By Con
George-Kotzabasis
In view of the prevention of
terrorists attacks targeting main public centres in Melbourne during Christmas,
I’m publishing the following address that was delivered by me, at the private
chambers of Sir Harry Gibbs (former Chief Justice of The High Court of
Australia) on December 14, 2002, who as Chairman of The Samuel Griffith Society
presided over its annual general meeting.
Mr. President,
I’m aware that the
issue I’m raising is not directly related to the charter of our society. But
because our way of life, our values and the lives of our citizens are under
threat by a deadly network of fanatic terrorists, and because these values
are written and reflected in the Australian Constitution, our society as a
defender of the latter, cannot avoid from being embroiled in this war against
terrorism and its state sponsors.
As in all wars,
beyond the human and material mobilization of a nation, the moral and spiritual
mobilization of its people is just as important, if not more important. I
strongly believe that in the latter mobilization, our society can play a
significant and important role.
Recently, there has
been a cravenly and ignominious attempt to disarm the
country of its strength from effectively confronting this terrorist threat. A
secular and sacred chorus have sung an ode in praise of disloyalty and
pusillanimity, as the best means of defence against terrorism. Four former
prime ministers (Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke and Keating) a Governor General (Bill
Hayden) and a motley of religious prelates, disseminated their nihilistic wisdom
to the people of this country, as to whether Australia should support the
United States in a war against Iraq. Their pronounciamento of No to War, was
remarkable for its poverty of thought, for its lack of historical insight, and
for its richness in levity. In the latter case this was demonstrated bizarrely
by Mr. Keating, who in a tongue-in-cheek interview on channel 10, stated that
while we should keep our important alliance with the USA, we should not support
the latter in its war against Iraq. In his own inimitable words, he remarked,
that a “clever nation—read a clever government under his premiership—could have
its-own-cake-and-it eat—too.” Such a proposition is of course based on the
assumption that the other party, in this case the USA government, is so stupid,
that it would be willing to fall victim to Mr. Keating’s con-man diplomacy and
would gratify his penchant of having his cake-and-eating-too.
But despite the lack
of seriousness and frivolity of these ideas, propagated by this prominent group
of court-jesters, it would a mistake to underestimate the great damage these
ideas would make on the moral fibre and on the fighting spirit of the country.
It is for this reason that this sophistry of these intellectual usurpers, must
be countered and exposed for its spiritual and moral bankruptcy. It would be a
historical and political folly to allow these political and religious romantics,
the nipple-fed intellectuals of academe, and the populist media, to monopolise,
dominate, and debase the debate on the war against terrorism. I believe that
our society can play a pivotal role in counter-balancing this monopoly and
exposing the brittleness of the arguments of this caricature of statesmanship.
Mr. President, I’m
aware of the paucity of the material resources of our society. But this should
not be a reason why the wealth of its intellect, imagination, and moral mettle,
should lay fallow in these critical times.
