The ABC should be the voice of reason in Australia’s society, and that reason should loudly proclaim that Australia is in the middle of Asia and it is in its self interest to act in accordance with that geographical fact.
The crucial element regarding that geographical fact is that Australia not only should but must gain a deep insight of the people and the culture of that neighbourhood and the ABC should and must advocate that course of action.
Alan Seymour’s “One Day of the Year”, started to question the glorification of our apron strings attachment to what was unquestionably regarded as our mother country. This questioning coincided with the election of the Whitlam Government which was determined to give credence to our independence and sovereignty; which was still marooned in sagging Colonialism and growing American Unilateralism. This Anglo-virus infected and thrived within our government’s bureaucracy.
Hence when the reformist Whitlam Government was elected on 2nd December 1972, it provoked a seismic shock to the infantile colonials who were in the process of letting go of mother Britain’s apron strings whilst at the same time clutching whatever part of Uncle Sam’s body was in sight. The threat of the Yellow Peril was still raw and the idea that the hoards of Asia would swallow us remained.
The idea that Australia was and or could even consider being an independent sovereign state in charge of its own destiny was a step too far for the infantilised actors who held the levers of power out of the view and behind the scenes. The reforms Whitlam introduced began to disturb the long held social shibolets and economic certainties.
The questioning of patriarchy, anglocentrism, economic protectionism and social norms whilst accepted by the majority as the election and re-election of the Whitlam Government confirmed were ardently opposed by the threatened sectors of society.
The policy implications of the changes not only threatened the prevailing social order but what at the time were Australia’s perceived insecurities. Namely being the only Anglo European enclave in the midst of what was perceived to be a hostile and alien Asia.
It has been established beyond doubt that senior bureaucrats Arthur Tange (Secretary of Department of Defence) and Peter Barbour (head of Asio), wilfully withheld information from the Whitlam Government. That government was seen as a threat to Australia’s security.
Part of that security was the U.S. Alliance and the baggage that came with it like the nuclear target of Pine Gap. The bureaucrats entrenched for 23 years of the Coalition power took it upon themselves to determine what was in Australia’s interests and ignore the wishes of the people who determined who should govern and what they had the right to know.
Hence they decided that Whitlam should not be told of the identity of the head of Pine Gap, which was former U.S. and CIA operative Richard Stallings. Nor was the Whitlam Government told what the real purpose of Pine Gap was and the fact that it posed as a nuclear target. Whitlam was not told until the later half of 1975 the identity of Richard Stallings until shortly before his dismissal on 11th November 1975.
Astonishingly this occurred only after the then Attorney General intervened and raided ASIO headquarters.
It was quite clear that the Nixon Administration and the CIA were concerned about the Whitlam Government and there was a great deal of speculation regarding their involvement in the dismissal of the Whitlam Government and their possible contact with the Governor General.
Only recently we have learnt through the efforts of Emeritus Professor Jenny Hocking that an ASIO file of Whitlam and a number of the then Governor General Kerr files relating to the Dismissal were destroyed. Ms Hocking goes on to say
“To find evidence of the existence of an ASIO file on Whitlam that I had never expected was a rare moment of archival anticipation. That anticipation was dashed four months later when the Archives informed me that, having maintained this security file for nearly 40 years, it had been destroyed in a routine culling, just weeks before I requested it”.
The elements of the unelected born to rule conservative brigade is still entrenched in the machinery of government influence government policy.
That influence has an effect of ensuring that progressive parties temper their policies in the knowledge that any displeasure felt by the unelected influencers within the body politic will hinder their program should it stray from the orthodoxy they expose.
That orthodoxy is the preservation of the symbiotic Euro centric Anglo cultural paradigm and symbiotic military alliance with the U.S.
We can, if we want to remain as some powers within Australia prefer, continue to be an irrelevant Anglo centric anomaly within Asia. On the other hand we can as a growing number of Australians desire to be an independent middle power enmeshed in and having influence contemporaneously, whilst contributing to the region.
To do that we need to develop a better understanding of our region and encourage the region to get a more profound understanding of us. To do that we need to encourage the development of a cultural language. Knowing a cultural language enables better and deeper understanding.
Knowing another language is a necessary but not a sufficient condition to promote deep understanding between cultures. Being a refugee on arrival in Australia without a word of English I am fully aware of the difficulty in communicating in a second language. Fortunately I came to Australia as a child and became immersed in the culture whilst learning English. But even then it took a while before I became fully conversant with the language.
The point is that even when I became fluent as did my parents we almost never spoke English, because our culture was initially Yugoslava and then as a consequence of the stupidity which enabled the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbian.
Culture determines attitudes and modes of expression, knowing the culture gives a meaning to language because attitudes and beliefs are fashioned by culture.
For Australia to be truly integrated and to have influence in our region we need that understanding of the peoples that surround us. So not only do we need to encourage and or even mandate the teaching of other languages and other cultures, we need to encourage participation in the same.
To that end our parliamentary and other institutional representatives need to learn the languages of our region and also to experience life and work in our region and vice versa.
Not only will this promote better understanding but also better cooperation and trust, which would result in better mutual outcomes.
Jon Jovanovic
An aspiring author. Studied This, that and the other, probably more of the other, than this and that at University of Tasmania. Has a stall at Salamanca Market. Went to Maribyrnong High In Melbourne.Lives in Hobart, Tasmania From Belgrade, Serbia.