Cartoon diplomacy a croc

After the storm in a tea cup, over that infamous Danish cartoon the Asia-Pacific version blew up this week when an Indonesian newspaper cartoon depicted Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minster Downer as a pair of dingoes, with Howard screwing Downer.

It was a pretty pathetic effort as cartoons go and gave most Australians a good belly laugh. In response award winning Australian cartoonist, Bill Leak, released his own cartoon in the Weekend Australian depicting the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as a dog mounting a Papuan while saying: "Don't take this the wrong way …" The caption reads: "No Offence Intended."

Well what do you know, the Indonesians ore offended by Leak’s cartoon. If ever we needed it, this is a prime example of political correctness out of control. In this instance, if it is not bad enough for the Indonesian to launch their ingenuous rant about the Australian cartoon, the arse licking Aussie FM wades in to inflame the sensitive little flowers of Indonesia.

This is the very same Foreign Minister caught up in a trail of lies of the UN oil-for-food scandal. The same guy who can’t find it in him to admit to documented facts. He is the one who is willing to offend the Australian voters’ perception of ministers of state.

PC, political correctness, is a crock of shit! At best it might give breathing space to social minorities as they adapt to the rest of society, but it should not be a crutch. At worst PC becomes a blind from which attacks can be launched before retreat to the safety of so called propriety.

PC is one of the factors which allows and feeds the terrorism bogey. Islamists hide behind it, just as extremist religious groups do. As to Indonesia, they hardly have any claim to minority status, representing the fourth largest population in the world.

Predictably they some Indonesian saw fit to launch their pathetic cartoon attack, then duck back under cover of their precious sensitivities. It is school yard stuff, pathetic and juvenile. But when I was in the school yard there was a rule – if you can dish the shit you’d better be able to take it back, because it will come back.

In the process it is all about a non issue. The people of West Papua (New Guinea) could never rely on the Australian government to promote their claims for independence from their Indonesian oppressors.

The Indonesians know that, but I expect they are still smarting over losing East Timor. At least they can be honest about their motives, they being both Indonesians and Australiana.