Write on: Letters to the editor
Equality of opportunity?
Readers may have seen a recent series in the Australian on inequality.
Much rubbish was written, some of which I hope to address later. However, particularly striking was the consensus amongst conservative commentators that, so long as equality of opportunity (EOP) exists, there should be no concern about inequality of outcome.
In fact, EOP is an incoherent, unattainable and (in some respects) unattractive notion.
EOP for children is incompatible with EOP for adults, given that the latter will produce inequality of outcome between adults and hence differences in the domestic environments in which children are raised.
Furthermore, EOP would require that fortuitous differences in genetic endowment and the social environment outside the home be fully offset by large cash transfers and massive educational expenditures favouring the disadvantaged.
Plainly, at one level then, EOP demands radically egalitarian redistribution. Yet, at another level, EOP is extremely inegalitarian. For if people really did have equal chances, EOP would place no limits whatsoever on how much wellbeing they could achieve — or on how much misery they could experience. A slight difference in people's choices could produce vast differences in their lives
Our primary objective should be greater equality of wellbeing, not the schizophrenic egalitarianism/anti-egalitarianism of equality of opportunity.
Rydalmere NSW
Moral bankruptcy
Australia's foreign policy towards Indonesia appears to be teetering on the precipice of total moral bankruptcy.
While the Indonesian army aids and abets Islamic militants in the wholesale slaughter of Christians in the islands to our north — in a manner reminiscent of Rwanda — our military leader is calling for closer military cooperation with that army.
It is obvious that the elected leadership of Indonesia has no control over the military and one must question where their sectarian spleen will be next directed. Instead of prostrating themselves, figuratively speaking, at the feet of a doddering incompetent, our politicians should be calling for the economic, political and military isolation of Indonesia as long as it continues on its present course.
Alawa NT
Open letter to activists
The prosecution for arson of four members of University Students for East Timor (USET) and myself, a member of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) arising from the burning of an Indonesian flag during a protest demanding freedom for East Timor outside the Indonesian consulate in Melbourne on September 2 is an attack on all people's democratic right to protest. This attack by the Protective Security Intelligence Group, Victoria's political police, must be condemned by the progressive and solidarity movements.
Unfortunately, allegations have since been made by some USET members that I am an agent for the Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation. The accusers have directed their solicitors, Slater and Gordon, not to represent me.
This allegation is untrue. I have been involved in the radical and socialist movements for more than 15 years, during which time I have proven my total commitment to campaigning for social justice.
After having actively campaigned against the Gulf War, French nuclear testing and higher education fees, and for East Timor's liberation, and after having been a union activist and delegate for almost 12 years, to be accused of being an agent of the state is as insulting as it is groundless. Indeed, as a long-time left activist, I have been the target of state spies, as was revealed in the Age's 1998 expose on the Victoria Police's Operations Intelligence Unit.
ASIET has a long, impeccable record of building solidarity with the East Timorese struggle for independence against the wishes of the Australian state. ASIET took the lead nationally last year to organise mass protests in most states which forced the Coalition government to send troops to East Timor to stop the massacre of East Timorese by Indonesian military-backed militias after the independence referendum.
The solidarity movement's ability to campaign effectively is weakened by internal slanders. Our strength is in our collective struggle against state repression — both our own state's attacks on progressive activists and other states' repression of the people of their countries. The support of all those who support people's right to publicly protest against injustice, both in Australia and internationally, will be needed to defend the five East Timor solidarity activists against the outrageous charges laid by the state.
Most importantly, we must work together to ensure that Australians are kept informed of the situation in East Timor and are ready to respond so that no-one but the East Timorese themselves decide the direction that their country takes.
Brunswick Vic
[Abridged.]