The politicisation of ethnic organisations has damaged Australia's international reputation, writes Mark Sharma.
Ever wondered why most immigrants side with left leaning organizations like Labor and the Greens? Why despite numerous attempts for reconciliation, the allegations of Australia being a “racist” country from Indian press never goes away? Why despite Australia largely being a “fair go” country never gets any positive publicity in the international arena?
If you have ever thought about these things and never found the answers then I suggest reading the rest of this piece.
Nobody understands these complexities better than someone in my own position. I came to Australia as an overseas student to get a Higher Education and decided to stay back. With a deep love and interest for politics, it was only natural for me to study and understand Australian politics from different perspectives. I still consider myself to be a student of Australian Politics; the only difference is that I’m an active student. I don’t just learn Politics but I apply what I learn in real life by contesting elections and engaging with the public.
Taking an active part in Politics has allowed me to expand my circle of acquaintances. These people have a lot more knowledge about what goes on in this country. Many of these people are willing to share important information with me for the betterment of the society. It’s like a mini “wikileak” but with a twist.
The twist is that unlike Wikileaks this is not about diplomatic cables. This is about what goes on in various ethnic communities across Sydney and how that affects our democracy. It is no secret that Western Sydney is a stronghold of the Labor Party. Just have a look at seat by seat comparisons and you will find Labor everywhere. From Balmain in inner city to Blacktown in the west, everything is dipped in Labor red.
Another interesting fact about Western Sydney is that it is home to a very large immigrant population. Chinese, Indians, Koreans, Arabs, Muslims, Vietnamese and hundreds more non-white ethnic communities reside in Western Sydney. It is also no surprise that a majority of them vote Labor. We all know that the NSW arm of Labor party is big on spin when it comes to real issues. Unfortunately for immigrants this same spin gets even bigger when it is directed towards them.
From the day new migrants arrive in Australia, the Labor PR wing and its various extended arms get into the job of disseminating propaganda to them. We are told by ALP hacks that “only they care about immigrants”. We are told directly or indirectly that “the Coalition is a racist organization” and only “the left cares about us non-whites”.
Clearly these claims by Labor are NOT true and I’m a living proof of it. If Labor truly cared about immigrants then it would have not matched Abbott’s promises of cutting down on immigration. If Labor truly believed in equality then today there would have been at least two dozen ethnic MP’s on Labor seats instead of none. This doesn’t mean that the Coalition is a messiah for immigrants. All it means is that the Coalition doesn’t lie to immigrants. They don’t make big promises and so there is not a lot that can be expected of them.
Having taken a shot at the Coalition, I do accept that things are getting better within conservative parties and they have started reaching out to immigrant communities.
It has been widely reported that NSW Liberal leader Barry O’Farrell will make it to the Premier’s office come March 2011. With 15 years of neglect and almost the same number of scandals, it is an impossible task for Kristina Keneally to overcome this Mount Everest. In fact, the latest MP to feature on the “ALP Scandal Tally” is the premier herself.
Whether the Labor party even makes it to double digits is anybody’s guess, but it is important that the priorities of the incoming Government are in the right direction. In my opinion, the detoxification of various ethnic associations should be right on top of the agenda. Let me clarify what I mean by detoxification.
My extensive study in this area has made me conclude that most of the ethnic associations are actually being run by Labor party hacks at the behest of ALP. This is widespread and is happening in most ethnic associations. This is how it works. Say if you belong to Korean community and live in an area like Strathfield with a high Korean population, then the local ALP members of Korean background would most likely control Korean associations that operate in that area. The idea of ethnic associations is to improve the situation of those who belong to such groups. Ethnic associations are not there to further the cause of particular political party unless it explicitly states that. But in Sydney these groups are being used as PR machines to further the Labor cause. This is exactly how things have gone on for the last 15 years and the time has come to stop it.
