McCarthyism was re-incarnated when Senator Eric Abetz asked three young Chinese Australians to “unequivocally condemn” the Chinese Communist Party. Congratulations to Chiu, Jiang and Chau for having the courage to defend themselves when bullied.
Such a controversial question has attracted considerable adverse media attention and can only bring detriment to the name and reputation of Australia overseas.
The Chinese Community Council of Australia and the National Chinese Australian Leaders Group wish to express their deepest concern the way Senator Eric Abetz questions our young son Osmond Chiu, and daughters Jun Jiang and Wesa Chau, of the Chinese Australian community who appeared as witnesses before the prestigious Senate committee inquiry into issues facing diaspora communities in Australia.
It should have been a proud moment and honour in their lives, to be called before a Senate inquiry to give further evidence about the wide Australian diaspora. It was an opportunity to participate in Australian public life in our vibrant democracy.
Alas, this proud moment turned into a nightmare when the question put forward by Senator Abetz, was perceived by them as way out of line and the community as “bullying tactics” in McCarthyist style inquisition. (see news reports below)
ABC News: 15 Oct 2020 – Chinese Australians says questions from Senator Eric Abetz about their loyalties are not asked of other communities.
Reporter Toby Mann quoted Jun Jiang tweet: “This is what I think about the Senate Committee public hearing yesterday, where I, along with two other Chinese-Australian witnesses, was interrogated about our views of China as some sort of loyalty test”.
The Guardian 15 Oct 2020 ‘ Eric Abetz refuses to apologise for demanding chine Australians denounce Communist party. Reporter Naveen Razik wrote “The Senator’s line of questioning received fierce criticism, with the nation’s Race Discrimination Commissioner saying ‘no Australian should be required to prove their loyalty’.
SBS News 15 Oct 2020 –‘Race-baiting McCarthyism’: Eric Abetz slammed for asking Chinese Australians to denounce Communist Party during diaspora inquiry
Naveen Razik wrote “The veteran Liberal senator has been accused of subjecting three Senate inquiry witnesses to ‘race-baiting McCarthyism”. Senator Penny Wong was quoted saying “Australia was a democracy where every citizen was equal, and senators must not “tolerate the loyalty or value of some Australians being questioned because of their ethnic origins”.
South China Morning Post 15 Oct 2020 – Senator insists Chinese Australians condemn CCP at inquiry on diaspora issues, sparking backlash. Reporter Su Lin Tan wrote: “Senator Eric Abetz’s demands at the inquiry about diversity in Australia sparked accusations he was waging a ‘McCarthyist campaign’ against Chinese-Australians” and “Former PM Kevin Rudd called the attack ‘repugnant’ and said the government should refrain from using race-based panic in its defence of national interests
Of the three victims of racial bullying, two have expressed their hurt in public:
Osmund Chiu rebutted in the Age opinion piece 14 Oct 2020 I was born in Australia why do I need to renounce the Chinese Communist Party?”
Jun Jiang rebutted in John Menadue P&I Why are the loyalties of Chinese- Australians questioned constantly in the public arena?
I was asked by Senator Eric Abetz to “unequivocally condemn” the Chinese Communist Party. Presumably, the association trying to be made was that, by virtue of my ethnicity, there was some likelihood of divided allegiances.
From the above reports, McCarthyism has indeed re-incarnated in Australia and this type of “inquisition” is a nightmare for all immigrants who migrated from a country that is not an ally of Australia.
Mr Chiu was not even born when the frightening American experience occurred, but showed sound knowledge when he said “sometimes wondered how people felt when there were dragged in front of the House Committee of Un-American Activities with Congressmen demanding that they prove their loyalty. Never did I imagine I would be placed”.
The Senator’s controversial question also received wide backlash from the Multicultural communities in Australia and had attracted criticism from Senator Penny Wong, former PM Kevin Rudd and Mr Chin Tan, the current Human Rights Commissioner and Immigration Shadow Minister Andrew Giles.
Senator Abetz re-kindling the frightening spectre of oppressive McCarthyism in Australia has earned adverse publicity for Australia.
Senator Abetz not only refused to apologise but also attempted to whitewash his question as “value based”. Blind freddy can see that the young Chinese Australians were bullied; and other coming behind would not be too keen to participate in future inquiries.
Many governments in the West or their political parties have done wrong and we do not condemn them on the basis of partisan geopolitics. Equally, China is not perfect either but there are good things they do for their people. Senator Abetz’s question reflects bigoted partisan geopolitics. As much as I respect his views, he has no right to thrust it upon others.
Commissioner Tan said “No Australian should have their loyalty to this country questioned or undermined because of their ethnic origin, nor should they be required to prove their loyalty”.
The PM has said that “There is only one pledge that any pledge that any Australian should take and that is the pledge they taken when they become a citizen. (JYLo – private communication)
In addition, Senator Abetz only asked all these three Chinese Australians witnesses the loaded question whilst others community representatives were not asked similar questions. Why just pick on people of Chinese origin?
This line of questioning was completely irrelevant to the inquiry. Mr Chiu was born in Australia and his family have lived here for half a century. Demanding that an Australian refute allegiances to a foreign government simply based on his ethnic background is McCarthyism style abuse by Eric Abetz of his role as a Senator in the Australian Government.
Senator Abetz is clearly lacking in understanding the asset that multiculturalism has been to Australia’s historical development and is to our economy today. His action is not conducive to social cohesion, and publicly contradict public policy of the by Minister Tudge, Acting Minister for Immigration.
We urge the Morrison Government to denounce Senator Abetz’s behaviour and commit to building and maintaining a cohesive and harmonious multicultural society in Australia.
