Looking For Harmony

Cronulla’s harmony day fell short of a 'family festival'

On Sunday the 26th of March, over three months after Cronulla was the scene of racial conflict, the beach side suburb planned to celebrate Harmony Day, as part of the national campaign to promote the benefits of multiculturalism.

This opportunity to heal the scars of December’s riots and showcase the initiatives set up to promote community cohesion, unfortunately was not fully realized.

A walk along Cronulla beach and through the central shopping area, on Sunday the 26th, gave no signs of a day of celebration. Residents and business owners were unaware of the event. Chi Thai, the owner of a popular café in Cronulla Mall, said on Sunday “I didn’t know about it, I read the newspapers everyday, but usually we receive a letter from the council”.

A life guard and member of North Cronulla Life Saving Club, Luke, said prior to Sunday the 26th “I don’t think there will be many people here, it hasn’t been very well publisized’

The Leader listed events a week prior to the day, including entertainment ,dance, food , and a women's walk for harmony, emphasizing the timeliness of the event for this area.

Aboriginal elder and community member, Diane Schreiber, who made a welcome speech on Sunday said she aimed to “empower women, in their role to harmonize the community”. Regrettably, many in the community went about their day oblivious of this important message.

Extremism addressed, racism left to fester

Five months after last year's Cronulla riots ASIO continues investigations into extremist involvement in the violence.

Meanwhile everyday racism remains a problem in the Beach side suburb.

Director General of Australian Security Intelligence organization (ASIO), Paul O'Sullivan, announced last week that investigations into extremists involved in the violence which shook Sydney's beaches in December 2005 was still in progress, as ASIO considered these groups to be a "threat to Australian Security".

The display of overt racism at Cronulla beach on the 11th of December 2005 seemed a comfortable climate for members of the independent division of the Australia First Party, the Patriotic Youth League (PYL).

The youth face of the Australian extreme right, crept out from an underworld of poster campaigns, secret meetings, and cryptic websites onto the Cronulla streets and saw their agenda making the headlines.

Resembling many residents that day, the PYL were between the ages 13 to 26, wrapped in the Australian flag and identifiable only by t-shirts which sported the message:

"Your teachers are Lying to you, multiculturallism is anti-Australian"

The anti racist website http://www.fightdemback.com claims the PYL have been "heavily mentored" by Australian First representative and convicted criminal, Dr Jim Saleam(pictured left), who said the race based attacks on beach goers at Cronulla, including women "could not be condemned".

The PYL website claims December 11th was a valuable recruitment day and Dr Saleam claimed "From our point of view it was a rampaging success"

Dr Saleam said he had hoped to spread ideas at Cronulla such as "There is no such thing as a Muslim-Australian"

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock did not think extremists were to blame for the violence.

"There are groups of that character-- they're not large -- and in relation to what happened in Cronulla, clearly they were not, as I understand it, the instigators or the organizers of it," he said.

Following the riots NSW Police Commissioner, Ken Moroney, emphasized the role of the community in preventing young men from being drawn into groups with radical beliefs.

A Cronulla resident on the ABC documentary Riot And Revenge on Wednesday, March 15, denied that external right wing groups, like PYL hijacked their cause but rather had a "right to be there".

Dr Kevin Dunn, a Geographer from the University of New South Wales, who recently completed a study on racism faced by Muslim-Australians http://www.bees.unsw.edu.au/school/staff/Dunn/racism.html said:

"I would stress that I think that it is ordinary intolerance that is a bigger potential problem than the extremists"

Within the Cronulla area development of "cross-cultural initiatives that generate positive contact are an important component of the anti-racism mix" said Dr Dunn.

Government funding was awarded to the Sutherland Shire Council and Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) to promote social cohesion in the area, five months on these projects are still in the planning stages.

The head of Communications at SLSA, Sean O'Connell said this week "we hope to change the face of surf life saving but these things take time, there won't be anything visible for a couple of months, we are still in the recruitment stages"

This week in Cronulla pub and backdrop to much of the violence at the end of last year, Northies, there was a show of aggression toward Islamic boxer, Anthony Mundine, explained by Cronulla resident, Paul as "cos they don't want him to win cos he is Muslim and Muslims don't fit into out culture".

2006 Budget backs anti racism

This month the 2006 Budget revealed funding for a national anti-racism program amongst criticism that the John Howard and Peter Costello leadership team is painting an increasingly exclusionary picture of national identity.

The Department of Immigration claims the support given in the recent Budget to ‘Living in Harmony Community grants’, one of three national initiatives under the Living in Harmony campaign, “demonstrates the Australian Government's serious commitment to promoting community harmony and to addressing issues of racism in Australia”

This boost for racial relations coincides with the submission of a set of proposals to the Federal Government aiming to prevent racism towards the Islamic community.

The proposal was a product of the Muslim Youth Summit which took place last December forming part of the Howard Government’s national action plan to prevent Islamic extremism following the London Bombings last July.

Former Parliamentary Secretary for children and youth affairs, Sussan Ley, said “The Muslim Youth Summit is an acknowledgement of the contributions that young Muslims are making to our communities and an opportunity for young Muslims to continue to have a voice in the community”

The proposals which include police involvement in Islamic community sports, media regulation in regard to the perceptions of Muslims, an anti-discriminatory phone line and a television campaign are currently being accessed by the government.

Since last year’s Muslim youth Summit, Howard and Costello have infuriated many sections of society with their exclusionary comments on Australian Citizenship, drawing particular attention to the Islamic community.

John Howard said in February of this year some of the Islamic community is "utterly antagonistic to our kind of society".

This sentiment was supported by Peter Costello in the same week with the comparison:
"Before entering a mosque visitors are asked to take off their shoes. This is a sign of respect. If you have a strong objection to walking in your socks don't enter the mosque. Before becoming an Australian you will be asked to subscribe to certain values. If you have strong objection to those values don't come to Australia."

Expert in political theory and speechwriter for former premier Bob Carr, Tom Soutphommasane, said “notions of national identity under John Howard’s prime ministership have appropriated a ‘radical’ nationalistic tradition”

What Mr Soutphommasane found more worrying was the “absense of engagement with the reality of Multicultural policy among many of our politicians”

Lecturer in Politics at the University of Wollogong, Steve Reglar, said he believed there had been a steady move under the leaderwship of Howard towards a right wing view on multicultural policy.

Dr Reglar described this shift as “Howard’s system of exclusion, starting with the intelligencia” from which Howards policies receive much of their opposition.

As part of this exclusion Dr Reglar and fellow political lecturer, Athony Ashbolt, "had been struck off the interview list" for Sydney's media, for being too far left of the current political spectrum.