Find this book:
Escape from Manus by Jaivet Ealom. Read it. Then ask yourself if you are happy
for Australia to behave like this in your name. In our name. Appalling.
Disgusting. Every Australian Prime Minister from Howard to Morrison – all of
them – should be charged with crimes against humanity. How could we stoop so
low?
Like most
Australians I am aware of the offshore detention policy applied to refugees who
attempt to come here by boat. I have always totally opposed it and it is in
stark contrast to what happened in the 70’s when Australia accepted thousands
of boat people from SE Asia. But what I was not aware of was the calculated and
meticulous torture Australia has designed to break the spirit of these people who merely
sought refuge on our shores from tyranny elsewhere.
If you have ever
wondered whether Australians could behave as people in Nazi Germany did, well
here’s your answer. The answer is a very scary YES. The Nazis would be proud of
what Australia has accomplished in our offshore detention centres. After
reading Jaivet Ealom’s account of the hell he was subjected to by the Australian
authorities there is no doubt in my mind that Australia embarked on a
deliberate policy of psychological torture of our most recent boat peoples.
While the goal was to discourage people smugglers operating out of Indonesia
and Malaysia Australia embarked on an inhumane policy of punishing the victims
to achieve this goal. From the moment Jaivet arrives in Christmas Island and is
given his tag with a number – he becomes EML109 - he becomes a nameless,
stateless nobody to be tortured to breaking point. He could just as well have had
the Star of David sewn to his sleeve.
I have never
been so ashamed of my country. Somewhere deep down within our collective psyche
we have lost our humanity; we have lost our soul. I repeat - find this book:
Escape from Manus by Jaivet Ealom. Read it. Then ask yourself if you are happy
for Australia to behave like this in your name. Whatever the goals
may have been, nothing excuses the deplorable and planned humiliation of people
who simply wanted our help. Nothing.
