A POLITICAL RAY OF LIGHT

We have expressed the view that the long-term interests of Australia would be best served by keeping the Hawke Government in office with the smallest possible majority, restricted by a Senate which it did not control. The overall election result was the best that could be wished for at the present time, with a major fracturing of the two party power monopoly. There was a massive electoral rebuff to both the Hawke Government and the Peacock led Opposition.
Assuming that he survives, Mr. Bob Hawke, who suffered an 11% drop in his personal vote in the electorate of Wills, will not be quite as arrogant as in the past. And he and Mr. Paul Keating will be forced to accept more responsibility for the disastrous financial and economic policies they have imposed on the Australian people.

While it is true that Hawke suffered badly as a result of a massive protest vote against the Victorian Cain Labor Government, it should not be overlooked that the Hawke-Keating financial strategy, of which high interest rates have been a major feature, was hurting in Victoria, particularly in Melbourne, more than in any other State. If it had not been for the anti-Labor backlash in Victoria, and to lesser extent in Western Australia, it is probable that the Hawke Government would have been returned with a decisive majority.

In one sense, the electoral rebuff of the Opposition was even more significant and revealing than the anti-Labor vote. South Australian Labor Premier Bannon, and A.L.P. Federal President, has frankly admitted, "If ever there was an election that should have been won by an opposition, this was the one". But the Opposition offered no constructive alternatives on the major problems threatening the nation. The most encouraging feature of the election was the strong vote for Independents, which has already set the alarm bells ringing among the power groups.

The eyes of Australia will be on Independent Ted Mack, the man who swept to victory in what was regarded as a safe Liberal North Sydney electorate. Mr. Mack correctly observes that his win, with a swing of between 14 and 28 percent, against sitting Liberal Member John Spender Q.C., has destroyed the concept of safe seats. Based upon his record to date, both as a State Member of Parliament and as a Municipal Councillor, Mack is a man of courage and integrity. He is a strong advocate of the electors having an effective say in their own affairs, and will be strongly advocating the introducing of the Swiss concept of the Electors' Veto.

In conceding his defeat, Mr. John Spender made the foolish comment that Mack would be unable to achieve anything in Parliament as an Independent, and that he would "sink like a stone". This type of comment is an insult to the electors, and is indicative of the totalitarian view that parliament is little more than a battleground between highly disciplined parties.

In its editorial comment on the election, The Australian (March 26th) worries about the Independents, commenting, "Mr. Mack is a sincere man but his pledge to vote on legislation according to the wishes of the electors of North Sydney is ominous'. The original concept of the British system of constitutional government was that the Member of Parliament was primarily responsible to those who elected him, not to party bosses. Already the anti-Independent totalitarians are fostering the line that at a time when Australia needs a "strong" government to make "firm" and "decisive" decisions, Independents holding the balance of power could result in delays to legislation being passed. This view also reflects the view that parliament is little more than a rubber stamping machine for legislation put forward by the Executive.

The traditional role of parliament is an institution where the representatives of the electors freely debate and make policy decisions. Unless Parliament is restored to its original role, it masks what the former Lord Chief Justice of England, Lord Hewart, aptly described as "The New Despotism." Hopefully, the 1990 Federal Elections have resulted in a sufficient fracturing of the power monopoly to make it possible to change the course of Australian politics. There is definitely a ray of political light starting to shine through. The situation is pregnant with tremendous possibilities for the concepts advanced over the years by the League of Rights.

BRIEF COMMENTS

Retiring N.S.W. Labor Federal Member, Barry Cohen, who becomes slightly lurid in his language when commenting on the League of Rights, says that "Mack may be the man to overturn party power". Cohen says that originally he had not been too impressed by Mack, but now feels that "he will be a welcome addition to Canberra". In an article in The Australian of March 26th, Mr. Cohen frankly admits why he retired from Parliament, stating that ". . .there was no role for someone like me under the present System. In Canberra all power resides with half a dozen senior Cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister." Should Mack and Dr. Helen Caldicott finish with the balance of power, a Hawke Government would only be able to proceed with the greatest caution. Needless to say, we do not agree with some of Caldicott's views, but it should be recorded that she has joined the growing ranks of those opposed to the Multi-Function-Polis.

A further indication of the shape of things to come was the strong vote by Independent Barry Tattersall in the Victorian electorate of Indi. The former Principal of Canaan College managed to obtain just over 15 percent of the primary vote, in some booths receiving a much higher vote. The Tattersall vote was the highest Independent vote in Victoria. Mr. Tattersall campaigned strongly on the rights of the electors to control their Member of Parliament and veto unwanted legislation.

Senator Boswell, Queensland National Party Senator who was used to spearhead a national campaign against the Australian League of Rights early in 1988, has just managed to scrape back in the face of the massive anti-National Party swing last Saturday, says that the National Party was in "a state of shock" following the almost certain loss of National Party leader Charles Blunt. Boswell is relying upon Call to Australia and Liberal Party preferences for his political survival. The National Party was the big loser at the elections. Senator Boswell claims that contrary to widespread political comment, the election disaster does not mean the end of the National Party. Events will prove Senator Boswell as wrong on this prediction as he has been proved concerning the League of Rights.

A national survey suggests that following Andrew Peacock's late introduction of the Multi-Function-Polis in the election campaign, the Opposition started to worry the Hawke strategists. Those who followed the League's lead and campaigned on this issue can claim that they played a vital role in helping to reduce the Hawke majority to the minimum. The stage has been set to destroy the Multi-Function-Polis completely. This is one of the best results of the election campaign.

While multiculturalism is being fostered in Australia, the news from all around the world brings stories of growing ethnic violence everywhere. Nationalism is emerging as one of the most powerful forces in human affairs. Even Communist China is now faced with the threat of ethnic and separatist unrest in Tibet and other regional areas.

