Might is Power?

There’s been quite a bit of a comment in the Australian media of late concerning the Australian Government’s “intervention” to arrest rampant child abuse and community dysfunction amongst indigenous communities in the Northern Territory through the deployment of a military and civil police force to remote communities to round-up suspects and limit misuse of government support pensions to households.

The Intervention, initiated by the Howard Liberal Government, and subsequently continued by both the Rudd and Gillard Labor Governments has polarised both the indigenous and wider Australian community, with as many advocates and commentators from both groups lauding the “something had to be done” approach, as those outraged by the blatant infringements on the civil rights of indigenous Australians.

The Intervention was modelled precisely on the Australian-led, Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), which was sent-in back in 2003 to restore law and order, and kick-start reform towards self-governance in the civil war-torn country.  The Intervention in the Northern Territory employed the same military tactics, the same infrastructure, the same logistics operators and even the same Military Commander to oversee its initial implementation, and like here in Solomon Islands, the Intervention is still in place, some four years later.

Whether you agree that a 600-strong military intervention to subdue a ragged collection of presumably unarmed Australian citizens was the right way to go or not, one would have to question what the impact of whole troops of white guys with guns barging-in on their community will have on the mentality of the young kids who will grow to become the leaders of those communities.

Here in Solomons, a visit to the only DVD store in town will demonstrate hoards of young people selecting their favourite entertainment option from a limited range of genres comprising “Action”, “Martial Arts”, Kick-boxing”, “War”, “Westerns” and “Horror”.

The same images glorifying war and violence amongst young people can be seen all over their school books, behind bus seats and on public walls all over the city; the fully-armed, equipped, cruelly calculating Melanesian Super-soldier (see pic).

Military might may be useful in creating a dramatic halt to actual violence, but has the unintended consequence of portraying the lesson of that ‘Might is Power’; a potentially dangerous lesson in a setting where young people are likely to grow-up with limited economic and employment opportunities.  I wonder whether this is good for our country as well.

These images appear all over Honiara.  This one beneath a bridge.  Pic: Hagas