Australia under the Howard regime begins to accrue some of the
characteristics of a failed state.
The leader of the government routinely uses the tactics of fear mongering
and demonisation to discipline a population already worried about world
events. The PM muddies issues, blurs the boundaries between one event (the
Bali bombing) and another (participating in a war against Iraq).
Virulent verbal attacks on a targeted group (indigenous peoples, asylum
seekers) form the basis of the politics of domination. The truth has become
a political commodity to be traded for votes and other forms of political
acquiescence at critical times (children overboard). Sometimes the truth is
simply treated as an obstacle to the fulfilment of personal political
desire (the troops have not been committed to any conflict).
The bureaucracy has been politicized and stacked with government loyalists.
The ABC's capacity to report without fear or favor has been affected by the
imposition of external political controls.
And at the base of these and other insidious developments lies the complete
rejection of diversity, the dismantling of liberal tolerance (which in
itself is a problematic notion), secretiveness among the dominant group and
a political culture that projects profound hostility towards any kind of
attempt to tell a different political story.
The government's refusal to heed public opinion which steadfastly opposes
the war is in stark contrast to its slavish nurturing of the same public
opinion that demanded asylum seekers be harshly dealt with.
Any government unwilling to brook dissent and unable to leave independent
institutions (bureaucracy, judiciary) free of political interference
invites associations with the notion of a failed state. Under the Howard
regime, Australia has taken significant steps in that direction.
