Thought Leadership

By Afroz Ali

“People are using religion and race to divide an electorate at election time. It is disgusting”, was the response of Australia’s most credible political commentator Laurie Oakes, as the Australian Federal election edges closer on 24^th November. Laurie can sense when there is something wrong with ethics anywhere in Australian politics, and he noticed when the moral compass of Australia showed a decisive error in direction. But he is not the only one to have noticed this decay in the moral leadership of Australia. The polls, published on the National Nine News and ninemsn website, showed that 82% of Australians agreed that there is clearly something wrong with the current leadership at the hands of a Liberal government and a war-hungry Prime Minister. The fact that around 15% of some 11,400 voters of the poll disagreed with Laurie Oakes observation, that it is rather disgusting that people are using religion and race to divide the people of Australia, is slightly worrying. But, it would not be life without small worries.

What is greatly worrying is the sheer evidence against the incumbent government, which proves its lack of a moral compass during almost its entire terms in office. And, it has been a long time since they got into office that most choose not to remember when and how they got there in the first place. What is more than greatly worrying, is that the Howard-led government does not lack a moral compass but that it has deliberately recalibrated the direction the compass should be pointing. It has planted vibrant seeds of a moral decay in public space that Australia’s fertile multiculturalism did not see coming. And, all in the name of protecting our freedom and liberty apparently against the evils of Islam and Muslims. It has systematically discredited Islam in the most eloquent and subtle ways, leaving many confused, thus simply leaving it with the politicians to make decisions for the good of Australia. But, no good has come really, except lies and deceit, and gains for a few.

The former Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating wrote of this incumbent Liberal government, “ The principal reason the public should take the opportunity to kill off the Howard Government has less to do with broken promises on interest rates or even its draconian Work Choices industrial laws, and everything to do with restoring a moral basis to our public life. Without this, the nation has no standard to rely upon, no claim that can be believed, not even when the grave step of going to war is being considered. When truth is up for grabs, everything is up for grabs.”

Almost everything is up for grabs in this federal election. It will decide the direction of Australia from here on, despite a little decay. Australians are known to be strong, independent citizens who honour truth. This election will show how much of the truth has been eroded successfully by the Howard-led government from the grasp of the ordinary, strong, independent and truth-loving Australians.

When asked to explain the race card the Liberal party is alleged to be involved in, and have made their un-Australian trademark, the nation’s Prime Minister had this to say, "What more can I do? I've condemned it, I've dissociated myself from it, I think it is stupid, it's offensive, it's wrong, it's untrue, I mean for heaven's sake get a sense of proportion.''

Yet, he continued to ignore, forget and even mock the sincere public statements by Muslim Scholars and Leaders that who condemned terror and dissociated themselves from all forms of terror. This has been our leadership, or lack thereof.

The dishonesty and political orchestration of the Tampa affair at the last election; the dishonesty and selling of Australians’ independence to America’s interests in supporting the Gulf War on the false pretence of Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction; the harmful industrial relations laws; the utter lack of ethics in its pursuing individuals under the dubious anti-terror laws; the corruption that the government itself oversaw in the Wheat for Iraq program; these are the national hallmarks of John Howard’s Liberal government that has muddied the waters of a free and just Australia.

Muddier than the dying Murray River and cloudier than the impending environmental crisis that looms disaster over Australia, and indeed the world. That which mattered- women at workplaces, families, protection of the environment particularly in a fragile continent that Australia is, nurturing and leading harmony and progress, all were of little importance to this incumbent government. The most charming of its proposals towards such important national tasks was summed up by this government’s “aspirational” statement towards climate change. Aspirational- that is presumably a new word, because my Macquarie Dictionary does not indicate it, nor does my Microsoft spell-check know of it. Howard should be concerned, given it does not even make mention in the American Webster’s.

The last two terms of office for the Liberal incumbent government, has really been about language, with a twist of ingenuity. For example, anyone it did not like was a terrorist and anyone who instigated racial incitement against Muslims on public radio was a decent man.

The moral compass in Australia indeed is broken.

Paul Keating summed the incumbent government’s lack of honest leadership quite well, “[Howard] has turned out to be the most divisive prime minister in our history. Not simply a conservative maintaining the status quo, but a militant reactionary bent upon turning the clock back. Turning it back against social inclusion, cooperation at the workplace, the alignment of our foreign policies towards Asia, providing a truthful and honourable basis for our reconciliation, accepting the notion that all prime ministers since Menzies had: Holt, Gorton, McMahon, Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke and me: that our ethnic diversity had made us better and stronger and the nation's leitmotif was tolerance. Howard has trodden those values into the ground.”

But Australians are champions. Australians as a people do not like broken things, particularly when their politicians break things by trodding on it. Many Australians are acutely aware of this erosion of their liberty and their independent sovereignty. And the alternatives to the current government is a glimmer of hope that we can rebuild a moral consensus that is constructive for Australian public space that people of a diverse background openly share, and want to continue to do so. The extremism of the Howard-led government is very transparent, but whether the people that vote governments in, or out, can see through the clouds of lies, deceit and a lack of national leadership will only become apparent after Saturday 24^th.

It would be futile, even dishonest of a commentator to try to assert that the Labor government has any great plans for issues fundamentally important to the national coherence and development of Australia. We can only pass judgment on the lacklustre performance of the incumbent government, and send a strong moral mandate to a new government. Governments lose elections; oppositions rarely win it. But, many hope that miraculously both can be true this time around. Australia’s subtle decay is crying out for a just and fair leader. Australia’s strong past is searching for a future government that protects its people, develops national interest that is enjoyed by all of its citizens and contributes towards affirmative action to protect the environmental and social welfare of earth and its citizens. Australians are looking for a faithful leader who can place the nation back on track.

Paul Keating for Prime Minister, anyone?

Afroz Ali is the Founder and President of Al-Ghazzali Centre for Islamic Sciences & Human Development, based in Sydney, Australia. He is a qualified Imam in the Islamic Tradition, having studied under Traditional Islam and received licence to teach in various Islamic Sciences. He lectures around the world on Islamic jurisprudence, spirituality, ecological wellbeing, ethical rights and responsibilities and personal and corporate citizenship. He has initiated philanthropic as well as sustainable environment projects in Australia and abroad, and continues to advocate for peace, acceptance and understanding, justice and interpersonal rights. He is also the recipient of the International Ambassador for Peace award.