Is John Howard a racist? That’s what a Maori MP recently accused him of. This obscure little rant made its way to my inbox a couple of days ago. It is always good to receive stuff like that – makes one think a little.

The basis of the accusation brought by that Maori MP seems to be Howard had acted to deprive the Aboriginal community in various Northern Territory settlements of their basic human rights. What Howard did recently was he sent troops to the Northern Territory to ensure the alcohol and pornography induced child abuse was dealt with an iron fist.

The primary concern was the welfare of the Aboriginal children. Was this just cause to impose conditions so harsh which tantamount to deprivation of basic human rights? I think so. I would have thought this a no-brainer. Most Australians’ complaints haven’t been against what Howard did but against the fact that he had waited so long before acting. The cynics would rightly say the timing of his actions, with the federal elections just around the corner made it all look very suspicious as to his motives.

Howard has been known to take actions which can widely be interpreted as being a racist. When in opposition, he advocated reduction of Asian immigration, alluding to an affinity for a 50’s and 60’s White Australia policy. He also infamously turned back a shipload of refugees, copping accusations that he was playing the popular race cards before an election. Of course the fact that Asian immigrants have been arriving by the shiploads in record numbers under his watch, takes the wind out of the accusation somewhat. The image has somehow stuck however and instances like this recent action with Aboriginal communities are great fodder for his critics. However, so far few have made such a stark attack as this Maori MP has done.

I suppose most see the interest of children, be they Aboriginal or Zulu children, as a cause almost always worth defending. These children have been neglected or abused for so long. Any action to remedy the situation necessarily includes depriving the parents of rights and even certain resources – actions which are too easy to attract the racism accusation, especially to those predisposed to think either of action against Aboriginal or action by Howard, as racist to start with.

I don’t think you can label Howard a racist on this latest act. I don’t know about his other actions but you cant throw the racist tag on him for this one. He has, for the most part, been a terrific PM for Australia and if he is to be undone, it wont be for this.

Compare then Howard and Badawi. Howard has presided over one of the longest period of sustained economic prosperity in recent times. It has seen growth and development in the sciences (a few Australian Nobel Prize for Medicine/Scientific Research winners in recent years), the arts (Booker Prize winners, great movie makers and actors, renown Jazz composers, stage performers, painters), sports, and Australians are now among the most popular people in the world today. Europeans and Americans love them, as do Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and many other Asian countries. Only countries like Indonesia and MalaysiaAustralia. Australia is of course no heaven. High taxes, drug and alcohol abuse, drought, highly regulated, and increasing derogation of the nucleus family are some of my personal criticisms. Against its achievements however, I think Howard’s report card isn’t too bad. continue to snipe at

Under Badawi’s watch, which part of a Malaysian’s life has improved? Just today, someone sent me an email with a statement by Lim Kit Siang. This is just one of his latest statements, yet another one of his endless statements. He never seems to grow weary of them. Good for him. This latest statement is about Badawi’s response to specific allegations of massive corruption against a senior minister of his cabinet. These allegations were voluminous, and contained specific instances backed up with specific evidence. There were all set out in a 600-odd page document, and sent directly to Badawi. This was done 10 days ago. Today, Badawi said he is aware of this document but does not know who this senior minister was. Yes, that’s right. He does not know who, among his senior cabinet minister, has been accused of specific and huge acts of corruption. If this was in Australia (or most countries in the western world), the PM would have made a response prior to the release of such a document, possibly even when news got out that this document is being compiled.

We are talking about a senior minister embezzling funds of a listed public company to settle personal debts. The amount stolen was said to be tens of millions of ringgit. Leaving aside issues of how the public company has been reporting these losses, leaving aside no officer (apart from the CEO, who lodged a police report) or director of this company has made any sort of noises about this for so long, how can a PM not even know the identity of this subordinate officer of his? I would have said this is totally ridiculous but that sort of statement no longer has the shock effect it is usually intended to create, especially when used in the context of Malaysia.

Would we rather have a PM who has been accused of being a racist but whose actions suggest this accusation is unlikely to be proven, who has nevertheless brought much progress and prosperity or do we prefer one who repeatedly behaves in a way to suggest he is an imbecile? Take a bow, Mr Howard. Go stand in the corner, Mr Badawi – if you know what a corner is.