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Isolationist Pauline gets even dimmer
17th August 1997
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Australia raised their stake in the IMF-led Thailand rescue plan last week
to match that of neighbouring countries in ASEAN. But the publicity in the
Bangkok Post and the Nation was more on the opposition
of fish-and-chippery-owner-turned-politican Pauline Hanson to the aid package.
As reported earlier, Hanson's views are seen as many in Asia as racist based, and in a part of the world where a free press and speech is limited, statements by politicans and reported in Australia's free press are often mistaken for the government line. But how long Australian's are going to put up with Hanson is debateable while her statements become even more naive each time. Her further dis-service to the Australian people, apart from feeding racist elements, is surely her belief that Australia can still afford to be isolationist in an age of globalization. The fact that no country in the world can survive by itself has been painfully obvious, in Australia's case especially, for over a decade, but this not-too-difficult-to-understand piece of intelligence must have passed way over Hanson's head. Hanson's new political grouping has reportedly gained the support of 10 to 20% of Australians depending on the source you read. Mostly, it can only be assumed, from those who depend on simplistic theories to understand complex problems. It is a group that exists due to "Australian values".. the Voltarian belief that citizens have the right to speak freely.. (I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it..), but is paradoxically the greatest threat to it. The more naive Hanson's statements become the more she is likely to lose her support. The Rat does not give her too much longer... .. for several other reasons.. Almost exclusively for many years Australian politics has been dominated by the Australian Labour party (ALP)(a catholic and broad collection of centrist to leftist interests) and the Liberal Party (not "liberal" in the political sense but representing moderate right wing and business causes). Extremist politics have generally not had great support in Australian history, due to the relative wealth of the country and the lack of any real military threat to their shores. For many years, it was the "lucky country", not really having to worry about anything other than domestic distrubution of income issues. the failure of any other group than the big two to make a big impact on Australian politics since federation is well documented. Historically, support for minor parties evaporates as election times near. Hanson's support seems to be coming from firstly, the conservative working class who see a threat from imported (and often more hard-working) labour, despite immigration being almost as carefully controlled as places like Malaysia and Singapore where various mechanisms exist to ensure that new immigration does not produce an over-supply in certain employment sectors. These are traditionally supporters of the ALP, if only becuase they have nowhere else to go given the monopoly of the two major parties. The second stream of support seems to be emanating from elements of the right wing middle class, traditionally Liberal voters, who have seen their living standards reduce significantly in the last 20 years and who are looking for scapegoats and easy answers. To these groups, Hanson's party provides an alternative political ideology to the ALP and Liberal parties; indeed, the two major parties have moved so close to each other in in domestic policy due to the need to cater for the large proportion of apolitical "swinging voters" over the last 10 years that there is often little discernable difference. Australia is already a multi-racial nation with a previous wave of European migrants, having weathered reactionary elements not unlike Hanson in their time, becoming highly respected civic, political, and business leaders. Already many immigrants from Asian nations, who generally came later, hold similar positions and respect. With limited direct threat to their own shores, Australians have fought wars on behalf of allies, but have a streak of independence that has limited involvement in regional, trade, and business groupings. Apart from an emotional attachment to their previous coloniser, Great Britain, there has been no great strutting on the world stage by Australians, preferring to live their idealised life on the most isolated island continent in the world. In the past this meant that politicians had to have a local rather than global perspective to survive. However in the new world order, this is coming to an end, a fact increasingly realised by mainstream politicians. And is the reason why Hanson is "yesterday's woman" rather than a part of the future. Part of this looking outwards, is engagement with Asia, which is the obvious grouping to anybody looking at a globe of the world, save for a much smaller and less powerful grouping of Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Islands. Labour politicians were the first to realise this with former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam making a highly publicised trip to China in the 1970's, foreshadowing more visibility in the region, previously ignored by the conservative Liberal politicans who sometimes made a stopover in the region to buy cheap watches while visiting the UK motherland. While some Asian leaders feel that Australia cannot make a worthwhile contribution to several regional groupings, Australians generally feel they can, with much goodwill at the personal level being built up by many years of providing educational, and military training as just two examples. Indeed, in the increasing interdependence of nation states and economies, Australia has little other choice than to forge positive relationships with others. The long term success of Hanson's new right wing party is highly unlikely in this context. Although the Rat has not been kind to Prime Minister John Howard in the past in the area of Asia policy, there is little to complain about on this issue. He knows that Hanson's move will eventually fail, as have almost all other marginal political parties in Australia for the past 100 years. In the meantime, he is valuing free speech higher than appeasing Asia's neighbours in the short term. He, like many who have spent time in Asia, realise that racism exists throughout the region and is certainly not just confined to Australia,.. ..the difference being that some countries allow their citizens to talk openly about it.
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