No more Mr Nice Guys

DARSHAK MEHTA has a vehement response to the blatant racial attacks, while condemning the government and police for their obvious procrastination

It is time for the Indian community in Australia to unite behind the toughening stance of the Indian Government and tell elected MPs and Ministers, here: E N O U G H Enough is enough.

They cannot just stand around, apologize and do nothing whilst racial attacks –mostly against students and largely in Melbourne, continue unabated. There is no point in every Federal and State Minister (or, Premier) and his dog, flying to India to appease Indians and tell them what a nice, friendly place Australia is, and how these attacks are an aberration and that really, really, really, there is no racism.

Just fix the bloody (sorry, bad pun!) problem here and there will be no need to go there.

The Police are either under-resourced or unable to understand or unwilling to do their jobs, diligently. It is part of their brief to ensure that any Australian infringing the law would attract charges being laid, and severe and deterrent penalties. All offenders should be afraid, very afraid that they will get caught and will be dealt with, severely.

For a couple of years now, the Police have been unable to effectively address the issue of violence against Indian students –in Melbourne, in particular.

It is shocking to see that there was yet another appalling incident of racism, intolerance and violence in Melbourne on Sept 12th. And to their shame, the Victorian Police sat on it for 4 days and did not even make it public, till the baying hounds of the Indian media were on to this and forced their hand.

And despite all the recent hulla gulla of the Indian media and consequent escalation of the issue of violence against Indian students here, neither the Police nor the Governments involved seem to understand the gravity of the situation and act on it.

To an extent, we are reaping the whirlwind of the Howard, Ruddock, and Andrews years, in which xenophobic sentiment, dog whistling and anti migrant/ refugee policies were blatantly pursued, encouraged and institutionalised. The Australian people’s baser instincts were stoked and catered to.

To comprehend the social context, we must realise that Australia is merely 42 (not, 221!) years old. The White Australia policy was dismantled by the Harold Holt Government as recently as in 1967. Some people in this country are uncomfortably, reluctantly, coming to terms with seeing others with different looks, complexions, religions, accents, foods, beliefs etc. Do not for one moment believe that there is wide-spread community acceptance of foreigners.

We have lived with the Pauline Hanson phenomenon (no one can brush under the carpet the astonishing fact that almost 10% of the electorate voted for an openly racist party, in a Federal election!), the Children Overboard Affair, demonization of refugees and their mandatory detention (including the Pacific solution, and now Christmas Island), the Cronulla race riots (where, at one stage, 5000 people wanted to set upon 3), the Dr. Mohammed Haneef affair, the rampant Islamophobia (witness it every time a D.A. application is lodged in any council for a community amenity), and the totally un-necessary Citizenship Test.

The next generation might be more accepting, provided broad-minded policies are followed, integration practiced and tolerance of non Anglo Saxons, preached.

But, the paradox is that every ethnic migrant group wants to shut the gates of the country the moment they have got in!

Moreover, as an island country, there is always the tendency of being terrified of who’s coming in from the water? Witness the community paranoia whipped up (in and by the media) every time a handful of boats come in with a few hundred people every year? Many hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in trying to exclude them from our towns and cities – so that people feel “safe”?

Ironically, over 95,000 Indian students who have been actively courted by Australian Universities are no longer able to live without fear of violence in these very towns and cities from the same Australians who feel threatened by the arrival on our shores of a few hundred people with nothing but the bare bones on their sorry bottoms.

I submit that the coverage of this newspaper has been balanced, reasoned and even placid. No effort has been made to see the violence against Indian students in any light except as a law and order problem or as crimes of opportunism, as claimed by Victorian Police.

However, these attacks are now making it increasingly apparent that there are still ugly undertones of racism in Australian society and alcohol often brings these to the fore.

External Affairs needs to make it clear in blunt, uncompromising language that there will be zero tolerance on this issue and that the Police in Melbourne and Sydney need to wake up and take any issue/complaints of racist attacks seriously as they have the potential to cause a grave deterioration in the India-Australia relationship due to the stridency of reporting by the Indian media and consequent public pressure being exerted on the Government of India.

I imagine that if there was even one Chinese student who had suffered, their Government would be all over the Aussies like a rash, pushing their political weight around and leveraging their formidable economic clout.

I have come to the sad conclusion now that due to entrenched racism in parts of the Australian Police Force and in the general community in Australia, these things are not being taken with the gravity they deserve (all cheap Ministerial talk notwithstanding) as they should, and I am afraid that the only way they will be taken seriously is if India’s Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna were to exert pressure via the Australian media and make strong public statements – not just strong private representations.

And do NOT for one minute think that our diplomats here have been remiss, idle or ineffective advocates. They have acquitted themselves creditably as India’s brightest and best.

Enough of the back-room and onto the drawing room: TV is the only effective solution now in sight.

I think there is a need for the Indian Foreign Minister to shake people up here: launch a ferocious, undiplomatic, full frontal attack themed “Find the offenders, NOW”.

“Charge them, make an example of them and stop this nonsense. Do whatever it takes,” I would be screaming.

The four-day delay in the release of a public statement by the Melbourne Police re: the Sept 12 attacks on four Indian men playing pool at a pub and minding their business, leads the public in both countries to question the reasons for this extraordinary delay in making the issue public and instant inferences and conclusions will be drawn.

I think India cannot - and should notpussyfoot on this issue, any longer, at all.

I believe that India’s Ministry of

Further, the Indian Government needs to bluntly warn the Australian Government that if these attacks continue: a) it will be constrained to step in, and prohibit any more Indian students from studying here - in the interests of their own safety b) A Travel Advisory for Indian tourists may also be issued.

The world-wide headlines that these steps would generate would finally shake the Federal and State Governments who currently seem to think that Indian blood is cheap.