Bali busts: our road to a new form of fascismMichael de Angelos...

Bali busts: our road to a new form of fascism

Michael de Angelos


The big drug busts in Bali illustrates my belief that some western countries are firmly on a road to a new type of fascism.

In no way do I condone the trafficking or dealing in hard drugs. But the only way to stop this awful crime is to do so at the very scource. If these Bali Nine are guilty, they are no more than deluded drug 'mules', although I have no doubt that the AFP will perpetuate the exageration that they were a major cog in a huge drug ring.

If the AFP knew of this operation for ten months I would see a greater service in dragging the nine in for a grilling a few weeks before they left for Bali and then developing a scheme to infilitrate the group and let undercover officers be led to the direct heroin source in Indonesia or Thailand. Get the big guys who are making $millions.

Instead we'll be treated to another media blitz of trials under Indonesia's oppressive court system and possibly the execution of nine youngster. The hard right, the AFP and a host of politicians will line up to warn the dangers of drug smuggling.

Well, I seem to remember 1985, when Malaysia hung Chambers & Barlow and that was going to the warning of all time to drug smugglers. Yet the trade continues unabated.

I watched Denis Richardson of ASIO and Mick Kelty of the AFP slander Mamdid Habib under Parlaimentary priviledge - about how they were aware of all sorts of dire things he'd been up to while abroad. Nothing strong enough to criminally charge with him though.

I felt I was watching two members of the Keystone Cops, except that these men are charged with our country's well being - and they have failed us badly a few times now. A false claim of WMDs in Iraq , no forewarning of the evil Bali bombings, and the awful recent abuse of children in luxury Bali hotels.

Yet we also know from the courage of men like Andrew Wilkie who speak out that these services, like all government departments are staffed with decent and hard working Australians who want to perform their job effectively and honestly and serve their fellow citizens.

Yet John Howard in the space of nine years has subjugated virtually every government Federal service which previously acted independently of political influence into a branches of his Coalition government and his rule, via the stacking of the like-minded at the top on limited contracts (thus ensuring loyalty) or straight out threats of sacking and intimidation.

Each department is still operating independently but the values of those departments now reflect the values of John Howard.

When we get a Howard loyalist like John Stone speaking out in Howards Great Betrayal on his attempt to centralise power in Canberra, a betrayal of the Constitution, the situation is far worse than even I thought possible. This is how 'The Banality Of Evil' as described in Edmund S Herman's book Triumph of The Market begins. It is best described here.

And all these actions are being mirrored in the USA and the UK in their own manner by Blair and Bush. Freedoms in all 3 countries have been diluted in the crazy War on Terrorism and despite the 3 leaders of these countries now having been in power for many years, the US State Department 's annual report (compiled by the top terrorism centre) concludes that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than any year since 1985. In that phoney war they are failing, yet all three are cementing their hands on power.

So when we witness the nightmarish spectacle over the coming weeks of the Bali Nine we will not being seeing a major crackdown on the heroin trade. I 'm quite sure the true masterminds quite possibly have other willing and deluded 'mules' on their way here right now with their evil product. We won't see any lessening of one of the world's biggest criminal enterprises, the illicit drug trade, just a few young Aussies thrown to the dogs.

What we will be seeing is just another step put into place by another government body which has come under John Howard's thumb and is publicly proving itself worthy of his patronage.