Piers Akerman: Leftists try to paint Australia as a racist nation amid COVID-19
It is not racist to state the obvious, that the Communist Party of China must be held responsible for permitting the coronavirus to spread outside Wuhan. But Australians are being labelled as racists just for suggesting this, Piers Akerman writes.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Predictably, a group of so-called celebrities are seeking examples of racism during the Wuhan coronavirus crisis to enable them to further berate Australians as innately racist.
Not surprisingly, inane ABC presenter Benjamin Law is one of those behind a petition calling for national unity and the ABC has also so-helpfully posted advice on its website for people who may wish to make a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission.
The same Human Rights Commission which trawled for complaints about racism it could level at the late cartoonist Bill Leak.
The mission to paint Australia as a racist nation is an ongoing one for the Human Rights Commission leftist activists and their media partner, the national broadcaster, the ABC.
MORE OPINION
Doubts creep in but I’ll never let them beat me
Meghan risks looking like a Stephen King horror story
Yet the AHRC won’t publish the raw numbers of complaints, so we don’t know how many actual incidents there have been. But a database established by a group called the Australian Asian Alliance reports that there have been fewer than 180 complaints lodged with it since it was launched just over a fortnight ago.
Of course, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was lambasted as taking a racist stance by the ABC’s activist presenters when he banned all flights from China on February 1 — a move which was rapidly followed by other nations but not soon enough for thousands in Italy, Spain, France and New York.
Yet, almost unnoticed was Mr Morrison’s subsequent praise for the Chinese-Australian community in limiting the spread of the coronavirus as students and residents returned from celebrating the Chinese New Year.
Racism is a mob phenomenon and while it is glaringly offensively obvious in so many Asian nations — notably China and, to a lesser extent, Japan — it is not as prevalent in Australia except where there exist pockets of the ignorant and delusional.
With rather exquisite timing, a new book titled The Forgotten written by historian Dr Will Davies has just rolled off the presses and it fills a much-needed gap in our nation’s history — it details the contribution made by Australian-born Chinese (ABCs) and the Chinese Labour Corps to the ANZAC force and to the Allies during WWI. Dr Davies was moved to research the role of ABCs when, during one of his many trips to the battlefields of the Western Front, he noticed a line of graves carrying Chinese calligraphy under the emblems of Australian and other Western units.
Intrigued, he uncovered the largely unknown — or forgotten — story of ABCs who overcame restrictions and discrimination to fight for their homeland — Australia. Among the many stories he rediscovered was that of Caleb Shang, the oldest of 13 children in a Brisbane family, who joined the AIF in June 1916.
The official war historian Charles Bean records that he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, his lengthy citation reading in part “he attacked enemy snipers in broad daylight and accounted for them … he constantly volunteered for dangerous patrols into enemy country … his conduct showed a never-failing example of fearlessness, resource and initiative”.
He was again in action at Dernancourt, where he was awarded a bar to his DCM, with the citation noting, “he reaped a harvest with his rifle until his post was blown right out … he volunteered to remain behind and cover retirement with a Lewis gun, which he did successfully. He showed an utter disregard for danger and is a gallant soldier”.
At Villers Bretonneux he was awarded a Military Medal for “remarkable bravery”.
Four boys from the Langtip family of Tarraville, Victoria, were in the Light Horse, among the 15 ABCs in that unit. Leslie Langtip, who rode in the renowned cavalry charge at Beersheba, was later awarded the DCM in the advance on Kaukab, where he “gave valuable assistance” in the capture of a field gun and showed “great initiative and courage” driving back an enemy attempt to retake the gun”. Even more famous was the legendary sniper Billy Sing, a kangaroo shooter who enlisted in Bowen and went on to make his name at Gallipoli.
Working with his observer, Ion Idriess — who became a noted Outback author between the wars — Sing was officially credited with 201 kills by the time he was evacuated from the Peninsula in November 1915.
This important book was financed by Sydney’s Albert Wong, well-known in business circles as a merchant banker, stock broker and entrepreneur.
Hong Kong-born Mr Wong was unaware of the history of the Chinese Anzacs until he met Dr Davies, but having come to Australia 45 years ago as a 16-year-old he felt it was important to make a contribution to his adopted home that would help the next generation of ABCs understand our way of life and our culture.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Wong said people applying for Australian citizenship should have visited the Australian War Memorial at least once to understand the Australian psyche.
“I had never attended an Anzac Day ceremony until last year,” he told me, “because I always felt like an outsider.”
He won’t be attending one this year, and nor will others because of the coronavirus. But now, as Anzac Day approaches, it is important we remember what our men were fighting for — and who was in the trenches.
It is not racist to state the obvious, that the Communist Party of China must be held responsible for permitting the coronavirus to spread outside Wuhan.
Just don’t exercise your frustration on those who have no choice but to live in an oppressive totalitarian state.