The situation is even worse when it comes to Indian organizations. When attacks on Indian students took place, it was very important that the government was able to liaise with the Indian community in Australia to resolve these issues. But the reality is that these issues never got fully resolved and they will never be resolved because the Labor government in power has got it all wrong. Many of you might be shocked to find out that most of the so called “Indian representatives” in Australia are NOT even remotely Indian.
Despite that, the Labor government continues to recognize them as legitimate Indian organizations and provide them a platform. The real reason why Labor is doing this is because these organizations are led by pro-Labor people who have no interest in the Indian community.
In the end the real issues are never properly dealt with and when something goes wrong it directly hurts Australia’s reputation. There is talk going on that when the government eventually changes in March 2011 these same organizations might change colour and start barracking for Liberals. But once again that will not solve the problem. The only way we can get lasting solutions is if the incoming Coalition Government is ready to take this issue head on.
Are you willing to clean up Labor’s mess Barry?
Mark Sharma is an Independent Conservative politician who stood as a candidate in the electorate of Watson in NSW. He writes regularly for various Indian-Australian Newspapers and on his blog Voice of Strathfield
You are absolutely right. I live in Bankstown and local ALP guys routinely abuse Israel to please Muslim voters.
But for me the bigger problem is that I hardly see my local Liberal candidate. It's like as if they have given up the fight. I know it's a hard task for Libs to win here but at least they should try and hopefully one day things will change.
Posted by: Harris | December 20, 2010 at 11:54 AM
It is a little difficult to know exactly what you are asking of Government Mark.
What exactly should Government be doing for Immigrants after providing start up accommodation, English classes and lessons designed to explain cultural mores and ease the way into Australian society?
The "divide and conquer" strategy of the ALP has always been in existence, it also shows up VERY strongly in the relationship between indigenous Australians and those of us who have family ties going back 200 years.
At some point people have to stand on their own two feet and say "Hey, the smallest minority group is the individual, we should be working together if we are to live in the same house" There should be NO Government interference in that.
Posted by: Jane | December 20, 2010 at 01:03 PM
What exactly should Government be doing for Immigrants after providing start up accommodation, English classes and lessons designed to explain cultural mores and ease the way into Australian society?
What are you on mate? Where did I say government should provide Accommodation, English lessons?
The article is about cleaning up of ethnic immigrant organisations that over the years have been turned into Labor fronts.
Ethnic organisations job is to look after cultural and social issues concerning on that community.
It has NO ROLE to favor one political ideology over other unless it explicitly states.
You can't call yourself Chinese association and get government grants and then use it as political bastion to favor Labor or Liberals.
It doesn't mean chinese background people cant favor political party of choice. All it means is that they should do it from different platform.
For e.g I hear there is a Chinese friends of Liberals etc.
Posted by: Mark Sharma | December 20, 2010 at 01:11 PM
What exactly should Government be doing for Immigrants after providing start up accommodation, English classes and lessons designed to explain cultural mores and ease the way into Australian society?
Secondly, I think you are getting confused about skilled immigrants with refugees/asylum seekers.
We, the skilled migrants have never been provided "accommodation" or "english classes" or any help whatsoever. Nor do we ask for any freebies unlike other groups of people.
The fact of matter is that Skilled immigrants provide more to Australia in comparison to other groups.
It seems you don't have strong grasp of Australian current affairs in relation to skilled immigrants and refugees.
Email me your details and I will provide you the difference between the two
Posted by: Mark Sharma | December 20, 2010 at 01:14 PM
@ Jane
I think Mark is saying that cultural organisations based on different nationalities are being misused to favor labor party and now that there will be a new government (fingers crossed) can we expect them to make sure there is no more bias in these groups.
I know that Governments provides funding and recognition to various asian, muslim , indian and african groups. If tax payer funds are being provided as an additional help then these groups should not be allowed to operate as political fronts.
It's same as in the case of schools. Government provides funding to Schools so would you allow Schools to favor one political party over others Jane?
