Statement
by Lim Kit Siang - Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong
in Petaling Jaya
on Sunday, 24th November 1996

DAP welcomes the stronger stand taken by the Malaysian Government on the anti-Asian xenophobic outbursts in Australia and calls on Australian Prime Minister John Howard to make amends for his procrastination and failure to personally repudiate Pauline Hanson’s anti-Asian racist line

DAP welcomes the stronger stand taken by the Malaysian Government on the anti-Asian xenophobic outbursts in Australia when the Malaysian Foreign Minister, Datuk Abdullah Badawi told the Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer about the concern of parents of Malaysian students studying in Australia over the safety of their children if the anti-Asian feelingts spread.

Abdullah also said that Australians who think that the race debate in their country had no impact in South-east Asia were misreading the situation and that such thinking showed how much the Australians did not understand Asians.

This is a welcome change from the public positions made by Malaysian Ministers who had earlier dismissed the anti-Asian xenophobic outbursts on the ground that Malaysians should not over-react to the racist remarks of one or two Australian MPs.

The biggest issue in the entire anti-Asian xenophobic outbursts in Australia is the failure of the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, to take a strong enough stand against the racist views of the independen Member of Parliament, Pauline Hanson, whose anti-Asian migration speech on Sept. 10 sparked off the race debate and xenophobic outbursts in Australia.

Yesterday, thousands of Australians concerned at signs of growing racism held protest rallies in four centres across Australia, denouncing not only Pauline Hanson but also the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard for not distancing himself from Hanson and others who wanted slower Asian immigration.

The Deputy mayor of Sydney, Henry Tsang, told a protest rally of more than 5,000 people that Asian communities had felt a surge of racial hatred since Hanson first aired her views in Parliament on Sept. 10.

John Howard’s failure to take a strong enough stand against Hanson and the anti-Asian xenophobic outbursts have become an issue because of his own past record of using anti-Asian immigration issue in the 1988 general elections. It has now been revealed by the Australian media that in May 1991, John Howard had written a letter to a constituent expressing his personal opposition to multiculturalism.

John Howard said in his letter, which was obtained by the Nine Network and aired on Friday night: “My own view on this issue is that Australia made an error in abandoning its former policy of encouraging assimilation and integration in favour of multiculturalism”.

Although John Howard had subsequently admitted that he had erred in making the comments about anti-Asian immigration, doubts had remained about his commitment to multiculturalism.

It is to be noted that the Howard Government had dismantled the Office of Multicultural Affairs, reducing it to a small branch within the Department of Immigration, and that Howard had opposed the use of the term multiculturalism in the joint resolution passed by the Australian Parliament last month deploring racism.

After his return to Australia on the conclusion of the APEC Summit in Manila, John Howard should give priority to make amends for his procrastination and failure to personally repudiate Pauline Hanson and the anti-Asian xenophobic outbursts in Australia.

Malaysian MPs must be concerned about this matter, not least of which is that there are 10,000 Malaysian students in Australia. DAP MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Guan Eng, had spoken on this issue in Parliament during the budget debate early this month.

Parliament would review the developments in Australia when MPs debate the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the committee stage of the 1997 Budget in the second week of December, and it is hoped that by that time, the Australian Prime Minister, John Howards would have made sufficient amends and taken a sufficiently strong stand to repudiate Pauline Hanson’s anti-Asian line and the anti-Asian xenophobic outbursts in Australia so that it would not be necessary for any Malaysian MP to deplore his continued procrastination and failure.

(24/11/96)