ANZAC Values That Shape Our Nation … Really?
On ANZAC day I watched the service from Gallipoli, a
profound, moving memorial honouring those who laid their lives down to serve
their nation and empire. All the more heartbreaking as the well-known story of mistakes,
ineptitude and failure is told.
Our prime minister, the Honourable Tony Abbot gave what I
thought was a well prepared speech, in fact, all of the addresses were good.
Mr. Abbot’s finished with the three values that epitomised the spirit of the
ANZAC soldier, and that reflect the spirit of our great nation: Duty; Selflessness;
and Moral Courage. Of course there was the singing of the national anthem – including
that wonderful second verse.
Predictably there was the repeated theme “Lest we forget”
this time supplemented with an emphatic “We remember!”
But it seems we only remember one day a year for the
occasional hour. The rest of the time we conveniently choose to forget. When
people flee the terror of war in other places, we forget and send them back if
we can. When people seek the life we
claim we nobly fought to have, and are willing to die at sea seeking it, we forget
and determine they’ll not share our “boundless plains”.
We strip them of their identity, their medicines, even their
names. With one side of our faces we speak in hushed tones of our own who have
been prisoners of war, and with the other side we demand families and even
children are put into prison camps – and persecute those who try to protect
them. We support courts that even today pursue war crimes, yet again we forget
when we incarcerate people and refuse to tell them what their supposed crime was,
and refuse them the opportunity to defend themselves.
Where is the memory of the suffering of war when it comes to
those who need our help?
Where is the sense of duty toward those in need?
Where is the spirit of selflessness when we push needy
families into prison camps on tiny islands when we have “boundless plains to
share in Australia”?
And where is the moral courage of our politicians from the
major parties, now Malcolm Fraser has gone, to give some leadership that has a
higher moral value than populist dog whistling in order to get elected?
John Langlois
28 Cromwell St.
Battery Point
Tasmania 7004
