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The Forum > Article Comments > Howard's doctrine > Comments

Howard's doctrine : Comments

By Shahar Hameiri, published 28/11/2006

Australia attempts to exercise influence over the form and quality of governance in the Pacific without assuming responsibility for the fate of these countries.

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First they didn’t, now they do. Howard has explained why, so there was no need for the author to say anything about that aspect of Australia’s interest in the Pacific. Now, the moan goes, Australia requires these backward little countries to demonstrate good governance and overcome corruption. Hardly an onerous task if it means receiving aid and protection. However, the author is not satisfied (surprise, surprise) with this: he has to accuse Australia of not taking responsibility for the “fate of these countries”.

Hameriri, like most amateur meddlers in political policy, doesn’t like the aid-giving country putting conditions on their largesse, but expects them to take responsibilities as well as handing out money and risking police and troops in dots on the map where the people who are supposed to be taking responsibility for their own countries are acting like Neanderthals.

Let the locals sort things out for themselves. People who, rightly, object to the King of Tonga’s financial activities and their own lack of advancement, but who burn down 80% of the businesses district in rage, are not ready for the modern world. There is little point wasting money and risking Australian lives to help savages.

Australia is damned if it doesn’t “help” unviable and unworldly (they are not ready for a market economy, as the author says) backward countries, and damned if it does. Most of the criticism comes from Australians themselves: nothing new about that, unfortunately.

Australia should keep an eye on the Pacific region only in the interests of its own security and let Third World countries drag themselves up the way every civilization has had to in the past
Posted by Leigh, Tuesday, 28 November 2006 9:14:42 AM
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Shahar, ok so you do not like the policies...What should the government be doing then? Do you think the public has a right to ensure their money is well spent? Do you think that non-market orientated policies actually work? I'm interested in your solutions more than your critique given that I have never met an aid activist anywhere on planet earth that is happy with their government's policies.
Posted by matt@righthinker.com, Tuesday, 28 November 2006 10:13:38 AM
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So many compassionate people in Australia these days, or is that selfish, greedy rodents?
Posted by SHONGA, Tuesday, 28 November 2006 11:11:51 AM
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Gee Leigh, you sure hate lots of people, cultures, nation states, clothing, food, shoes, insects, fish, trees, even grains of sand.
Have I left anything out?
Posted by Rainier, Tuesday, 28 November 2006 1:09:28 PM
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To Mr Howard

Considering that us Aussies and Kiwis are only now remnants of a colonial protective past we should be very careful how we much we present a type of 19th century gunboat diplomacy in the shape of warships accompanying aid delegations?

Ultra-modern terms like corporatism and marketing could easily cause panic among the progeny of the original inhabitants with more reminders of a subjective colonial past, when office-workers and their families were brought in by the British permanently from India?. Chinese shopkeepers could bring such reminders also, especially if they also have families with them.

As most of the islands with their attractive shores and coves have become extra-pleasant places to make money for the tourist industry, how much are the original owners getting out of this?

There has been some publicity about some of our more crafty Aussie real-estators purchasing land over-cheaply from native families who had been lucky enough to have had titles. If us Aussies have really been doing the dirty on what is left of the original families, we could be sowing the seeds of more world terrorism, Mr Howard. It is not only the Islamists who give their lives, remember. Take note about the persecuted Tamils in Sri-Lanka, right now they easily hold the record, over 500 have contributed, in fact.

Maybe your retinue needs do more study, Mr Howard. Oh, forgot, you are all working on that exciting new agenda - ultra-modern marketing
Posted by bushbred, Tuesday, 28 November 2006 1:15:10 PM
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Mr Howard must be absolutely flattered with the amount of power accredited to him by his detractors. Has he done anything right in his life?
Posted by runner, Tuesday, 28 November 2006 3:30:55 PM
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A thought provoking article for me. Just what is the right policy I wonder? I am not sure that we would gain much from party politicising the issue, or listening too intently to those who have Rousseau like views about the nature of humankind and the best conditions for development.
The analogy of parents raising adolescents strikes me as somewhat applicable (forgive me if this is patronising). How to best encourage the kids to become responsible adults, good example, firm discipline, benevolent wishes, lots of support and encouragement, and readiness to try again when everything falls into a screaming heap.
I think Mr Howard and Mr Downer are doing not too badly, but we should watch and be ready to change tack when necessary and not be bound by any doctrine.
Posted by Fencepost, Tuesday, 28 November 2006 4:19:04 PM
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Runner,
"has he done anything right in his life" no mate not yet but at 67, he is nearing the age when he will finally do the right thing.
Posted by SHONGA, Tuesday, 28 November 2006 6:35:07 PM
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What are the roots of the problem? Poverty and social injustice? A lack of economic independence? Perhaps we should invite the Cubans for a spot of nation building.

I don't mind that we send the police or military to restore order and train the locals. Apart from the human rights aspects it is bound to be cheaper than dealing with a flood of boat people in years to come. And surely you need order to tackle the root of the problem.

