Tonetto's article biased

Tonetto's article biased

Writing a letter to the editor of The Jakarta Post is
generally a pointless exercise. No one pays much attention to
notes from those familiar few, relentless correspondents who clog
up your pages day after day with their boring diatribes. But on
rare occasions, certain objectionable opinions cannot pass
unchallenged. Once before, I have written to the Post, that time
responding to the deranged, racist tirades of Masli Arman. Now I
am prompted to write for a second time, again to counter a
bizarre intervention, but this time from the formerly obscure
Walter Tonetto (The Jakarta Post, Dec. 15, 1999: Australia: The
child with everything who does not know it).

Tonetto was introduced to readers as the founder of the humbly
named Tonetto Foundation, unknown to the world until now, but
which has dedicated itself to the intriguing task of helping set
up other foundations. Sadly, Tonetto deprived readers of his
expertise in this area, instead expending his energy on a
pompous, offensive and unwarranted attack on Australia.

Tonetto made admirable use of his thesaurus, but failed to
engage more than a couple of brain cells in composing his gaseous
rant, a point-by-point rebuttal of which would fill pages of
newspaper. Supposedly a "reflection" on the recent referendum in
Australia (a topic, might I say, that has been done to death in
your newspaper), the article soon lost track, and deteriorated
into a baffling laundry list of Tonetto's pet hates, prejudices
and misplaced resentments.

Homosexuals, academics, atheists, "rightists" and hedonist all
came in for a shellacking. But what for? The key flaw in
Tonetto's article is that for all the ranting and raving, he
could not say what is bad about Australia. Are its people happy?
Are they poor? Are they unhealthy? Is it a violent place? No, no,
no and no. The amoral wasteland he described bears no resemblance
whatsoever to the friendly, clean, fair, vibrant and prosperous
country that Australia is. Put simply, Tonetto doesn't have the
faintest idea what he is talking about, and anyone who has spent
even a few days in Australia will recognize that.

A few examples of Tonetto's poor logic should show how little
store can be placed in his article. In one howler, he wrote that
Australia "routinely ignores" the International Covenant of Civil
and Political rights and, curiously, cites Australia's "brusque"
diplomatic actions during the East Timor crisis as an example.
Whose civil or political rights were infringed by Australia's
actions? Australia intervened to put a stop to the appalling
human rights abuses in East Timor.

Tonetto also claims that Australian teenagers have nothing to
look forward to (though he couldn't say it that plainly, he had
to write "the Australian vestiary is almost wholly void of any
befitting garment"). That is just more nonsense. Australia's
economy is booming, and unemployment is below 6 percent. The
Australian economy is the envy of Asia.

Instead of embarrassing himself to a city full of readers,
Tonetto should apply his dormant mind to the pointless task of
spawning foundations around the country. But, having used his
surname for the first one, what will he call the second? The
third?

RODERICK BRAZIER

Jakarta