Glutbusters

December 02, 2005

Get Your Hand Off It

I just heard Queensland Independent MP Chris Foley on the radio proclaiming his opposition to the death penalty, yet declaring that he felt a minute's silence to remember Nguyen Tuong Van in the Queensland Parliament would be offensive to Australia's war veterans.

It's this sort of ra-ra, Anzac-spirit political grandstanding that gives me the shits. As if a minute's silence is an honour that must be earned through some sort of noble toil, like there's a Luna Park-style, "you must have done at least this much for your country to get this silence" sign through which only those worthy may pass.

Mr Foley, Chris if I may, a minute's silence is not a reward for effort, it is not an honour bestowed only on those who have proven themselves, by whatever scale you choose to randomly apply, to deserve it. A minute's silence is about us as a group, or a state, or a nation, showing our respect, our appreciation, our grief.

So I'd say in Nguyen's case, it's perfectly appropriate. Yes, as you so incisively point out, he is a convicted drug dealer. But he is a man who has been put to death for what in our country is a minor offence. By any scale, mine at least, he has received a punishment grossly disproportionate to his crime. What your parliament was doing was demonstrating its respect and its sadness for the incredible price that Nguyen and his family have paid for one mistake.

So make a stand, you petty bastard. Walk out of Parliament (with the Opposition) if it makes you feel like you're a bigger man. I know you country independents have your work cut out for you getting column inches, so I hope your weekly self-googling turns up a few more hits. Perhaps though, in the future, you could dedicate your self-righteous indignation to something a little more worthwhile.

Filed under Politics