On Ross Gittins' tick on pre-election in Australia...

I've always enjoyed reading the column by Ross Gittins, the columnist of Sydney Morning Herald. His opinion on 10/03/2007 is no exception, which is even-keeled and level-headed, as always.

It's his tick on what the voters' message might be, should John Howard (currently Prime Minister in Australia) win or lose in the upcoming election.

I've always watched Australia with keen interest, not the least because part of me is Australia. It's a country which always sticks out like a sore thumb. It's in Asia, but considers itself not of Asia; although now that Asia is rising, it's increasingly aligning itself. Paul Keating has the direction right back then, but Howard rolls back most of them. Howard would rather follow the footsteps of Bush and be his lap dog. Just look at Howard's policy on social security, the push for private health insurance, environment policies (which move almost in lockstep with Bush's), and economic policies (if Bush has any, Howard will mirror them).

Australia always tries to position itself as the gateway or powerbroker between Asia and the Western countries (US/Canada and Europe), much the same way Blair had tried to blast that trail to bridge between Continental Europe and US. We know how much success Blair had, which is on par with what Australia has amounted to.

It's really a pity, since Australia had always had moral high ground over its Asian counterparts (think Indonesia and China) on a variety of issues like human rights issue, when it can tout its model of ethnic diversity as a model for its Asian neighbors to follow. Well, that was then when Keating was around. Howard now projects the bigotry and close-mindedness when Bush comes to mind.

Naturally, as its neighbors up north, notably China, emerge in prominence, they gain power and presence in the world stage, and little would they need their small white cousin downunder (who lives off of the land, with all its dependence on commodity and natural resources) to represent them.

I'm not sure if most Australians think of themselves in those terms. Surely Gittins provides us with one dimension to gauge the pulse of how Australians might or should think, regarding their government and the directions that it's taking. I haven't voted for a number of years now, after I relocated overseas. I should have exercised my privilege to make my voice heard. Afterall, at least Australia has the one-man-one-vote system, unlike the peculiar electoral college system in US when public opinion can be skewed towards a minority, just to get their few votes to make a majority. And, I strongly suspect that Howard never sees that as an advantage that Australia has, over the American system. For him, everything and anything American is good. That stupid PM...