In 2008, I went to an event at Gleebooks, an independent bookshop in Sydney’s inner west. The British Council and High Commission was putting on a do for a visiting author of conservative bent. The book was, in parts, entertaining but also included some rather sexist material. (Toward the end of the book, the author wrote about a female friend of his and made specific mention of the size of her posterior growing larger since the last time he saw her.) Still, that didn’t stop the British taxpayer from forking out some dosh, just as they would do for any author or performer or artist whose work suits their soft diplomacy interests. In the case of the present author, perhaps the book suited some “deradicalisation of young Muslims” purpose.
DFAT and Australian embassies do the same. As with all activities of DFAT, it all comes out of our pocket. Soft diplomacy, soft power, person-to-person contact, whatever you wish to call it. Australian artists and writers visit various places to collaborate with other articles via a host of programs run by universities as well as DFAT sections such as the Australia Indonesia Institute. Now I am no sycophant of Indonesia, especially when it comes to the treatment of Christian politicians like Ahok. But I learned a hell of a lot about the religious cultures and civil society organisations of our closest Muslim-majority neighbour when I visited Indonesia on a DFAT-funded junket in January 2006. As did the five other Australians who joined me.
[How we can really help women and girls escape forced marriages]
So why am I saying all this? Because, for some reason, Caroline Overington of The Australian cannot seem to understand this whole idea of soft diplomacy. After a robust shouting match on Q&A over sharia between engineer Yassmin Abdel-Magied and independent Senator Jacqui Lambie on Monday evening, Overington decided on Thursday to run a front-page “scoop” headlined “Taxpayers billed for Q&A activist’s grand tour of Islamic regimes“.
A terrific culture-war story for The Australian‘s diminishing readership. It has all the ingredients: the wretched Q&A, the nasty ABC, the satanic Tony Jones and the nasty religion whose adherents make up a frightening 25% of humanity. But seriously, reading the story made me wonder what all the fuss was about. It was hardly a scoop. Overington herself notes that the not-so-grant tour was promoted “last November”. That’s three months ago.
Overington is especially upset about the fact that Abdel-Magied visited these nasty brutal regimes while claiming on Q&A that she saw Islam as “the most feminist religion”. Now, I’m no women’s activist, but I felt a bit perturbed about Abdel-Magied’s claim. True, in an ideal Islamic world, things might work out well for the Muslim ladies. But in reality, most Middle Eastern women aren’t enjoying the freedoms that Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Jacqui Lambie and Caroline Overington do here.
But it was almost as if Overington were arguing that someone with Abdel-Magied’s beliefs should not be sent by DFAT. What kind of woman should they send, then? Kirralie whatserface from the Q Society? Janet Albrechtsen? Andrew Bolt?
Overington discusses at length the awful treatment of women in the countries Abdel-Magied visited. This is all public knowledge, and Overington may ask herself why Abdel-Magied, her family, my mum, my siblings, me, my nephew and my nephew’s dog refuse to live in any of these places.
[Dear Caroline Overington, the White Australia Policy is over, deal with it]
Still, the fact remains that we have to have relations with these nations. Overington’s employer was once partly owned by a Saudi prince. A fair few Australians do business with these places. Our food exports help shore up food security in the region, despite our insistence on fighting unpopular wars there, and pursuing a foreign policy that is despised across the region.
These nations also need to feel secure that not all Australian kids are ready to join Islamic State. Yes, the entire Middle East despises IS. Does sending a smart young lady in her mid-20s who works as an engineer on an oil rig to talk up Australia’s treatment of its Arabs/Sudanese/Egyptians/Muslims make sense? Clearly DFAT thought so. As DFAT told Overington:
“Yassmin Abdel-Magied visited a number of countries in the Middle East to promote Australia as an open, innovative, democratic and diverse nation. She met youth representatives, scientists, entrepreneurs, women’s groups and others.”
Soft diplomacy is money well spent. Perhaps Overington could learn some herself.
Irfan you mistakenly conclude that Overington is able to observe and learn, rather than blandly, superficially, repetitively, boringly reproduce her master’s drivel.
This piece is pure common sense. Although I am mildly surprised that Guthrie hasn’t wedged some ABC underling into offering an apology for having a guest on Q&A who has actually set foot in the Middle East for a speaking tour (under the ingenious guise of DFAT no less).
Can’t wait to see ‘Kirralie whatserface from the Q Society’ on the panel. Stay tuned, viewers.
Thanks Irfan, good to see your laid back sense again. Has anyone offered you a regular writing gig? Or does real life call?
Thanks Irfan, balanced, erudite, calm, everything we don’t get from The Australian.
You have to remember that The Australian is a confected outrage machine.
A work colleague gave me a copy of today’s Oz to share the NK assassination story (I wouldn’t part with my money for such a garbage Paper) but glancing at the Overingtton article made me feel sick so I immediately gave up reading…..I need some large format newspaper to prevent weeds growing through the river pebbles around the pool but I won’t use this one in case the crap leaches out into the pool water.
Leon, you will find The Oz is unmatched for lining the cat’s litter box or the cocky’s cage.
I doubt DFAT using taxpayer dollars to send a Muslim woman in the person of Abdel-Magied to the Middle East achieves anything better or worse than its simple purpose of signaling that Australia isn’t, as a matter of form, anti-Muslim. To ascribe ‘soft diplomacy’ content to that display of form though, when Abdel-Mageid own left liberal identity politics is so obviously irrelevant to a Middle East riven by sectarian religious wars overlaid by resurgent regional imperial rivalries, is maybe a little on the generous side. She’s clever, but pets often are.
Nevertheless, this article reminds us of the astonishing hypocrisy of the right in castigating those who demand that live animal exports to Muslim countries cease (at least until verifiable decent butchering practices are instituted). Shouldn’t refusing to feed the enemy Muslim masses be a first order priority for these supposed arch-patriots? Or does the fact that live animal exports to Muslim countries generates income for Australian pastoralists makes it okay, in the same way that AWB continuing to sell wheat to Saddam Hussein’s regime after our declaring war and forbidden such trade was ignored by the right, rather than condemned as treasonous?
Sorry Will, but I think your observation of Abdel-Magied being a pet, is mean.
Yes whether we like it or not Australia contributed a great deal to the mess that the middle east is now, if Howard hadn’t been such a “buddy” of George W, Iraq, Syria, Israel & Yemen, (apart from Saudi Arabia) wouldn’t be in the mess they are in now. Whether we like it or not we were part of US led wrecking crew, that created chaos in the middle east. I think that having soft diplomatic visits especially for young minds is crucial, education is the most important way of counteracting age old treatment of girls, it is the only way that girls & women get out of the poverty cycle, and are able to make meaningful contributions to their families & their worlds. Whether Australia likes it or not the likes of Abdel-Magied are our future, those of her ilk are showing the ill informed that change is inevitable, and that they need to find a way of dealing with it. Constant change is part of our world, writers like Irfan are our guides.