Yes, I've been a little un-blogged of late
I’ve had a short break
from the blog, not through writer’s block or a similar procrastinative
affliction, but rather a surfeit of thoughts, views and observations. There is
so much going on in my various fields of interests at the moment that I feel
the need to appropriate one of my favourite expressions,
「言いたいことありすぎて」 丸木俊
‘There are too many things I want to say’, the title of a book by artist
and author Maruki Toshi who with her husband and through their art, became
leading advocates for victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
So over the next few days, I’m going to try to put together some views
on the Newman Government (of course, because I must); territorial disputes in
Northeast Asia; political dissent in Japan and some questions about security
and political culture of nation states.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For now, it’s Mr Newman.
It’s almost too easy to reach for Machiavelli when it comes to trying to
capture 21st century politics in the amber of times past. But, right
now, Niccolo is our philosopher of the moment north of the Tweed. There are a
couple of missives which have stood out over the last little while. One is:
He will be successful who directs his actions according to the spirit of
the times, and that he whose actions do not accord with the times will not be
successful.
Machiavelli, The Prince, Ch. XXV
Machiavelli is advising his prince here on what fortune can effect in
human affairs and perhaps a naïve ‘prince’ will read this as an affirmation of
his actions; perhaps a prince who wandered around the Ekka for seven hours this
week and had just one person come up and offer a dissenting voice to the slash
and burn. It was pleasing I suppose to see the Premier curb his hubris from the
week before when on radio he claimed ‘no-one’ had complained to him about the
government’s actions.
I prefer to offer the above quote however more from the perspective of
an academic, that is, not of the ‘moment’ but with a balance of hindsight and
future, for only a foolish politician would govern ‘for now’. Heed the
consequences of your cuts now Mr Newman before it is too late.
But when you disarm them, you at once offend them by showing that you distrust
them, either for cowardice or for want of loyalty, and either of these opinions
breeds hatreds against you.
Machiavelli, The Prince, Ch. XXV
And here, Machiavelli was discoursing on the advantage or otherwise of
‘fortresses’. Now I choose this to offer more of an allegory than a real
fortress, and to disarm in the sense of to neutralise. There is also an element
of a ‘disarming’ disposition that placates a good number of his supporters but
again the hubris needs to be kept in check.
Thus it was in this spirit that a colleague and I on a drive home from
work last week decided to collate the alphabet of Newman reforms. It’s a
work-in-progress but in the space of the 45-minute drive from Maroochydore to
Carseldine we came up with an almost complete listing of cuts and actions.
Let’s have a look:
A is for Adoption and surrogacy laws, amended so quickly
B is for Breastscreen Qld and the poorly explained restructuring
C is for Civil unions, gone the way of pet registrations
D is for Disrespect, of those the government believes are not their
constituency
E is for Electricity charges, up and up
F is for Frontline, if you’re not ‘frontline’, then you are out (or a
flea-ridden dog)
G is for the Gold Coast Turf Club because government funding to
facilitate more comfortable gambling is important
H is for Health Services, facing a full frontal
disarming
I is for Indoor plants, which along with
withdrawing tea and coffee, will help the bottom line
J is for Joh, either for Mark II or ghosts of
Johs past
K is for KPIs mattering more than anything else
L is for the Literary Awards, because in
Newmanworld we don’t need to read
M is for Mates, Music Programs and Media bans
in parliament, just because your ‘mandate’ lets you
N is for Nepotism because the other side did it
so a new government can do too
O is for Opposition, just for recording
purposes to prove it once existed but may be hard to find; there was also
something about an ‘offender’s levy’; a what?
P is for Public Service, see O above
Q is for QBuild because efficiencies can be
made there too; and QAHC well because, well, we know why…
R is for Reform, because that’s what this is
all about really
S is for Sisters Inside because supporting
rehabilitation is not a particularly helpful way to use public monies
T is for the Tenants Union because again,
that’s a pesky group of social justice advocate-types too
U is for the Underclass which will be exacerbated in these times
V is for Vanquishing the past, with no thought to the future
W is for Wild Rivers because we don’t need that
legislation
X is for…
Y is for…
Z is for…
Now we are keen to complete the
sequence and we know that there are, sadly, many more examples which could
nestle in with existing letters. But in less than five months the Queensland
Government has just about exhausted many of us who care about the importance of
governing fairly and equitably and making our society a better place. I’d like
to supplement this list with a sister list of positives. I’d like to start on
it soon…please Mr Newman. QED.
