It seems clear that most Australians are appalled that Indonesia is killing our drug dealers. But men, women and children are dying slowly at our hands on Manus and Nauru. It is not hard to know that millions of innocent people around the world became collateral damage in incursions by coalitions that included Australia. Only a minuscule trickle of these persons came here to seek sanctuary. Thousands of them have remained in indefinite detention for more than a year in our offshore camps and jails, in appalling conditions. They have no hope. We throw a cowl of secrecy and a media blackout over them but still our abuses are killing them as surely as a Taliban noose. If this country stands for anything decent at all it will process them all and bring those deserving of our asylum to Australia. We should stop lying about them and do the humanitarian thing. Because these people will make wonderful future Australians and future friends. But exploiting their suffering as a macabre circus to win hate votes only makes us look like an apartheid mediocrity to the world. And makes all the comments about the Indonesians sound just a little sanctimonious and hollow.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 20:16:58 +0000
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