So what happened
exactly last Friday night in Melbourne? At the time things were going down I
was about 150 metres away from where the action was, standing in our local with
a couple of work people having a beer or 17. I do recall getting an SMS at
about 6:15pm which purported to be from Victoria Police describing an incident
nearby and which came from a number ending in “444444”.
I’ve had enough to do
with Chinese people over the last couple of years to understand that represented
6 good reasons to stay away from wherever the problem was, but then I figured
the police must have everything under control and there was no reason to stop
from proceeding to beer number 18. Certainly the 200 or so other people in the
bar (who I assume got the same message) didn’t seem too concerned. So I
shrugged my shoulders, had beers 19, 20 and 21 then poured myself into a cab
and went home.
It was only the
morning after when I woke up the next morning that saw the perpetrator of the
incident was a Sudanese Muslim. And that’s when I started to feel a little bit
crook in the guts. Because I knew EXACTLY what was about to happen. And true to
form, the media and politicians didn’t disappoint.
“TERROR IN MELBOURNE”
screamed the Herald Sun headline. Daniel Andrews and Scott Morrison were all
over the news channels doing their best to scare the living crap out of
everyone even though the lone perpetrator had been shot dead by the police
about 12 hours earlier. Even the ABC news channel which is normally more inclined
to put things in proportion broadcast hours of footage of what had again become
an unexceptional CBD street corner to the exclusion of all the other
interesting things going on at home and abroad, including Remembrance Day commemorations
and Trump making an ass of himself in Europe. Then later in the day came the recriminations
by the usual suspects in the government and media against Muslims and how they were
all criminals who should be shipped off to Alcatraz or Guantanomo Bay.
But the line that
really stuck in my head came from the caretaker PM Scomo where he told the
leaders of the “Muslim Community” to “call this attack for what it is” and to
“take more responsibility” for these sorts of attacks.
Well, while not being
Muslim, that was a challenge I had to take up. What indeed was this incident
and the subsequent hysteria all about? Was this really some meticulously
planned, politically motivated and clinically executed attack hatched by some
Al-Qaeda terrorist cell operating out of Melbourne’s south eastern suburbs? And
should we be concerned there are more of these attacks coming? When you look at
the facts, hardly.
What happened here fits
neatly into the sorry pattern of similar incidents in the past. Some mentally
disturbed individual with a history of violence, a criminal record and an ice
addiction finally snaps and decides to go out in what, to their deranged mind,
is a blaze of glory. The only difference between this and the idiot who drove his
car down the Bourke Street footpath is that this time, there was a Muslim
involved. And to the government and media, that is a big difference. Because
there is a lot of mileage to be gained from painting incidents involving Muslims
as insidious terrorist attacks and thereafter, beating up on Muslims as a
whole.
First of all,
governments of all colour like the populace to be terrified about something, whether
it’s this sort of thing, the prospect of job losses or falling house prices. A
terrified electorate is a more compliant electorate and will be less questioning
of what the government wants to do. A great example is the unfortunately named
Patriot Act passed by George Bush in the aftermath of September 11 (which I
acknowledge WAS a meticulously planned and clinically executed terrorist
attack) which circumvented habeas corpus and allowed the indefinite detention
of anyone the government thought looked suspicious. There is no way any right
minded government of a supposedly free country would get away with passing a
law like that under normal circumstances but at the time it got waved through Congress
with barely a dissenting vote.
While I don’t think
the Andrews government necessarily has a bent against Muslims, it’s not above creating
a bit of hysteria for the hell of it. Andrews
himself is responsible for one of the most stupid things to come out of a politician’s
mouth when he said during the Lindt Café siege in Sydney: “Don’t worry, the
gunman poses no threat to Victorians”. As if the deranged dipstick who took
those people hostage was so cunning and Machiavellian that he could kidnap some
more people from 900km away.
Also, what’s the deal
with giving a state funeral to the Pellegrini’s owner? It’s a terrible thing
that happened to him and he was desperately unlucky being in the wrong place at
the wrong time, but at the end of the day, he was just another ordinary business
person. State funerals are meant to be for people who make a significant
contribution to public life which with all due respect to he and his family,
Sisto Malaspina did not. If he had instead died in his sleep or in a car
accident, would he still have been afforded a state funeral? Of course not. The
whole thing to my mind is a cynical and opportunistic stunt by Andrews to keep
the story in the media for a few more days. Not to mention a bloody expensive
one to the taxpayer.
As for Scomo, well, it’s
pretty obvious why he is having a crack at the Muslims. He needs to keep the
support of the xenophobes and bigots on the far right of his party and to beat
One Nation in a grubby fight to the bottom on race relations. I always find it
curious how politicians call on leaders in the so called “Muslim community” to
take responsibility for these lunatics’ actions. In reality, what do they expect?
And what exactly is, the “Muslim community”? Australia must have Muslims living
here originating from over 50 countries, does the government somehow think that
once they get here they all just band together into one big happy bunch and
hold hands every weekend? God knows the Christians don’t so I don’t know why Muslims
would be different. The simple fact is that while building communities can help
keep people on the straight and narrow, keeping law and order is the responsibility
of the police – and in this case, they clearly failed by letting a convicted
criminal skip bail and run amok in the CBD.
This is not to say
that all Muslims living here are saints or there aren’t serious problems with
gang violence and other crimes perpetrated by recent arrivals, particularly
from Sudan. But if you are going to be serious about stopping these people becoming
radicalised and desist from doing stupid things like just what happened in the
city, surely the narrative coming out of the media and government has to
change? If you’ve just got here from Syria and every day on the TV or newspaper
you are being told what terrible people you are, wouldn’t you get resentful and
angry about Australia? I know I got mighty angry at New Zealand when I went there
just after Ansett collapsed and the paper was full of vitriol about how
Australians had stitched up Air New Zealand. So imagine putting up with that
24/7, if you put yourselves in their shoes it wouldn’t be fun.
However with elections
looming both federally and in Victoria, I can’t see the messaging changing. All
one can do is register one’s objection at the ballot box. Which I will be doing
by not voting for either Andrews or Scomo.
