Alliance against .......?

There is a sudden push by John Howard to form security alliances with some of our northern neighbours. One has just been signed with Japan. Suddenly there is a talk about enlisting India into the alliance (see Dennis Shanahan’s article in The Australian today

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21384779-601,00.html) which US Vice President Cheney apparently raised with Howard in his recent trip Down Under after it was rejected by Bush administration. Of course the deputy sheriff could not bring himself to refuse this one.

I learnt from one of Lee Kuan Yew’s speeches many decades ago that when there is a call for an alliance the logical question is “against whom?” Howard carefully dropped the hint by saying that he thought China not be upset. We are all too used to Howard’s dog whistling to know that he usually means what he denies. Shanahan had no qualms about pointing out that an alliance with Japan and India would be an encircling of China.

It would suit the US paranoia about China’s economic growth. But what is there for Australia?

Is it a coincidence that Opposition leader Rudd who is doing spectacularly in the polls despite all the mud slinging, happens to be fluent in Mandarin apart from other things Chinese? Is it a coincidence that Howard’s own constituency may become vulnerable because of the increased number of Chinese and other Asian migrants who would be impressed by Rudd language skills?

Howard is experienced enough to know that China is not going to be bothered by a few gestures for internal consumption. He also knows from experience that he can scare some of his older votes with the old fear of China and of someone like Rudd who can be cast as a Sinophile. He is probably hoping that increasing distrusts of China would ultimately discourage Rudd from using his powerful language weapon in the elections later this year.

The sacrificing of some foreign policies can be a small price to pay to retain one’s power.

RUDD vs HOWARD

For the past week, we have been hearing John Howard and the rest of his cabinet pouring smears on Kevin Rudd over his presence in three gathering which included Brian Burke.

Rudd has been trying to explain it all in his usual analytical and rational way. Along comes Paul Keating and contributed the best lines of the debate so far:

“Look, look, Kevin has done something, he's met Brian Burke. But I'll tell you what he hasn't done - he hasn't lied to his nation about reasons for committing Australia to a non-UN sponsored invasion and war. He hasn't turned his head from the plight of a boat full of wretched individuals looking for shelter, and then adding insult to injury by saying they threw their kids overboard first, you know. And he hasn't prostituted the UN Oil-for-Food program by falsely declaring that Australia's wheat shipments were not ultra vires of the UN guidelines. Now, this is what this prime minister has presided over, you know …I mean, look, you know, Howard has, you know, lied to the country about the reasons for going to war, going to war for God's sake, and now he wants us to believe it's a major problem if Kevin Rudd meets Brian Burke, you know, Brian who?”

and

“Well, the thing about poor old Costello, he's all tip and no iceberg, you know. He (laughs), you know, he can throw a punch across the parliament, but the bloke he should be throwing the punch to his Howard. Of course, he doesn't have the ticker for it.”

Perhaps Rudd needs to learn to use the old methods to deal with Howard and Costello. From Keating.

Rudd's Interview (Unofficial translation)

In one of my previous posts I mentioned about Kevin Rudd handling a TV interview in Mandarin. Very interestingly I received comments from someone with the blog name of Goodtobewithyou, Rudd’s trademark greeting. Goodtobewithyou was kind enough to point out to me the link to the website of Phoenix TV network (a Hong Kong TV network partly owned by News Corp) where I could find a transcript of the interview, in Chinese of course, but he then asked if I could translate it for him! For someone supposedly to have an occasional contact with Mr Rudd, I thought he could get one more quickly from the man himself. We can only speculate who this mysterious and anonymous character really is – and if only we can get on his own well protected blog!

http://goodtobewithyou.blogspot.com

Being quite keen to read the full text, I looked for an English translation which I thought must surely exist. I had hoped for a quick perusal without the tedium of frequent references to my still brand new Chinese-English dictionary. The most obvious place was Rudd’s own office. Alas, my email went unanswered – either because they were too busy planning the takeover of Canberra or just plain rude! Undeterred, I ventured into an unofficial translation myself, while under my breath thanking my parents for encouraging me to build a basic foundation in Chinese during school. After some hours’ work, it was finished, all five pages of it. To post it in the normal way would take up too much web space on the opening page of my blog. Instead, I have posted them as comments, in two parts, below.

35 Days

I was away for 35 days and many things changed. Firstly and very sadly one of my best friends died, which among many things, reminded me of my mortality. Then there was a local council by-election which proved once again how resistant people are to change. And finally there was a new Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd.

Locked in a hotel room with my sick daughter in freezing Harbin a couple of years ago, I channel surfed the TV and happened upon an interview of Rudd by a Chinese reporter. I was most impressed with Rudd's handling of very technical foreign relations issues in fluent Mandarin.

It would serve him well if people are impressed with the ALP policies under his leadership as I was with his Mandarin!