Is there a more shameless, shameful, shaming, embarrassing, woeful and appalling federal politician doing the rounds at the moment?
Excluding Team Idiot, the ones on the fringes.
This one has the power of life and death, humiliation and betrayal. This one is allegedly the guardian of helpless children ...
So how's Nauru these days?
How's Manus Island going?
On one level of course it's just a comedy of errors, an inept colonialist out and about hobnobbing and drinking champers with assorted scrambled eggs of the military dicatorship kind ...
You can have a laugh reading Refugee deal triggers awkward moment for Scott Morrison in Cambodia, at least if you don't mind your comedy fully sick:
Diplomatic embarrassment ... walked in 20 minutes late to a ceremony with one of the world's poorest and most corrupt nations... champagne glasses crashed to the floor and things went from there ... storm of criticism ... refusal to answer any questions ... growing heckling ... pretended to toast a line of generals ... walked out with Sar Kheng leaving Cambodian journalists gobsmacked ... convoy returned to luxurious Raffles hotel having requested the Cambodians call off a press conference ...
And so on. A tin pot politician on a tin pot colonialist journey ... with a glass of champers to swill ...
It's a measure that champagne swilling should have been the metaphor in a country which carries this set of statistics:
Well "democracy" is what the fact file at the ABC here says, but it's very much a democracy of the Putin kind, with Hun Sen managing some 25 years at the top of the tree, and calling himself Samdech Akeak Moha Sena Padey Decho Hun Sen, meaning "Lord Prime Minister, Supreme Military Commander Hun Sen".
Or so it says if you Greg Hunt here.
Heck, let's just call him Chief Pooh Bah and be done with it, and dictator supreme ... Joh Bjelke-Petersen is rolling in his grave with envy.
So what's it all for? What's the fact file say about that?
As few as four or five people could be sent from Nauru to Cambodia under a deal signed by Immigration Minister Scott Morrison in Phnom Penh today.
A cool forty million, and counting, in the pockets of the generals, just to relocate a few people because they've been driven mad by Morrison in their tropical hell?
So how's it helping Australia's image abroad?
Official people trafficker.
And who could argue with that?
For a moment, the pond thought it had lost its mind.
Why wasn't Australia shocked and ashamed? Had the Islamic terrorist jihad of the Abbott government, the Murdochians and the Faifaxians worked? Was everyone watching the football while locked safely in doors?
Well, no, even the reptiles had to print Scott Morrison's refugee deal with Cambodia branded 'immoral' by former judge (sorry, no link, that would just lead to shrieking, pleading, begging reptiles).
Amongst the words that popped into the story about Alastair Nicholson's opinion of Scott Morrison's deal: inappropriate and illegal.
But elsewhere Nicholson's language was even stronger, as on The World Today:
Unfortunate ... reprehensible ... demeaning... inhumane ... unacceptable at international law ... very concerned ...
And so on. Nicholson has been down this path before, and a speech he made back in July 2014 as published under the header Asylum seekers: my country, my shame.
The hand-wringing has already begun, in stories like Fears for refugee children in Morrison's Cambodia deal (forced video at end of link), with the irony that Morrison is supposed to be a guardian to young refugees ... you'd need a Dickens to evoke the level of irony involved in that ...
Then there's Tim Mayfield with Cambodia deal: another stain on our reputation:
... consider this: on January 28 this year, Australia publically castigated Cambodia (forced video at the end of this typo link) at the United Nations for human rights abuses, "particularly the disproportionate violence against protestors, including detention without trial". Less than a month later, Julie Bishop was in Phnom Penh proposing the plan that is about to come to fruition.
I seriously doubt the world will be hearing from Australia on Cambodia's deteriorating human rights record again anytime soon.
Forget the typo, just marvel at the cartoon offered by that link:
Mayfield's conclusion?
While our actions in Cambodia, India and Sri Lanka may be justifiable in the pursuit of short-term tactical victories over people smugglers, they represent a potentially damaging shift away from Australia's traditional emphasis on multilateral organisations such as APEC and the ASEAN Regional Forum.
Australia will no doubt continue to participate enthusiastically in these gatherings and advocate the merits of regional consensus on matters such as trade and security. However, our partners in the Asia-Pacific will be taking note of the disparity between our words and actions.
The message here is that Australia's domestic interests, including the maintenance of secure borders, can be achieved without unnecessarily championing cynical bilateral relationships over multilateral engagement. Cutting a deal with Cambodia, one of the poorest nations in our neighbourhood, only serves to damage our reputation abroad.
Well that's suitably diplomatic language but being a tabloid blog heavily influenced by the Murdochian kool aid filtering through the air, the pond prefers to move beyond 'damaging', to shameful, disgraceful and appalling, and with consequences:
Yes, they're so poor, they can't even avoid decent protest signs.
So how do the Murdochians feel about this ilnternational shame and embarrassment?
Cue the Currish snail here:
Mr Morrison is a realist and pragmatist who is not hung up on aiming for a good result if his ideal is unachievable. This is the kind of practical politics that the Government could do with a bit more of, especially in key negotiations for higher education and health and Medicare changes.
Mr Morrison has made great progress in fulfilling the pledges he gave to Australian voters...
Yes indeed, and if the pond may indulge in a little Godwin's Law, Mussolini is alleged to have got the trains running on time, and Hitler arranged for the building of very good autobahns ...
Well fuck that for a joke.
Absolutely no sense of shame. Not a jot or a tittle of it ...
Could it get any more demeaning or embarrassing?
Well on a symbolic, as opposed to a human level, yes. It came with Abbott shamelessly pilfering, filching, stealing and purloining not just Ben Chifley's phrase, but Chifley himself.
Now there's a light on the dung hill, because it would be a disgrace to use Tony Abbott as a shoelace on one of Chifley's boots ...
No doubt Chifley is rolling in his grave.
Poor Ben. Used by Abbott as a cloak to hide his immoral conduct.
Is there nothing left sacred? Is there the slightest sense of shame in Abbott?
Where's Bull Shirtless when he's needed?
Is there anything else?
Well yes, speaking of the toothless Bus Flirting, or Babs Stilton, there is, and it features in First Dog's impeccable cartoon, which is extremely moderate and temperate, even when a comparison of Tony Abbott to Joe McCarthy would defame and demean McCarthy.
Think more of Stasiland as you see what Australia's valiant freedom fighters are introducing. No wonder they like swilling champagne in the company of scrambled egg generals, while suggesting the peasants stay quiet and eat their cake.
As usual First Dog is in cracking form - impotent rage might have a hand in that - and more First Dog here:
Ah Dot, we don't do shame very well in this country unless we are a footballer forced before the cameras for Bringing The Game Into Disrepute. Down goes the big meaty head in a abject display and that familiar act of contrition is mumbled: 'Oy am disappointed with myself'.
ReplyDeleteThat's about as far as Shame goes in this country and as a nation we have plenty to be ashamed about. But shame only follows reflection and we are not good at that because we are too busy 'moving forward'. I would be much happier if we stood still for a while and reflected.
We are a careless people fattened by instant gratification.
We should hang our heads in shame that we are treating refugees so appallingly and have a politician like morrison who will hand a massive bribe to a corrupt country and toast that transaction in champagne.
Alas though I don't think that pic of Morrison tipping back the bubbles is going to be his Hockey cigar moment. It doesn't affect us. We have no shame. We do not reflect. Let's move on.
On first glance, I read the header as involving "gaily decorated genitals".
ReplyDeleteIs there anything more wacky than a whacky Anglophile doing the rounds with dictators.
ReplyDelete