Sanctuary in Peril

The government has displayed no understanding of the critical role of excellence in education in the emerging global order. China graduates more students from its universities yearly than America and India combined, leaving aside those graduating with top results from the world's best universities. Moreover, Chinese education is still grounded in history and literature and develops the highest level skills in what Clinton Labour Secretary Robert Reich called symbolic analysis – that is the understanding, definition, use and control of the mythologies and symbols that program human behaviour.

Power is moving rapidly to the ASEAN plus Three Group, which clearly benefits from subtle Chinese largesse, guidance and initiative. The administrative and commercial elites of these communities share a traditional Confucian culture, which has become skilled in identifying and exploiting the hypocrisies and inadequacies of Anglo-American universal values.

The United States and Australia find themselves culturally alien and outside, but effectively in a tributary and dependent relationship, without any awareness of the cross-cultural symbolic analysis involved. Education in the Anglo-American world (including Australia) has steadily been trimmed down. In important respects, the Anglo-American world understands the people of Confucian Asia no better than Pacific Islanders understood the people of Enlightenment Europe one or two centuries ago.

If the above evaluation is at all close to the mark, members of the Government may confront some invidious decisions, profoundly testing their judgement and integrity. The opposition may not have a distinguished record but, at least, it has a comparatively clean slate without the posing and demonstrated incompetence of present government leaders. Even the unfashionable John Howard had the wit to strengthen the American alliance while avoiding the body bags that now demand regular sombre ceremonies in the sanctuary.