Newly independent countries are bound to be hyper sensitive about their sovereignty so we need to use a little tact when bullying them around.
Posted by gusi, Tuesday, 28 November 2006 6:57:25 PM
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Shahar Hameiri’s concise yet cogent article exposes the usually obscured politico-economic structures and neo-liberal agenda being imposed upon untold numbers of ‘ordinary’ indigenous peoples of ‘developing countries’ across the Asia-Pacific region said to be ‘in crisis’.

(Mis-)led by cabals of various combinations of local monarchs, self-styled Presidents or the like, expatriate ethnic minorities renowned for their entrepreneurial money-making business codes and connections, plus foreign ‘investors’ and their managerial representatives, both the natural and cultural heritage of their homelands, as well as their labour are ‘targeted’ for the ‘competitive advantages’ they present to these predatory ‘leaders’ of their ‘underdeveloped/developing’ state.

Portrayed by our duplicitous political and bureaucratic ‘leaders’ and an obsequious media as ‘failed states’, these once harmonious and ‘idyllic’ societies are today seriously divided along ethnic and sometimes religious lines that tend to obfuscate the socio-economic class divisions extant. It is a combination of the gross exploitation of their natural environment and their labour and the resultant imbalances of wealth that give rise to rebellions, coups and attempted coups and, in the case of Bougainville for instance, armed resistance, insurrection and secession, often in the face of superior military force supplied by Western governments in order to protect the financial interests of national and trans-national corporations.

As Shahar correctly points out, various failures of the ‘free market’ ideological agenda across the region have caused our various ‘leaders’ to give much more attention to “building the capacity of state institutions for efficient governance” (whatever this latter term means), whilst attempting to shore up the market-friendly ‘reforms’ that have led to the significant social unrest and dislocation. His conclusion that “For as long as the fundamentals of the government’s development dogma remain unquestioned, Australian troops and police officers will continue to be deployed to Pacific states to put out spot-fires, without truly addressing the root of the problem” is most apposite.
Posted by Sowat, Tuesday, 28 November 2006 9:07:28 PM
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There is no doubt that the Howard government is the worst government as it is the least credible government Australia has ever had the misfortune to experience. Because of this anything the Howard government does will be met with cynicism by Australians. Selective memory combined with a stream of constant negative policy has that effect.

In the Pacific Howard can never be right in every bodies eyes but what the government is doing is necessary and on this issue we have no right to harshly judge Howard. The stability of our neighbours is central to our own security and the wellbeing of all. Where there is martial dissent and a break down of governance then terrorists, drug cartels, arms traders and human traffickers have an opportunity to strengthen and create a base from which to launch their activities into neighbouring countries including Australia.

We are in fact all in this together and it is not an issue of colonial power. We are the richest nation in this region and our fortunes are partly derived from what we have extracted from our region. We can not morally turn our backs on suffering. Secondary aid such as NGO gathered charity is on the whole ineffective in combating poverty although can lessen the suffering of a relatively few individuals. Mass programs that can only be supplied by governments are the only real effective ways of dealing with large amounts of people. With climate change many Pacific islanders will by necessity be Australians and share the ancestry of our decedents with us. We should do what we can to lessen the inherited trauma (similar to the mess we have because of the Palestinian conflicts) that will be imported into our future.

Perhaps Howard’s rhetoric has been a bit too much akin to cowboy homoerotic war mongering and should be more careful not to drivel on like a shock jock about his moral piety and his military glory - but in the Pacific he is doing the right thing
Posted by West, Wednesday, 29 November 2006 9:19:11 AM
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gusi,
G'day mate how's the weather on Zircon today? This part of Earth is hot and sunny.
Posted by SHONGA, Wednesday, 29 November 2006 11:23:59 AM
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"Let the locals sort things out for themselves. People who, rightly, object to the King of Tonga’s financial activities and their own lack of advancement, but who burn down 80% of the businesses district in rage, are not ready for the modern world. There is little point wasting money and risking Australian lives to help savages."

You're right let the locals sort things out, and they had been left to sort things out, some stupid people did stupid things, how do you stop that ? It's like saying the Cronulla riots could have been prevented.

I am speechless as to your reference of islanders as being "savages". You have taken the actions of a handful of people some of which mind you were probably the product of failed US criminal system and labeled an entire race.

As for the risk of Australian lives.. you really have no idea of the reality of the islands or you wouldn't have bothered, the only threat would have been boredom on Sundays when everything is closed for church, blindness due to the camera flash of all the locals wanting their pic taken with them and to their waistlines from people trying to feed them 6 times a day.

Whilst I realize you're trying to make a point perhaps you should consider context and not the assumptions that all countries have an abundance of uranium, copper and acres of land to reap the wealth of farming (when there's no drought) .. just some coconut trees, alot of sand and a few whales to keep the white people happy, there biggest export? the savages who take their 99% literacy rate and work their butts off in countries like Australia and the NZ to help the savages back home.
Posted by bmilk, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 1:01:46 AM
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