Posted by: Rajiv Mehta | December 20, 2010 at 01:22 PM
Mark, you are absolutely correct. Operatives from one political party [you can guess the party] worked, manipulated and influenced the election of an Organisation of our community. None should be surprised then to see the President of this Organisation attending the campaign function of this party in Aug or most of the office bearers coming from this political party. The Vice President, Secretary, Joint treasurer along with many more are from this political party. Their "master" is a hack from a Union who controls them. This Union hack is not even from India and has no understanding of what India is or about. He has no idea about what we think about Kashmir or a country in our neighbourhood which produces/trains terrorists against India.
This needs to be cleaned out. Community organisations should not be controlled by political parties.
Posted by: Dr Yadu Singh | December 20, 2010 at 01:26 PM
“My extensive study in this area has made me conclude that most of the ethnic associations are actually being run by Labor party hacks at the behest of ALP”
In other words, the ALP has hijacked these bodies or worse still, created them as ALP Front’s
You make some very good observations, mark, but tell then, why do these immigrant communities accept these so called bodies. If you and I both know they are nothing more than “front companies” then why doesn’t the local Indian community for example, come out and actually set up their own independent community group. Seems to me these minorities are happy to let the ALP hacks trade off their community name.
You can lead a horse to water, Mark, but you can’t make it drink.
Posted by: Andy | December 20, 2010 at 01:55 PM
Immigrant groups would always join "cultural organisations". Its like a feeling of togetherness to celebrate things that are common. It's no different to join a particular church over others.
Most people who join them and attend events held by these "cultural organisations" do it in good faith and have no real interest in how they are run. Why? Because most immigrant groups are like everyday Aussies busy with their daily life.
Some people who have made noise have been silenced and the present government looks other way (for obvious reasons)
Only a new government and preferably non-labor can clean it up by asking these organisations tough question.
For e.g If I was Premier of the state, I'd ask one of the prominent Indian organisations as to how their members are elected? When were last members elected and who are these members really befor I hand them any monetary or state help.
Its same as for schools.
NSW Government provides funding to both Public and Private Schools in NSW. I'm sure if there are widespread allegations in a particular school then it is the job of the Premier and his/her government to investigate it and punish the guilty.
I hope you will agree on that?
Posted by: Mark Sharma | December 20, 2010 at 02:12 PM
Mark,
You have no disagreement from me. I agree 100% with your blog.
My point is sometimes these groups need to help themselves and it seems to me that they can’t be bothered most of the time.
I live on the GC and most Saturday’s I hang out at my local Surf Club. Now I know we have many cultural groups on the GC, but none seem to want to integrate. We have no muslim, Indian or african members of our surf club. We do have three Japanese boys and two Pilipino girls who are members of nippers. The club welcomes all and any member, yet non Christian immigrants don’t seem to want to integrate? Why? It seems they only want to join their own cultural groups and not the boarder community groups like Surf Clubs etc.
Posted by: Andy | December 20, 2010 at 04:05 PM
It's not like that further South, Andy. Bondi and other Sydney beach suburbs have a Jewish minority population and Jewish people are very active in the Surf & Life Saving clubs. Maybe Jewish people just get more involved in community and philanthropic activities.
Posted by: Richard Joachim | December 22, 2010 at 12:28 PM
Andy, you have a fair point but I've to say you are sliding away from the topic.
May be you or I can cover that in future ( i.e. why Immigrants are not into traditional Aussie clubs like Surf clubs etc) but this piece was to highlight that Labor has politicized every ethnic institution in this state.
This is not healthy for democracy and we have a real life proof in the form of NSW Labor. All these years Labor candidates won in Western Sydney not because they were great candidates but because immigrants had no choice.
Now, NSW has become a backward state due to Labor misrule. I'm pushing for new incoming government to create a more level playing field by removing the toxins that Labor created!
Posted by: Mark Sharma | December 22, 2010 at 03:45 PM