Finally, we congratulate Osmund Chiu, Wesa Chau and Jun Jiang for their brave public stand in the matter. On this issue, the Chinese Australian community and their national leaders stand by you.
Dr Anthony Pun OAM, is the National President of the Chinese Community Council of Australia (CCCA);
Comments
16 responses to “Joseph McCarthy smiled in his grave”
There have been many responses and there is probably no need for another. However, I feel I must comment.
At his age Senator Abetz has probably forgotten that many innocent Germans were incarcerated in Australia during WW1 and WW2 simply because they were German. But I suppose that’s ok by him.
Senator Abetz has become a serious embarrassment to Australia and it citizens. It is time he disappears from public view.
Good for you, Anthony PUN. Agree absolutely with you and young Aussies bullied by the German-born of über-Nazi Abetz Family – Erich merely proving his fascist inheritance as far as I am concerned. How he can sit in our national Parliament is a question I have long pondered. My own family were never given assistance by any NAZIS in Australia – but way back 70+ years ago from Holocaust survivors and from Chinese who arrived into the Colony of NSW (pre-1901). That’s what I base my views on. I would want Erich Abetz to denounce his Nazi great uncle Otto to the Australian people and match that against all the fascist statements made by this strange little man in our Parliament and when on the political hustings. Nothing he has ever said has proved him a friend to cultural/ethnic diversity. If you can show anything disproving my contention – please do so.
thankyou, but far too generous towards Mr Abetz, who only continues to expose his inadequacy.
finding fault with CCP is easy.
condemnation is effortless.
I think a better role for ethnic Chinese Australians is the more difficult, valuable and important one of contributing to development of useful relations with the people of China.
There is perhaps some excess of anxiety arising from the fact that Senator Abetz’s great-uncle, Otto Abetz, served as Adolf Hitler’s wartime ambassador to France. He was captured by Allied forces in 1945 and in 1949 was sentenced to 20 years in jail for war crimes.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/05/peter-abetz-points-to-positive-legacy-of-his-high-ranking-nazi-great-uncle
But we don’t talk about that…
I talk about it – and as totally relevant to the fascist points of view he continues to espouse – polluting our national discourse!
The idiot older brother also covers himself in fascist glory bullying an eight year old trangender girl.
Are you referring to the one in WA politics? Of the same general ugliness – that family really is an excrescence!
I intended sarcasm, Jim… also though the puzzling ignorance or reluctance of media to note the irony. Also in this thread, people don’t seem to be aware.
Gotcha!
Ambassador Otto signed up with the Nazis in 1931 and was a member of Hitler Youth , so he was an enthusiastic early adopter. He did well under the regime, rising to be ambassador to Vichy France, something not possible in Nazi Germany if one’s family was not “sound”. During his time in France, he did a bit of everything from the official theft of art treasures, organising French fifth columnists and of course overseeing the rounding up and deportation of French Jews. For his troubles he did get twenty years gaol in 1949, but like very many convicted war criminals, actually served much less than his sentence: he was out and rehabilitated by 1954.
For 25 years, since as Human Rights Commissioner in the late 1990s I appeared regularly before Senator Abetz in Senate Committees, I have called him Eric the Mad. Now he’s re-named himself Eric the Evil.
Sir,
Well said. Let me just say that famous spies who betrayed their countries to the enemy were never (as far as I can determine from my readings) the migrants from the countries deemed enemies. The three most famous spies who betrayed the UK to the Soviet Union were all British by nationality, ethnicity and race (another word I dislike apart from “diaspora”). They were Kim Philby, Donald McClean and Melita Norwood. In fact, many would have seen the movie “Red Joan” that was loosely based on the life of Melita Norwood. The British government would have been barking up the wrong tree if they were to wage a silly campaign picking on Russian migrants to the UK and making a fool of themselves.
Fortunately for us, we are not at war with China (not if the hawks in this country have their way). If we were, another case in point is that of a Japanese actor in the Star Wars series, George Hosato Takei, who played the role of the starship helmsman Hikaru Sulu. He wrote a book recounting the ill treatment of Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during WWII for no reason other than the fact that they were of Japanese extraction. Takei was born in Los Angeles and both his parents were also American born. In the book titled “They Called Us Enemy”, he described the trauma and the hurt that they suffered from just being born Japanese.
Racism, unfortunately, is a trait present in all humans. Being fair does not come naturally. The way that thinking people deal with it is by the sheer force of reason and self critique. That is what Confucius means by “the big people” (ta ren) and the “small people” (xio ren). The same types of people Aristotle means when he urges people to live a virtuous life.
“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel” is an observation of a number of famous Western thinkers, not the least of which is Samuel Johnson and Mark Twain. Of course they also qualify that not all patriots are scoundrels, only the loud ones. Understandably, one has to be loud in order to be heard; when one who is fed by the public purse has not done anything of sufficient value to be heard.
I believe people who disagree with the ruling party are not traitors but a responsible citizens who deem it necessary to add their ideas to the common pool of ideals from which the best could be picked for guiding the thinking of his fellow citizens. It is the gene pool that geneticists say ensures our survival. That one is forced to think like the “powers that be” is a mark of fascism. I am sure it is not what our constitution says about our democracy.
Sincerely,
Teow Loon Ti
Sincerely,
Teow Loon Ti
Very well put Teow Loon.
Senator is also human. We hope he will learn to apologize so that others will not follow his ugly footstep and make the same mistake.
I am not sure ABETZ is human – inhuman – yes – but human – that’s a little more difficult to believe.
As an Australian i apologise to the decent and dignified Australians who were subjected to these mug goons bullying.
Hear, hear!