
Issue No 119		16 November 2001

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

Media

Elite Defeat

Rowan Cahill looks at the intellectual paucity in the PM's ongoing attacks on 'elite opinion'.


	Malcolm Fraser

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During the last fortnight of Election 2001, prominent Australian academics, writers, clergy, former politicians, business people, came forward and publicly criticised the Howard government's policies and attitudes towards refugees, and what they perceived as the racist overtones of the Howard election campaign.

In response Howard classified the critical voices as part of a nameless, unspecified ELITE, or ELITES plural. This was apparently reason enough to dismiss the moral, ethical, and intellectual content of the criticisms as unworthy of consideration. ELITE/S subsequently became part of media comment.

Howard's electoral victory on Saturday was portrayed by some in the media as a victory against the ELITES. And when Liberal Party support in former and notional Labor areas, particularly in Western Sydney, was factored in it became "Howard's Battlers" defeating the ELITES.

Hang on; what is an ELITE? Mr. Oxford of the Concise kind informs me that ELITE is a word of French derivation meaning "the choice part, the best of ". Okay. But that is not what Howard and his spin doctors had in mind.

No. They had in mind a meaning that conveys a sense of people who are somehow on the nose; people who are apart from the rest of us; gifted, and talented maybe; but on the margins nevertheless; and with them their ideas. So far out on the margins, in fact, as to be derided, possibly even demonised.

Hang on. Former Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, a one time supporter of the Vietnam War, possible CIA puppet, and slayer of the Whitlam Labor government, was one of the people in the anti-Howard ELITE.

How come? Only Leftists of various hues ever referred to Fraser as part of an economic and social elite. He was rich, spoke in measured plum-in-the-mouth tones, and was part of the prosperous Western Victoria wool growing class; his kids went to the best private schools; he hobnobbed with the rich and powerful; and when he was Prime Minister he used to send out Christmas cards of himself and his wife on their rural estate, swanning around as though they were Royalty.

None of which upset the Liberal Party of the time. He was born to rule, it was his right to rule, just like the rest of the Libs.

Just like Third Term Johnny; not exactly the boy next door. Johnny never stood on an assembly line, or clocked on at work. He is a university man of the lawyer kind; he's got a pile of money, and a salary and Superannuation scheme that mock the piddling earning power and future of the majority of Australians; his wife drove a sports car to university in her student days when her peers scrounged for bus fares; his kids attended the best private schools; he hobnobs with the rich and powerful; and if he was prised out of any of his three residences and transposed to Western Sydney, he would be as comfortable and welcome as a leper in a nudist colony.

Something must have changed for Fraser to be part of an ELITE that he was not part of before, and that Third Term Johnny is not part of today. And so it comes down to Fraser's ideas.

Today Fraser is a high profile and respected international Mr. Fixit; a passionate, articulate, persuasive spokesman on behalf of the world's poor, abused, and dispossessed. In recent years he has been doing the sorts of things many would like to see former Labor Prime Ministers doing, instead of flogging pasta sauce on television, and hobnobbing at the racetrack with the rich and powerful.

Fraser is materially and socially no different to many people in the Liberal Party who support Howard, and who help frame Liberal policy. But he is different in the head.

Fraser is willing to go public with ideas on reconciliation, racism, the treatment of refugees, the global impact of poverty and dispossession, which are not in accord with the Howard line. His former, and current, status ensure him a media platform.

Therefore Fraser had to be marginalised and demeaned, so his ideas would be neutralised, denied their authority and expertise. The same fate befell others who similarly attempted to contribute to moral, political, and ethical debate beyond the fatuousness and anonymity of talk-back radio.

Which is where the term ELITE comes in. The sense of "the best" is ditched, and the sociological senses of "privilege" and "apart from the masses" are emphasised.

This is a political sleight of hand; and a complex psycho-political process. Those who use ELITE as a term of marginalisation and denigration are often themselves socially, economically, and politically advantaged well beyond the norm, and therefore arguably part of an elite.

The intent of the process is sinister. The term ELITE as Howard uses it is an attempt to confuse people about how an open, pluralist, society should work, and the nature of Democracy. The implication is that Democracy is not about ideas clashing in the public arena; it is not about full and free public access to information, opinion, and debate; it is not about everyone participating as much as possible in decision making and policy formation in an ongoing, active way. Even the right of an elected Opposition to act as an opposition is questioned.

Instead Democracy is about the Ruling Party having the untrammelled right to say, narrate, control, decide; its mandate to do so is granted by the electoral process. And what we end up with is an approach to politics not too far away from a gentle form of Fascism.

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Issue 119 contents

Interview: Out of the Rubble
Michael Costa argues that Saturday's election result could have been much, much worse.

Unions: Sixty-Forty Are Good Odds!
John Robertson argues that while there may be many problems with the ALP, union power is not one of them.

Politics: Wrong Way, Go Back
Labor's failure in the federal election is the result of more than bad luck. It is the result of a shift to populism that has left the Party bereft of core principles.

Campaign Diary: Week Five: All Washed Up
If you can stand it, relive the fatefull final week of a most remarkable election campaign.

International: Trade Piracy Unmasked
As the trade barons met in Qatar to chart out their agenda, George Monbiot looks at the machinations behind the scenes.

Factions: The Party's Over
Chris Christodoulou renews his call for a breakdown of the factional system to bring new life into the ALP

History: The Fall-Out
Neale Towart looks back to Labor's reaction to its loss in the 1954 'Petrov election' and finds warnings for today's post mortem.

Media: Elite Defeat
Rowan Cahill looks at the intellectual paucity in the PM's ongoing attacks on 'elite opinion'.

Satire: Crean 'Listens To Australian People': Will Sink Refugee Boats
Simon Crean, the most likely candidate to replace Kim Beazley as Labor's leader, says he will take heed of the message sent to the ALP by Australian voters at the Federal Election.

» Unions Call for Border Review

» Compo Fire Reignites as Bill Hits Deck

» Workers Unite Over Corporate Power

» Day Three: Telstra Privatisation Begins

» Primus Deal Marks New Era in Telcos

» Qantas Staff Cuts Condemned

» Bank Workers Seek Proxies for AGMs

» Blokes Stand Up For The Ladies

» Landmark Community Services Win

» Anger at Sartor's Power Grab

» Consumer Boycott Call for Sugar Co-op

» Apprentices Win Parity with Uni Students

» Competition for Nurses Hots Up

» CFMEU Launches Bunny Club

» ICFTU Reveals 250 Companies in Burma

» Activists Notebook

» STOP PRESS: No Democracy at Telstra AGM