No leg to stand on
mohammad
LEFT, Right, Left. Now the world is marching to a different drum, the
leftovers of the Left, what's left of it, are involved in the most
agonising of reappraisals. Even the dimmest of wits in the Left's most
diluted form, such social democratic parties as the US Democrats or the
ALP, can clearly see serious tactical errors.
For example, the Left had allowed the Right to appropriate such
pile-driving motivations as patriotism and religion. In the belief that
they were anachronisms, and finding them distasteful anyway, the flag
and the cross were given to Christian soldiers such as George W. Bush,
who proved them to be the most powerful political weapons.
Now there's a chance that the Left will let the Right grab the third
element in the political holy trinity. The Left could be losing its
copyright on human rights. This was seen previously in regard to Iraq.
When weapons of mass destruction looked dodgy as an excuse for war,
Bush and co belatedly switched to human rights. Suddenly, opposition to
the war could be characterised as defence of a monstrous regime, and
the Left was confused in its response.
Now the issue is China. However, the dynamics are very different in the
US and Australia. Here the Government is bending over backwards to
accommodate Beijing. We've behaved very badly over the attempt by a
Chinese diplomat to defect and, in a rare display of independence from
US foreign policy, Alexander Downer distanced Australia from the US
over the issue of Taiwan.
The US will play this issue differently. As with Iraq, Iran, Syria and
North Korea, human rights issues will be heavily emphasised in
diplomatic and military manoeuvrings, in a highly combustible mixture
of cynicism and sincerity. Manifest destiny meets self-interest.
For the Australian Left, China poses emotional and intellectual
difficulties. While the ALP is proud that Gough Whitlam recognised the
regime, it was estranged by such small matters as the Cultural
Revolution, the Tiananmen massacre and the ongoing treatment of
dissidents. Yet the Left likes the thought of a China that will
challenge, if not balance, US hegemony.
We wanted to tackle the Left's equivocations in Radio National's Late
Night Live, and a young producer, Sasha Fegan, summed up the problem.
"I had an argument at a dinner party about China's growing power.
Everyone saw it as a good thing that a country was emerging to keep the
US in check. Yet here's a one-party state without religious or press
freedom, persecuting everyone from the Falun Gong to Muslims to
journalists - not to mention making self-interested alliances with
dodgy countries to secure an oil supply. In other words, the very sort
of thing we've criticised the US for." She wondered whether the
Australian Left was "so pissed off about Iraq and Guantanamo that they
can't think straight", and when she suggested that, despite problems
with Bush, we had more in common with the US than China, "I was treated
as if I was Pauline Hanson".
I think Sasha's right. It is one thing to deplore Bush's manipulation
of that unholy holy trinity of religion, patriotism and human rights,
but it's another thing for the Left to renege on the ideals of
democracy. Particularly when our mining and steel companies are so
clearly driving the Australian agenda on China.
"It's really embarrassing," the young woman said, "that the
conservative Christians in the US are more vocal and better organised
in the opposition to China's human rights abuses than us."
No buts, no ifs. China may have lifted its game since the Cultural
Revolution, and the Red Army's tanks are not at present crushing kids
outside the Forbidden City. And, yes, the Falun Gong gang, who now
outnumber members of China's Communist Party, may be certifiable
loonies. Nonetheless, what's going on from the prisons to Tibet is
totally unacceptable and, trade talks and the Beijing Olympics
notwithstanding, the Howard Government's line on China is grovelling
and shameful.
Here, you might have thought, is an opportunity for the Left, or at
least for the ALP. So we tried to get a discussion up on the topic at
ABC's Radio National - which is the last bastion of unreconstructed
Stalinism and Maoism in the country, on a radio program notorious for
its rabid left-wing bias - only to find left-wingers willing to
participate few and far between. We finished up with two foreign
editors, one of The New Republic in Washington and the other from this
newspaper. Imagine my feelings when we went to air. The leftovers of
the Left being lectured on human rights by Greg Sheridan!
© The Australian