Boat People and Christianity by a failed Catholic Seminarian
Tony Abbott says that boat people are "un-Christian" for coming to Australia the way they do.
Specifically, he said:
"I don't think it's a very Christian thing to come in by the back door rather than the front door. ... I think the people we accept should be coming the right way and not the wrong way. ... If you pay a people-smuggler, if you jump the queue, if you take yourself and your family on a leaky boat, that's doing the wrong thing, not the right thing, and we shouldn't encourage it."
It
is not surprising that Mr Abbott has a view about the moral dimension
of refugee issues. It is entirely appropriate that he should consider
the matter from the perspective of Christian teaching, given that he
trained for the priesthood. I would go so far as to say that more
politicians should pay attention to the moral implications of the
policies they have to determine.
What
is striking is that Mr Abbott could get the matter so spectacularly
wrong, both as to the facts and as to the moral equation.
First: the facts. Mr
Abbott should know that there is no queue when you run for your life.
The recent execution of an Afghan woman by the Taliban (another example
of a very well-established pattern) gives some idea of why people seek
asylum. A significant proportion of boat-people in the past 15 years
have been Afghan Hazaras fleeing the Taliban. If an Afghan were to
embrace Mr Abbott's scruples and look for a queue, the obvious place
would be the Australian Embassy in Kabul. The Department of Foreign
Affairs website informs us:
"The Australian Embassy in Kabul operates from a number of locations that are not publicly disclosed due to security reasons. The Australian Embassy in Kabul has no visa function."
So where is the queue?
Leave
aside that the location of the Australian Embassy is a secret, the
larger point is that refugee flows are always untidy. The idea that
desperate people will conduct themselves as if waiting for a bus to take
them to the shops is not only ludicrous, it reveals a complete lack of
empathy, or even understanding, of why refugees flee for safety in the
first place.
As
it happens, more than 90 per cent of boat-people who have arrived in
Australia in the past 15 years have been accepted, eventually, as
genuine refugees. Mr Abbott should understand this: it means that they
are people to whom we owe a duty of protection according to our own
laws, and according to the obligations we voluntarily undertook when we
signed the Refugees Convention.
Second: the moral question. Mr
Abbott should know, better than most politicians, that the Christian
doctrine he claims to understand and espouse emphasises the message of
welcoming and protecting the stranger. The parable of the Good Samaritan
is just one example. Nowhere in Christian teaching (and nowhere in any
moral code) is the message of kindness to strangers qualified by
reference to their method of arrival.
From
time immemorial, victims of persecution have fled for safety. It is
usually untidy. The flight of Jews from Europe in the 1930s is an
obvious example, and one which should focus our minds on the need for a
response which is informed by moral learning rather than by political
opportunism.
And
how is it that it is "the wrong thing" to do whatever you can to try
and save yourself and your family? What bizarre twist of reasoning makes
it wrong to do whatever is necessary to save your family? Perhaps Mr
Abbott needs to watch The Sound of Music again: the von Trapp family
were refugees; the nuns were people smugglers; they did what they could
to help the von Trapps through the back door.
Third: the dog whistle component. Many
politicians here and overseas have found it easy and expedient to stir
up anti-Muslim sentiment in recent years, just as it was easy, in
earlier times, to stir up anti-Jewish sentiment.
It
can hardly have escaped Mr Abbott's attention that a significant number
of boat-people in recent years have been Muslims. It is inconceivable
that he failed to notice that some people, hearing his comments about
boat-people being "un-Christian", would have understood him as
criticizing boat-people because they are Muslim, not Christian. It is a
sad reflection of the depths to which political debate has fallen in
this country that an avowed Christian could stoop to such shabby
tactics.
Finally: A question for Mr Abbott. Imagine,
just for a minute, that you are a Hazara from Afghanistan. You have
fled the Taliban; you have arrived in Indonesia, where you will be
jailed if you are found; you can't work, and you can't send your kids to
school. You will have to wait between 10 and 20 years before some
country offers to resettle you. But you have a chance of getting on a
boat and heading for safety in Australia. What will you do?
I know I would get on a boat; I know that most Australians would get on a boat. I imagine that Tony Abbott would get on a boat.
I challenge Tony Abbott to answer this question directly and honestly: What would you do, Mr Abbott, if you were in their shoes?
If Mr Abbott answers this question, we can take another look at his criticism of boat-people as "un-Christian".
If he is not willing to answer it, then we have a fourth reason to disregard his criticism of boat-people.
Julian Burnside AO QC is an Australian Barrister and an advocate for human rights and fair treatment of refugees. He tweets @JulianBurnside. View his full profile here.
If
all the opinion polls are right, this will be our next prime minister.
Even the mindless faux pas of George W Bush as US president pale in
comparison to this nincompoop. And yet, if we are to believe the opinion
polls, the Australian electorate is composed of people who will
actually vote for someone of this calibre. Surely not????
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