The Abbott government’s hysterical response to a question asked on last Monday’s Q&A is concerning on many levels.
Zaky Mallah, an Australian who spent 2 years in jail for threatening to kill ASIO officials, had a heated exchange with MP Steven Ciobo on proposed laws to strip terrorists of their Australian citizenship after Mr Ciobo said he would be comfortable blocking someone with Mallah’s past from living in Australia.
Mallah fired back that Mr Ciobo’s comments were the reason young Islamic people were prepared to leave Australia and fight for ISIS. He later tweeted: “I would pay to see that Minister dumped on #ISIS territory in Iraq!”
The Prime Minister’s response was predictably to once again take aim at the ABC.
“I think many, many millions of Australians would feel betrayed by our national broadcaster right now, and I think that the ABC does have to have a long, hard look at itself, and to answer a question which I have posed before – whose side are you on?”
Long gone is the idea that we “shine a light on dark places”, that people should be free to express their views and the listener be free to judge them accordingly.
Rather than letting the hatred and anger foment in secret, there is much of value that can be achieved by having this discussion in the public arena.
Mallah travelled to Syria in 2011 and was believed to be involved in non-violent roles in the civil war to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. There were accusations that he was an undercover operative of Australia intelligence agencies. (If it’s illegal for me to talk about that, sorry – I read it in the Courier Mail)
This young man seems ideally placed to help us understand how and why our young people are being seduced to join IS. His anger showed how some young Muslims are feeling targeted by their own government and alienated in their own community.
Mallah’s intemperate outburst (no worse than Steve Ciobo’s slit her throat comment about Gillard) was immediately condemned by the Muslim community. It sparked a Twitter war as Muslim groups rushed to distance themselves from the man.
By silencing the debate we are forgoing our chance to make our case – to speak publicly about the horrors of IS, to help address the social problems that have allowed some of our citizens to be wooed by these bloodthirsty extremists who are using our children as cannon fodder, to contribute to the discussion of policy that strips us of our rights.
Abbott described Q&A to the Coalition party room as a “lefty lynch mob”. He is launching inquiries and making threats and is relishing in his G W Bush stance “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”
Abbott will not tolerate scrutiny or criticism. He hates Q&A because he cannot control the questions that the Australian public want to ask. It is the only place where those with a social conscience can question our politicians. The right has all the rest of the media – the Murdoch press and talk back radio. The ABC annoyingly persists with fools like Rowan Dean, the insufferable Gerard Henderson, and the never-ending parade of IPA stooges in waiting for their government appointment.
In defence of the repeal of Section 18c of the racial discrimination act, the IPA’s Chris Berg wrote
“the very foundation of our liberal democracy is a right to speak freely on matters of political importance. To defend free speech is to recognise that no ideas are sacrosanct, that all ideas can be challenged. Historically, free expression has been one of the strongest weapons for pluralism. Speech rights are most necessary for the weak, not the powerful. Nobody denies the harm of hate speech. But nor should anybody deny the necessity of protecting free expression for the maintenance of a democratic system and as a basic individual right.”
In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shootings, Tony Abbott said “I accept that in the course of having a robust democracy a lot of people will be offended, a lot of people will be insulted.”
The Prime Minister said if any encouragement could be drawn from the recent tragedies in Paris and at Sydney’s Martin Place, it was that “more and more Muslim people seem to be saying ‘look, there is a value in diversity’.
“We do have to adopt the position of live and let live.”
It is increasingly apparent that Abbott means live like I do and don’t question me or you will suffer the consequences.
