious and environmentally harmful liquids, and at a huge cost.
No-one should put a boundary on art. The Eiffel Tower is a work of art to many, but when it was raised, it was considered by some to be a disastrous massive blight on the genteel skyscape of Paris. The Guggenheim in Bilbao in Spain is to me a stunningly beautiful and creative building, but to others it was a bizarre piece of metal junk. Picasso was seen by critics as a person who knew so little about human anatomy that he painted eyes on the same side of the head.
In this city of Melbourne graffiti artists are hired to adorn the walls of cafes and hair salons. The artists work with the owners to produce something that explains the vibe of the business. But for every one of these collaborations, there are dozens of graffitists who just take their cans and spray what they want where they want, as if Mr Eiffel quietly planted his tower in Fred Frimp’s backyard one night and then ran away.
This graffiti gang was not just about artistic self-expression. They travelled the world spraying their message in Sydney, Japan, Spain, Italy and Germany. They weren’t just unlucky to get caught, they actually took video of each other doing it, posting the video for public view. There was certainly a sense of unreality about their actions, and perhaps a feeling of invulnerability.
Once a person goes to jail, when that person is lying on a bed in a cell, a person’s invulnerabilities tend to vanish.
I think a lot of graffiti is art. Tagging one’s name using a felt pen isn’t. Graffiti on a wall that doesn’t belong to you may still be art, but unwanted art is really just a pain in the butt.
– Phil
Another underworld killing in Melbourne.
17 June 2009
Des Moran was murdered the other day as he went into his regular deli cafe in Melbourne.
Des Moran knew the dangers of the underworld. His brother Lewis was gunned down in 2004. His nephews Jason and Mark were killed a few years before that. Jason’s father-in-law Les Kane was murdered in 1978. Kane’s brother Brian was murdered in 1982.
There have been many more deaths in this dynasty, a dynasty that no longer exists after Des Moran’s death.
Yes, underworld killings have been rife over the last 30 or so years here in the garden city, Des Moran being just the latest.
Except it’s not an underworld killing as such. The police were emphatic that the death was not gangland related. Arrests were made yesterday, and to the surprise of many, two of the people charged over the death came from within the Moran family itself. Moran’s own sister-in-law, Judy Moran, wife of Lewis Moran was charged with Being an Accessory to Murder, the police allegeing that she was driving a car involved in the killing. Also arrested was a sister-in-law of one of Judy Moran’s murdered sons.
Self-confessed former killer Mark “Chopper” Read was in the newspapers this morning saying that Des Moran was the dark horse of the Moran clan, and far from the public image of him being an innocent party in the underworld, Read alleges that Des Moran was the only Moran with real criminal power.
Now that’s he’s gone, and the alleged perpetrators caught, you might think that at last there will be an end of the gangland violence.
Don’t be too sure. Soon after she was arrested, Judy Moran’s house was gutted in an arson attack. And another underworld figure, currently overseas, has promised that when he returns to Australia, he will deal with Moran’s death.
No folks, this incident only proves that criminals will never be able to kill each other into peace.
– Phil
