Is Australia a racist country?

This seems to be the question the world is asking. Well, I exaggerate… it’s probably only the top two test cricket playing countries who are asking the question. And I, as a 11 year veteran in Australia, still on my Indian passport, think I have found the answer. And the answer is…drumroll, please…. well, if I gave you the answer now, you wouldn’t read the rest of this post, would you?

The unfortunate murder of Nitin Garg in Melbourne has charged up a number of people, and in my view, rightly so. In my view, what went wrong was Julia Gillard, the Deputy Prime Minister trying to rule out race as a cause at a press conference. That was a poor choice of strategy. By pre-empting the police investigation to categorically declare that race was not a factor only inflamed passions even further.

B Chandrashekhar, my law teacher at IIM Bangalore used to say that ‘Justice not only needs to be done, but must also be seen to be done’. This is the basic premise that the pollies have forgotten. The truth may be that it may have been an opportunistic crime. But people need to watch the judicial machinery in action, reaching that decision, to be satisfied that it is so. A politician making a statement on a judicial matter, and offering no evidence in support, adds insult to injury.

Not only do the victim’s families and their supporters feel they have been unfairly denied a chance of justice, they also begin to believe there is no chance of justice in such a prejudiced world. And inevitably, conclusions are drawn – ‘They are trying to hide something’, ‘sweep it under the carpet’, ‘protect someone’…the rumours grow by the day.

The only way to prevent this is to let justice step in and take it’s course, and be seen to take it’s course. Most Indians would have more faith in the Austrealian justice system than in the Indian system. The Indian system is notoriously fallible, and it takes years to get any sort of result, let alone a conclusive one.

Where is Australia’s chance of redeeming their ‘safe’ and pristine image?

Aussies should not underestimate the power of the media in India. There are dozens of 24-hour news channels bombarding people with messages round the clock. When a message is repeated often enough, it becomes the truth, in people’s minds. These channels are giants compared to the likes of Channel 7 and 9. They have reach and influence thousands of times greater than the Australian media. It is that media that the PR gurus need to work on.

Being more open with the Indian media is very important. Providing hour by hour updates on the progress of investigations may be a good idea. More news of ‘No News’ is better than idle speculation. At least, viewers get the feeling that there is some progress. And this is the concept of justice being seen to be done.

The police need to be in the limelight and on the front foot - sharing information, appealing for witnesses, door knocking, looking at CCTV footage. Maybe they are already doing it, but they need to step it up a notch and share their efforts with the Indian media. Maybe, offer for an Indian TV crew to go with one of their officers canvassing the neighbourhood; let a crew into the investigating room. All this adds credibility, and creates news without speculation.

Otherwise, a secretive approach just leads to speculation of laziness and KKK sort of behaviour that a recent cartoon alluded to. There is a big ‘Show and Tell’ angle to this investigation that the police seem to have forgotten. Without regular news, news agencies will invent what they can to create news, and that can only be detrimental.

Looking back on personal experience, I had the unfortunate experience of having my car broken into, and the stereo stolen a few weeks back. The police duly turned up, took my statement, and then disappeared. No follow up. No progress reports. Maybe, there was no investigation. Maybe, there was an investigation and there were no leads, but there was no sharing of information. Even a simple ‘There have been 3 similar incidents in your suburb’, or ‘We have arrested a similar offender this week’ would help ease the suspicion that they have done nothing about it.

Instead, in my case, the police got back a few weeks later, through a leaflet drop in the area warning people not to leave valuables in the car. In my case, should I have detached a 5kg stereo system that is securely fastened into the dash of the car every time I lock my car for the night? That is ridiculous. And yet, this is exactly the approach the police have taken on the Nitin Garg case – Blame the victim.

Blaming the victim for carrying ‘expensive’ iPods, for using a shortcut through a park – this is absolutely ridiculous. It is almost as ridiculous as when, a few years back, an Imam blamed victims of rape for dressing up in a manner that provokes crime. The police in Australia need to get off their high horses and stop blaming victims. Of course, talking about reasonable precautions is fine. But to ask people not to carry iPods is taking it too far.

In my view, this calls for a radical overhaul of the police system in Australia:
a) They need to work on releasing information quickly
b) They need to work with the media, not against it
c) They need to stop blaming victims for provoking attacks – may be true, but is just insensitive.
d) They need understanding of other cultures and how they perceive things
e) They need to show results quickly
f) They need to get pollies to stop shooting off their mouth before they have made an investigation
g) They need people on the force that speak Indian languages – maybe even an Indian taskforce that concentrates on crimes against Indians
h) Show the world that they are fighting crime rather than booking people who do not stop at a ‘Stop’ sign


And finally to answer my question ‘ Is Australia racist?’ Well the answer, unsurprisingly, is ‘Yes, there is racism in Australia, albeit in small pockets of the population’. Does that make Australia racist? I am not sure it does. Anyone who thinks otherwise has their heads buried in the sand. After all, this country has a history of migration, Whites only policies and a One Nation party.

But then, I believe there is nothing wrong with it. We are all entitled to our views, opinions and our prejudices as long as it doesn’t transgress the line of thought to become action and hate crimes.