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Earlier this year Bob Carr threatened Papua New Guinea with sanctions if they delayed their elections.
Has Bob Carr moved from regional bully to a proper diplomat?
His exchange with Sen Nick Xenaphon suggests however a fear of the Malaysian administration. Malaysia has of course, under the present administration, been a very useful ally to Australia.
[Excerpts above are from the HANSARD]Senator XENOPHON (South Australia) (14:46): The tear gas was real, Minister Carr. Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Given Australia’s role in being part of international observer teams in other elections in the region and internationally, what role will the Australian government take within the Commonwealth to ensure that the Malaysian elections are clean and fair? Will, for instance, the government consider giving its support to an international observer mission in the lead-up to the elections given the concerns raised by Bersih and others? For instance, if the opposition leader requested such assistance, what would the government do?
Senator BOB CARR (New South Wales–Minister for Foreign Affairs) (14:47): Whether we send observers to a Malaysian election would be a matter for the Malaysian government. We would not have any way of initiating such a proposal; we would respond to a request from them for election observers. I understand that the Malaysian Election Commission itself may be seriously considering inviting international observers to monitor the election. I understand the Malaysian government has argued that the last election must have been fair–it lost its two-thirds majority in the parliament (Editor’s emphasis). Again, I have got to say that this is a matter for Malaysia. Our high commission will consider following reporting very carefully and speaking to participants on all sides of Malaysian politics so that the Australian government will have a sense– (Time expired)
Could the Malaysia solution be clouding the Foreign Minister’s and the Australian Government’s priorities?
Which raises the really important question.
How can Australia – government, legislature, society – play an effective role to help democratise this region (Southeast Asia in particular) which are filled with despots, dictators, authoritarian regimes, bigots, and corrupt government and leaders?
Ambiga Sreenevasan, the Chair of the electoral reform movement, Bersih, is obviously pissed with Bob Carr’s response.
Among many critical points she makes, she quotes Burmese democratic icon, Aung Sang Suu Ki:
“…As Aung Sang Suu Kyi has famously said, “It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it…”
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/malaysias-elections-should-the-international-community-care-ambiga-sreenevasan/
Sure, no one wants Australia to be the regional bully or America’s deputy sheriff but neither do citizens of these autocratic regimes want an Australia that puts its political, economic and security interests ahead of more noble principles such as the rule of law and democracy, no?
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In the 21st century democracy comes from the barrel of a gun. Iraq and Afghanistan among them. And now Mali.
Sorry, can’t see the Diggers running amok in the region to *free* Malaysia.
*Instant democracy* is a fantasy. Despite its flaws, democracy is a work in progress.
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Greg Sheridan and Bob Carr are good people. I still wonder what they actually think of Najib Razak despite their public support of him?
I wonder what any decent government would think of Najib Razak – the Prime Minister of Malaysia, and the administration he leads.
John Berthelsen’s article provides even more damning evidence (as if there weren’t enough) of the depth of depravity of the Malaysian government. Yet, it is feted by no less than the Obama administration, the Cameron administration and the Gillard administration – what gives?
http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4908&Itemid=178
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I can think of many more individuals whose interpretations I would trust more readily than Greg Sheridan’s…!
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Best friends forever [BFF] – Australia and Malaysia.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/11/8/nation/12291268&sec=nation
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Since international observers are unlikely to be invited by the Malaysian government to observe Malaysia’s most crucial elections, Malaysians will have to ensure that electoral fraud is minimised, themselves.
Mr. Haris Ibrahim provides some tips. http://harismibrahim.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/abu-war-phase-1-part-1-neutralising-the-umnobn-electoral-fraud/
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Senator Nick Xenaphon suggests that Australia maybe complicit in entrenching a corrupt elite through its free trade agreement in Malaysia:
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/free-trade-should-follow-fair-elections-20130111-2cl77.html#ixzz2HlnSfsZX
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ANU alumni, Amrita Malhi has an analysis over at The Conversation on Nick Xenaphon’s detention and deportation.
https://theconversation.edu.au/xenophons-malaysian-adventure-and-two-looming-elections-12254
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Clive Kessler, arguably the most authoritative source on Malay culture and Malaysian politics provides his expert views on the Xenaphon affair.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-17/malaysia-expert-discusses-xenophon-deportation/4523442
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Bob Carr and Greg Sheridan could be candidates for Australia’s version of Laurel and Hardy:
GREG SHERIDAN: Can I ask you one question about our region? The Malaysian election recently, a lot of hysterical comment in Australia, not least by Senator Nick Xenophon, that Malaysia is a dictatorship, and Anwar Ibrahim was the Nelson Mandela of Southeast Asia.
Do you regard the Malaysian elections as credible, and do you regard the Malaysian Government as a credible Government for you to deal with in its re-elected form?
BOB CARR: Well they certainly are a credible Government. I rang my friend Foreign Minister Anifah only on Friday to congratulate him and to say I look forward to working with him at Brunei at the East Asia summit and in other forums.
But they were the Malaysian elections. As I said in the Senate, answering a question from Senator Xenophon, we’re not the electoral commission for Malaysia. And we can’t be making decision about the fairness or unfairness of its distribution. And we’re not the court of disputed returns able to make a determination of whether someone with ink on their fingers after voting was capable of making another vote or not, we can’t get into these things.
These were Malaysian elections conducted under rules different from those Australians would understand. But the Government – we simply cannot drive ourselves into what are the domestic affairs of a country with which we enjoy friendly relations.
The Malaysian people themselves will make decisions in the future about the rules under which their elections will be conducted, and Australia won’t have a role in that.
http://foreignminister.gov.au/transcripts/2013/bc_tr_130602_sky_news.html
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