The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Turning a blind eye > Comments

Turning a blind eye : Comments

By Susan Connelly, published 21/4/2006

The house is alight and the neighbours are fleeing - so does Australia ignore the plight of West Papuans?

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. Page 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. ...
  9. 12
  10. 13
  11. 14
  12. All
Rogidon and Marilyn,

Attacking another's opinions is no substitute for having opinions of your own, and there is no point in attacking my opinions because I have no intention of changing them. They are based on common sense and fact - not on emotions.

Asylum seekers do not have the right to wander the world looking for somewhere nice to live.

Rodigon, I'm not suggesting that Indonesia have anything to do with our acceptance or not of people who arrive here illegally. If you gained that impression from any of my posts, you need to pay more attention. And, since when were your better qualified than Richard Woolcott to make statements on the the situation?

Marilyn, I haven't read Mr. Ruddock's "drivel",but you seem to be into drivel rather than what the Refugee Convention really says. You are big on emotion, poor on facts.

I presume you are trying to compare people who arrive by plane, with correct short term documentation, with those who arrive by boat with no documentation. That doesn't constitute 'country shopping' as I have referred to it, and they are treated the same way as the illegal entrants, once their visas have expired, so there is little difference in the end. One group is just shiftier and more blatantly dishonest than the other.

Your grandfather was saved by a fuzzy wuzzy, was he? I must have misread your bio which I thought would have precluded you from having any forebears in the Australian military. Apart from being totally irrelevant to the situation of illegal entry to Australia, don't be too sentimental about your beloved fuzzy wuzzies. Just as many of them helped the Japanese.

And, there is no automatic "entitlement" to peace and freedom for anyone. These things have to be earned. That is why we in the West have different conditions from those in the Third World.

In the meantime, both of you should try sticking to expressing your own opinions of subjects presented, and not worry that everyone doesn't agree with you.
Posted by Leigh, Saturday, 22 April 2006 11:03:27 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
You did misread my bio Leigh - I am 7th generation Australian and my grandfather migrated to Australia from England as a 15 year old unaccompanied child who lied about his age to get here.

That was 1920 and in 1938 he lied about his age again and signed up for the war - he spent the next 6 years in hell and became quite an active peace campaigner when he got home. He always told us about the guts and courage of the Papuans and how they saved him. That was after he had been in Egypt for a time.

So how I don't qualify as having antecedents incapable of being in the war beats me.

And for those who call me sister Sheppard - I am an atheist and always have been.

Now Leigh, you opinions I would defend to the death your right to hold them and express them, but I wish after all these years you would educate yourself to the reality instead of just spouting hatred for anyone you perceive to be different.
Posted by Marilyn Shepherd, Saturday, 22 April 2006 12:32:28 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
To correct some of the above.
In 1962 the UNTEA and UNSF estimated the population at 900,000 (roughly), where as the Pacific Islands' Year Book estimated the 1961 West Papuan population at 728,000 ; and Indonesia in 1961 said it was 758,396.

From 1957 to 1961 the Netherlands recorded an increase of 35.65% or around 7.9% per year growth rate; while our friend from Indonesia claims the population growth has precisely mimicked PNG growth from an estimated 2million to 5.6million; the question remains why are there only a quarter as many West Papuans as East Papuans ?

As for education, true Indonesia inserted a commercial university whose students during the 1970s and 80s were 99% Javanese and other transmigrants. But the removal of the primary and secondary schools from the Papuan townships might be more significant.

Next - the 1969 'Act of Free Choice' which Indonesia in 1962 suggested and signed an agreement upon for all men & women not foreign nationals would be allowd to vote - yet by 1969 General Sarwo Edhie claimed West Papuans were incapable of voting, and that only the men he selected should be allowed to vote. Yet eight years before under voluntary Dutch elections 83% of the Papuan population voted as compared to 70% of the Asian and Europeans in West New Guinea.

The Indonesian military in 1969 had to bring out armoured assault vehicles to put down the Papuan demonstrations in Jayapura calling for one-vote one-person.

Finally, the Indonesian Constitution itself claims to protect every citizens rights to free-speech, assembly, and other forms of expression. So WHY is it illegal to raise the Morning Star flag or talk about independence from the Indonesian State ?

WHY is Indonesia using colonial style laws to enforce 'unity' and repress public rights and advancement , thereby forcing tens of thousands of West Papuans to flee across the border to PNG and now 43 to Australia ?
Posted by Daeron, Saturday, 22 April 2006 1:02:23 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Multi culture appears to be failing badly where ever it is forced on people. Indonesia and Papua, Solomon Islands,Africa,name it it is a complete failure.
Now we have people wanting Australia to accept the refugees from Papua to add to all the ethnics we already have and the Chinese from Honiara reckon they too will come here. They are not fleeing from China or Taiwan but that appears not to matter.
The UN said that there are 37 million displaced persons looking for a new home, do we take them as well?
In the meantime the Australian Aborigines are falling further and further behind but who cares? We must be passionate for anyone but Australians because it looks better in the news
Posted by mickijo, Saturday, 22 April 2006 2:06:43 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Excellent point mickijo; we can not be expected to address the 37 million, as Australians we must first support indigenous Australians for whom Asian nations like Indonesia do not seem to have any empathy.

IF you lived surrounded by Wallabies, echidna, cassowary, tree kangaroos, and machineguns - but when you flee in a canoe to the regional Commonwealth power - instead of sanctuary and the freedom to tell the world of the abuses against your homelands; the Commonwealth for the first time in your life flies you out of Australia to be again isolated from the free press on Christmas Island.

Thankfully the Commonwealth still has a basis upon law and had no option but to provide these indigenous Australian with protection.

But it is a shame that John Howard has seen fit to interfere in what you view as Indonesian domestic affairs by claiming Indonesia has a right to this part of the Australian continent, and that West Papuans have no rights to call for their independence from this Asian state. True that West Papua does not have oil, it has the world's richest gold & copper deposits and the world's largest mine which is operated by the US Freeport company and is Indonesia's largest single tax payer.

That is why Jakarta wants West Papua, and WHY the world's largest and most corrupt US corporate executives in 1962 help Sukarno blackmail the US government into forcing the Netherlands to sign an illegal contract to transfer West Papua's administration to Indonesia without the people's consent.
Long overdue that the UN admitted it too was manipulated into colonizing West Papua for Bechtel Inc. and Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc.
http://fandom.net/InfoKit
Posted by Daeron, Saturday, 22 April 2006 3:55:59 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
It appears that I did misread your history, Marilyn. I hope you didn't inherit your grandfathers penchant for lying.
Posted by Leigh, Saturday, 22 April 2006 6:04:36 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. Page 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. ...
  9. 12
  10. 13
  11. 14
  12. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy