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The emperor with clothes

By Bruce Haigh - posted Monday, 28 July 2014


The Australian people are keen to join a dialogue about the things that affect their lives and on issues they feel strongly about. They are sick of being marginalized and I suspect their vote at the next election will reflect that. They are sick of the nexus between professional politicians and journalists who curry favour and preferment with the political establishment. They are sick of the games played by the political professionals, reflected in part in the abuse of proceedings and debate in their Parliament. Exemplified by Treasurer Hockey who recently said he would bypass it in order to get his own way.

With his credit and standing high, now is the time for Abbott to convert, to change and shed his narrow Catholic jacket, which in any case is now too tight for him, and to listen to what Australians say, think and believe in. It is a sign of strength to acknowledge past mistakes. By doing so he might become more than a one term Prime Minister. He needs to stop listening to Scott Morrison and the Denialists; asylum seekers are here to stay for as long as the world allows people like the Russian separatists sway. He needs to temper and restrain the right wing ideologues in his present inner circle.

Finally Abbott must stand firm in bringing the perpetrators of the MH17 massacre to justice. The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, let the cat out of the bag a few days ago when he said the US relationship with Russia had some complexities, including co-operation over destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile.

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Already the US has said that rebel forces are likely to have fired the Russian BUK missile in error at MH17. Whilst the latter might be true, the former is unlikely. It takes six months to train the operatives on the missile system and six months ago no one was talking or planning on Russian vassal states in the Eastern Ukraine. More likely the operatives are Russian soldiers, reservists or recently retired former soldiers on loan or secondment to the rebels. As with any reasonably sophisticated weapons system ongoing training is required.

Putin is very much a player in events leading to the shooting down of MH17.

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About the Author

Bruce Haigh is a political commentator and retired diplomat who served in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 1972-73 and 1986-88, and in South Africa from 1976-1979

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