The Guardian 30 November, 2005
Sound & fury signifying...what?
Marcus Browning
During his jaunt through Afghanistan and Pakistan, John Howard told the media about the "courage" of Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf who he said has been "subject to a number of assassination attempts, unlike me". Falling public support around his Government’s anti-union industrial relations laws and the continuing war in Iraq has now seen Howard shift ground, from being a sham saviour of our national security to a sham martyr.
In the endless beat-up of terrorism and national security (the Sydney Morning Herald even has a National Security Editor now) there is much sound and fury signifying nothing. After the raids in Sydney and Melbourne earlier this month, massive amounts of column space and television and radio airtime were taken up with coverage of the events but in the end they told us nothing of real substance about the people who were arrested and what hard evidence was found.
This lack of information was also illustrated by Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty, when he said that documents, tapes and computer files found in the house of slain Jemaah Islamiah member Azahari Husin in Indonesia had given authorities a "better understanding of Jemaah Islamiah". But there was no elaboration. He went on to remark mysteriously that terrorists were motivated by "the drive to embrace an ideology". Exactly what ideology? We weren’t told.
Keelty and ASIO Director-General Paul O’Sullivan were specific on one thing, though. They both claimed that the war in Iraq had nothing to do with Australia being a terrorist target. When Keelty had previously suggested Australia’s involvement in the Iraq war made us a likelier target for terrorism, the Government jumped on him so hard he was forced to retract the statement.
More raids were made last week, this time, reportedly on supporters of the Sri Lankan separatist movement, the Tamil Tigers. There were no arrests and police even refused to confirm that the target was the Tamil Tigers.
Objectively the Federal Government’s terrorism spin has demonised the Muslim community. Keysar Trad, of the Islamic Friendship Association, told a forum at the University of Technology Sydney last week that the Government’s "hysterical knee-jerk reaction" with its introduction of new terrorism laws had come at a high social cost.
"How could a Prime Minister and his party pat him on the back for arresting suspects when no case has been proven?", he asked. Already they [the suspects] have been found guilty by the people in authority saying they averted an act of terror." Mr Trad pointed out that the Government was using fear-mongering to divert the public’s attention from other problems.
"If you look at what happened when they had the raids in Sydney, one woman was hospitalised with a heart attack, families have lost their loved ones, one man was shot in the neck. The cost has been very traumatic."
The lawyer for those arrested, Adam Houda, was direct and to the point in a message he sent to the forum: "In a police state there is always a scapegoat", he said. "The Muslim community is the scapegoat."