Reports of growing corruption continue to flow out of "liberated" Africa. President Kaunda of Zambia, sometimes described as one of Africa's "elder statesmen", has been charged with diverting $4 billion (U.S.) out of the country to his Swiss Bank account. Since becoming President in 1964, Kaunda has presided over the decline of his nation. Kaunda was re-elected as President last year in an "election" in which his was the only name on the ballot paper. That great expert on African affairs, Mr. Malcolm Fraser, confines his criticism of African states to South Africa.

Australians are told with monotonous regularity that they must learn to "compete" with Asia, work harder, produce more, and export to Asia. But as pointed out by Robin Bromby in a feature article in The Weekend Australian of March 24th-25th, there are several reasons, including cheap labor, why Australians have little chance of being successful. Bromby quotes a Singapore stockbroker as saying "We (Asians) view Australia as a playground for Asia and as a resources backyard." Australia's independence requires a break from the export-or-perish dogma. First things first: A finance economic policy, which adequately houses, feeds and clothes Australian people. Stop overseas borrowing and cease importing foods that Australia produces itself.

M.F.P.

The Japanese View from The Weekend Australian (March 24th-25th):
"The notion of a Japanese high-tech city, known as the Multi-Function Polis, suddenly became an election issue last weekend, although the concept was initially proposed in January, 1987, by the Japanese Government. "Despite the gigantic scale of this project and the consequent socioeconomic impact on this country, few Australians have been aware of this proposal until quite recently. "For reasons which are still unclear, both the Federal and State Governments have chosen to keep details of this project secret, so that even the nature of the high-tech industries which will be introduced are not publicly available.
"Some Japanologists in Australia, including myself, have tried to draw media attention to this issue over the past three years, but disappointingly there has been little interest shown. "What concerns me, along with a number of my colleagues, is the extreme naiveness of Australian bureaucrats and politicians who seem to believe that Japan is prepared to transfer her high-tech know how to this country. Surely, it is reminiscent of cargo-cult mentality to think that Japan or any other advanced country would simply offer its own economic assets for foreign use.
"The sudden media coverage and public debate of this issue in recent weeks has stimulated the emergence of an unfortunate anti-Japanese, racist attitude among certain sectors of the population. Opposition to the M.F.P., on emotional grounds, by these people should not be confused with that by people with certain knowledge of Japanese business practices and government operations.

I would like to suggest three ways of countering the spread of such racist sentiments.
"First, it should be made clear that the Australian Government is partly responsible for this attitude because of the secretive way in which it has conducted negotiations. This has created widespread suspicion and mistrust. The Japanese government, too, is at fault for not taking any measures to prevent this.
"Second, all the parties concerned - both the Australian and Japanese - should make details of the proposal publicly available so that democratic debate may take place without racist sentiments.
"And finally, mutual understanding and acceptance of one another should be promoted through greater activity at grassroots level, through such things as environmental, peace and human rights movements in both Australia and Japan. I feel this would be more successful than secretive negotiations by government parties and top businessmen.
"Only by sustained, down to earth efforts and mutual assistance by the ordinary people of these two countries will it be possible to arrest anti-Japanese sentiments spreading in Australia and that feeling of superiority by the Japanese based upon economic power." (Yuki Tanaka, Department of Political Science, University of Melbourne)

THE M.F.P. TROJAN HORSE

"The establishment of a Multi-Function-Polis permanently housing around 200,000 people, of whom approximately 80% will be Japanese, is clearly the brainchild of bureaucrats who know little or nothing about Japanese isolationism and the polular attitudes that alienate the Japanese from the rest of humanity. "I would strongly recommend that the planners in charge of this project read one of the most perspicacious books ever written on Japan, namely, The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation (Knopf, New York, 1989) by Karel von Wolferen, who has forgotten more about Japan than the Australian bureaucrats in charge of the M.F.P. will ever know.
"Von Wolferen argues that Japan 'sometimes gives the impression of not wanting to belong to the world' and argues that Japanese isolationism is most clearly demonstrated by the phenomenon of the so-called 'returning youngsters' (Kikoku Shijo) - Japanese children who have been educated abroad as a result of their parents' overseas postings. "He points out that these children, after returning to Japan, have to undergo a special six weeks decontamination course to rid them of the pernicious influence of foreign customs which they may well have acquired inadvertently during their stay overseas, in spite of the earnest endeavours of their parents and the fact that they have been educated in special Japanese schools. "Given such an outlook, there can be no doubt that the approximately 160,000 Japanese to be settled in the M.F.P. will constitute a gigantic ghetto and will certainly never form part of a multi-racial society.

"Little wonder then that Professor Shigimoto has strong reservations about this project and is reported to have likened it to a Trojan Horse. 'Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes!' ('I fear the Greeks (i.e. Japanese), even when bringing gifts') as a Trojan remarked when a similar proposal was mooted." (Professor J.D. Frodsham, Murdoch University, PERTH, W.A.)

Opposing Ideas
"During the war the opposing of the Japanese was considered to be national. Now, during the peace, the opposing is considered to be racial." (The Age (Melb.) 21/3 A. Ley, Frankston)

M.F.P. Goes Public
"Of course, the M.F.P. is a political issue, yet in three years, neither the Government nor the media has encouraged reasoned debate. Whatever his motivation and however late in the campaign, Mr. Peacock's statement at least has the merit of putting the M.F.P. where it belongs - in the public arena." (Margo Huxley, Brunswick, Vic.)

Tell Us About It
"I think I have missed out somewhere along the line. What is this M.F.P. that both parties are so edgy about? They both seem to have discussed it at great lengths with the Japanese, but tend to become incredibly coy when questioned. I wish someone would fill me in." (V. Williams, Sunshine, Vic.)