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NATIONAL
- JEFF'S OOPS!
The state of Victoria had an election on Saturday 18 September, 1999. Premier Jeff Kennett, darling of the liberal Right, (which means he wants to balance the budget & control guns) was hot favourite...
...up until last Saturday. Jeff was doing swimmingly. A margin of 14 seats in an 87 seat parliament. A successful fix of reckless overspending by labour. Most polls (except one) showing a safe win for Jeff. Jeff was the premier with _ATTITUDE_ who gave paternal advice to prime ministers & premiers alike. (Yeah, a lot of people called him "arrogant". So maybe he wasn't liked all that much by everybody :).
Now, Sunday, with 75.9% of the votes counted, the ABC stated:
The Liberal-National Coalition went into the poll with a 14-seat majority. At the moment, it holds 42 seats, Labor has 41, with three going to Independent candidates and two seats still undecided.Apologists for Jeff are quick to proclaim that the result was a "protest vote" in the face of an expected landslide.
SPIN's interpretation is somewhat different. When will our politicians learn. We, the people of Australia, want direct government. Until we get it, we will make ourselves ungovernable. SPIN can understand that direct government might not appeal to politicians. Because direct government would mean a massive loss of power & importance for politicians. Direct government means that if about 2% of the electorate signs a petition, then the question must go to referendum within (say) 3 to 6 months.
What is needed to achieve this is:
INTERNATIONAL
- TIMOR
Indonesian president Habibe has bowed to international pressure and has agreed to an international force to control the armed pro-Indonesian Timor militia.
Last issue, SPIN wrote:
The leadership of the Indonesian military has been accused of attempted genocide in East Timor. If this crime has been committed, then as in Germany at Nuremberg by the victors, so it will be in Jakarta when a democratically elected Indonesian government is formed.For the past week, journalists from all over the world have been condemning as gangsters the leadership of the Indonesian army. There are calls for an International Court of Justice inquiry.
I speak directly to the Indonesian people. This is the era of communication. Search the Internet. Look around the world. The rest of the world is not persecuting the Indonesian people. The rest of the world is condemning the genocidal gangster generals who rule Indonesia.
Australia's hands are not clean. Past Australian & US leaders did "deals" with Suharto. But our political system is one of constant renewal. New leaders condemn past, oppressive practices.
This is dawning of the third millenium. The genocidal generals must go. As I write, they seek further scapegoats. Right now, flavour of the month is Australia.
Perhaps Megawati Soekarno & Habibe could join together. Those two leaders might have sufficient legitimacy & votes to carry the presidency without the military. At least, a government formed by those two might avoid the taint of the assistance of genocidal generals in gaining power.
Only their combined elected legitimacy power would have the moral authority to overrule the generals' military power. If those two united, and sacked the top echelon of the army, they would certainly find support over all of the world.
The people of Indonesia
need
a government that will conduct a full inquiry into the genocide
committed
in East Timor. Such a government should provide a means for
the Indonesian people to directly influence government in future.
This page published 19 September 1999.