EDITORIAL : THE AUSTRALIAN, AUSTRALIA

Middle East upheavals present hope and dangers

The West must stay the course until Gaddafi is gone

AFTER weeks of policy paralysis over Libya, allied attacks on Gaddafi's air defences are a welcome development, and the hope must be that they will not cease until the murderous despot is driven from power. He has no legitimacy. He must go. And the allies must demonstrate their determination to act decisively in Libya as elsewhere.

Having finally bitten the bullet over Libya, far greater fortitude and resolution must be shown in dealing with the whirlwind of crises erupting across the Arab world. From the horrifying weekend bloodbath in the Yemen capital Sanaa to the brutal crackdown in Bahrain, base of the US Fifth Fleet so critical to the confrontation with Iran, the challenges to long-standing policies and presumptions are grave.

The once omnipotent King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has had to respond to rising protests among Shi'ites that are rocking the oil-rich eastern province close to Bahrain by offering tens of billions of dollars in handouts. Jordan's King Abdullah, another key Western ally, is trying to appease extremists including the Muslim Brotherhood by including stridently anti-Israeli elements in his new cabinet. Alarmingly, after years of refusing to do so, he may accept overtures from Iran.

The West cannot afford to vacillate, but it must be alert to the forces who would seize any opportunity to hijack legitimate demands for democratic reform. There can be no one-size-fits-all response to these evolving crises, though political repression, corruption and poverty is at their heart. The reality of Iranian subversion looms large, especially among Shi'ite communities, as it seeks to traduce the demonstrations and further its hegemonistic ambitions. Bahrain has long been coveted by Teheran as a 14th province. In Yemen, things are more complex than ousting dictatorial President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power for 32 years. Saleh is a bulwark against al-Qa'ida, led locally by the notorious Anwar al-Awlaki. Osama Bin Laden's former spiritual guide Abdul Majid al-Zindani is among the anti-Saleh protesters. How to support the legitimate demands of the demonstrators without opening new opportunities for extremism is the great diplomatic conundrum.

Egyptians, in a promising start after the Jasmine Revolution, went to the polls in a celebration of their new-won freedoms. But the ruling junta's new amity with Tehran has allowed Iranian warships through the Suez for the first time since 1979 to establish a base in Syria. And what does the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, now that the Mabahith security agency has been disbanded, and the free rein given smugglers and jihadists in the Sinai, portend? There should be no retreat from support for those clamouring for freedom and democracy. The same resolution and adaptability that governed the West's response to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe must be shown. The challenge is to offer that support while ensuring it doesn't open new opportunities for Iran and al-Qa'ida. Libya has shown that doing nothing is no answer. Staying the course and dealing decisively with Gaddafi is a test the allies must not fail. To do so would be a disaster for freedom and democracy across the Arab world.

End vacillating on boatpeople

The government must show leadership over detainees

DESTRUCTIVE violence by detainees on Christmas Island and inertia in processing asylum-seekers' applications are the end-products of more than three years of vacillating by the Rudd and Gillard governments over what to do about the unauthorised arrivals of boatpeople. In condemning the violence yesterday, Julia Gillard sounded unconvincing, again failing to show any real resolve about addressing either the immediate problems on Christmas Island or the underlying issue of stopping the boats. Nor does the prospect of scaling back the operation on Christmas Island offer much promise of being a circuit-breaker.
Since November 2007, Labor has been torn between competing imperatives of border security, the arguments of the human rights lobby, which would put out the welcome mat to boatpeople, and broader public opinion, which favours a much firmer approach. In trying to be all things to all people -- tough but fair, firm but compassionate -- the government has found itself in no-man's land.

From a humanitarian point of view, it is hardly compassionate to stick with policies that have failed to discourage thousands of people from risking their lives and those of their children on a treacherous sea voyage. For those who make it to Australia, the average time spent in detention has almost tripled to 214 days since the government temporarily suspended visa-processing for Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum-seekers last year. That move, not renewed, proved an abject failure at stopping the boats, with more than 3200 new boatpeople arriving during the second half of last year.
The damage to the Christmas Island centre, built by taxpayers at a cost of $400 million, is extensive. In addition to moving an extra 70 Australian Federal Police to the island at great expense, the government needs to deal effectively with those rioting. Criminal violence should never be tolerated, and if such acts were committed by other immigration applicants, they would be refused entry. Rather than promising to take the violence into account in processing asylum-seekers' applications, the government should make it clear that those who have rampaged through the centre hurling rocks and missiles, burned down facilities and crashed through fences are barred. As well as repatriating those who engaged in criminal acts and deterring others from doing so, such a move would free up waiting times by striking several hundred people out of the queues.
Australia has shown a generous forbearance towards boatpeople, allowing most of the 10,000 arrivals in recent years to remain. It now emerges that the government has agreed to pay more than$500,000 to repatriate the bodies of 22 victims of the shipwreck off Christmas Island in December to their own countries for traditional burials, at the wishes of their next of kin. We note that when Australians die overseas, normal practice is for the families of the deceased to arrange and pay for the repatriation of remains.
Compassion would be better spent by doubling or trebling the nation's refugee intake. Refugees have made a positive contribution to Australia's economic and civic life and they are welcome. But an orderly program must be restored, and quickly, before public confidence is further eroded . The government must stop acting like a hapless bystander and assert some leadership.

Time to revive the intervention

Bipartisan and community support is essential to progress

TONY Abbott's offer of bipartisan support for a reinvigorated Northern Territory intervention is a constructive proposal that the Gillard government should take seriously. The fraught process initiated in the last months of the Howard government and backed by Labor has made some progress in reducing infant mortality and improving education and nutrition through income management, but much more remains to be done. Violent crime, sexual attacks, substance abuse, homelessness, truancy and lack of services have worsened considerably in some areas. Fresh thinking and fresh resolve is urgently required.
The Opposition Leader, Julia Gillard and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin agree that Aboriginal communities, families and individuals must take greater responsibility for helping themselves attain equality. Mr Abbott believes the movement of people from remote settlements into larger towns has exacerbated conditions that would not be acceptable in any coastal city or town in Australia.

There are no short cuts or easy options. Law and order must be restored. Violence must be punished and liquor licensing laws must be enforced as a first step. Beyond that lies the enormous task of rebuilding communities and lives. Bipartisan support will pave the way.