Rita Panahi: Nothing racist in sensible measures
The usual suspects have emerged to accuse Australia of racism over its response to the coronavirus epidemic. But there’s nothing racist in being cautious, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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There is a special place in infamy for those who cynically use tragedies to advance their toxic brand of identity politics. Using the reaction to the coronavirus to slander Australians and our government as racist is dumb but that is precisely what is happening — and not just among anonymous Twitter trolls.
You might say that “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” and the usual malcontents preoccupied with racial discrimination, real or imagined, see bigotry and xenophobia rather than prudent, rational measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Australia.
The ban on foreign travellers who have been to China applies whether you are of Chinese heritage, African or caucasian. It’s the date of the stamp in your passport that matters, not the melanin in your skin.
But that hasn’t prevented people such as Tim Soutphommasane, the former Human Rights Commissioner, a man who was paid more than $300,000 a year to tell us how irredeemably racist we all are, to start banging on about, well, how racist we all are. Soutphommasane tweeted and retweeted others suggesting there were “sinophobic narratives” at play and the federal government would react differently if those most heavily impacted by coronavirus and needing evacuation were white.
“Not surprising we’re seeing racism linked to concerns with the coronavirus. Racism feeds on fear and anxiety. Unfortunately some are using this outbreak as a cover for venting prejudice,” Soutphommasane tweeted along with “Australian citizens deserve better from their government. This, from one citizen: ‘The Government wouldn’t send its citizens to Christmas Island detention centre if those who are trapped in Wuhan were white Australians’.”
Australian writer John Pilger went further, claiming China’s response had been exemplary and “under cover of coronavirus, the US and its ‘allies’ are waging war against China. The racist travel bans and media hysteria are not approved by WHO”.
A number of countries, including Singapore, Iraq, Indonesia, the US and New Zealand, have taken similar measures to Australia in banning travellers who have recently been to China. I look forward to the racebaiters accusing the Iraqis of fanning “white supremacy” by closing their borders to nonresidents who have been on the Chinese mainland.
It’s curious the race-obsessed save their biggest criticism of the coronavirus response for countries like Australia and the US instead of China whose citizens are risking harsh sanctions by speaking out about the inhumane, incompetent and at times bewildering actions of authorities who have been less than forthcoming about the outbreak.
Brave whistleblowers are putting themselves in peril to bring us information and footage of what is happening in Wuhan. Chinese authorities have even arrested doctors working at the coalface who have tried to warn others of the extent of the contagion at the epicentre of the outbreak.
The Chinese regime is desperate for the world to believe it has everything under control. To that end it is censoring Chinese news reports and social media activity. As the official coronavirus death toll in China overtakes that of the SARS epidemic, horrific stories and images continue to emerge thanks largely to brave citizen journalists.
One death that won’t be attributed to coronavirus is among the most heartbreaking. Yan Cheng, a 16-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, was found dead a week after his father and brother were quarantined, leaving the boy without carers to feed him, according to the BBC. The story reached the Western media after trending for several days on Chinese social media site Sina Weibo.
Uncritically accepting what the communist government of China tells us about coronavirus, or anything else for that matter, is the height of naivety. The same, brutal totalitarian regime that locks up dissidents, harvests the organs of people unfairly sentenced to death and puts a million Uighurs in camps for the “crime” of being Muslim is not above lying about the extent of a potentially deadly virus.
On Tuesday the Chinese government, through its Deputy Ambassador to Australia Wang Xining, had the nerve to criticise Australian authorities for “panic and over-action” for cancelling some Chinese students’ visas. The Australian response to coronavirus may, in the fullness of time, be seen as overcautious, but isn’t it better to err on the side of caution in circumstances like these? The next virus may have a much higher infection and mortality rate and we need to be prepared for that.
It’s not racist to be concerned about a deadly virus and want decisive action from authorities. The Australian government is, at considerable expense, flying hundreds of citizens and residents from the Hubei province to Christmas Island where they will be quarantined for two weeks before being brought to the mainland. The first 243 arrived in Australia on Monday and 241 were transferred to Christmas Island (the other two, a pregnant woman and her young child, were taken to Perth), where they will be cared for by a team of medical specialists.
We should expect nothing less from a prosperous nation and any suggestion these measures are inhumane or inadequate because those affected are Chinese Australians is baseless bulldust.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist.