On insight program

On insight program

A few days ago I saw on TV the SBS "Insight" Program from
Jakarta and I would like to make some comments to both you, your
readers and the others involved in the Insight Program.

Thang Nguyen's argument that Australians are racists referring
to Arthur Calwell's quote "Two wongs don't make a white". This
was a bad joke; many of our politicians have been known to offend
while trying to be funny.

Your audience as well as a large percentage of our population
would not be familiar with the name Calwell. Nguyen implied that
this was a recent comment and representative of Australian
thinking in this time.

Calwell is long dead and that comment was made when he was
minister for immigration, which was back in 1945-1949. He was a
strong supporter of the White Australia Policy, and it, like
Calwell, is also dead.

We have come a long way since then and as the world knows we
have embraced many cultures and religions. Nguyen with his
knowledge of our past history could have commented. In spite of
the white Australia policy, in 1909 the people elected to our
upper house and parliament a Chinese man with Chinese values.

Referring to the reaction of so much support by Australians
for Schapele Corby, it is not, as some on the program claimed,
because "she is young and pretty" -- there have been other young
and pretty Australians who have been charged with drug crimes but
whom the Australian public have not supported. The difference is
we can identify with Corby's case.

We have a history of corrupt police, politicians and criminals
along with a drug trade which flourishes. Airport baggage
handlers have been shown on surveillance cameras intercepting
passengers' luggage.

We ask, is it beyond reasonable doubt that Corby's unlocked
luggage could have easily had drugs planted in it that were meant
to be off-loaded at Sydney International Airport? Certainly
people in the highly paid drug trade will exploit any person and
any situation for their benefit. Unfortunately there is no proof.

There was also no proof for the ordinary couple who reported
after arriving at their hotel in Bali that they found an addition
to their luggage. A parcel containing what they presumed was a
drug.

The Australian Embassy then advised them not to report it to
the police and to instead flush it down the toilet. There was no
proof they would have been able to offer, therefore they could
have been accused of being drug dealers.

IRENE FRASER
Ryde NSW, Australia