Right Pulse

From the UK Telegraph on why Russia, South Africa, China and a bunch of other nations voted against imposing sanctions on Mugabe:

China’s investment in Africa has increased hugely recently, but the real reason for both these vetoes isn’t economic: it is fear of the precedent that would be set if the UN explicitly authorises action against a country because it is governed by a tyrannical autocrat….there is a tacit pact between the world’s dictatorial regimes to ensure that they can continue to deny their people basic democratic rights: they know they themselves will become vulnerable if it is established as a principle of the UN that there is a limit beyond which governments are not entitled to oppress their own people.

Readers should also note that Indonesia, as a member of the Security Council, abstained from the vote. So to the solution:

John McCain, the Republican candidate in America’s presidential election, has suggested an alternative to a UN deadlocked by the vetoes of China and Russia.

He proposes a “league of democracies”, in which nations committed to what might be termed “the Western system” would come together and use their joint power to try to advance more enlightened forms of governance. It wouldn’t be an alternative to the UN. But it would tackle some of the problems which vetoes from the tyrannies on the security council ensure that the UN cannot.

There are many difficulties with turning McCain’s vision into reality. Yet the failure of the UN, like the impotence of the G8, which was also on display last week, requires serious debate on how to remedy the ineffectiveness of global institutions

First, the UN Security Council failed to pass a resolution imposing sanctions on Mugabe and his cronies:

But although nine countries, including America, Britain and France, backed the proposals, five countries voted against, including Russia and China, which both enjoy powers of veto as permanent members of the Security Council.

South Africa, Libya and Vietnam also voted against the resolution while Indonesia abstained.

It is the latest example of South Africa failing to support action against repressive rulers, despite the ruling African National Congress’ own backing for sanctions when it was leading the struggle against apartheid.

Last year the country voted against a resolution calling for the Burmese junta to stop attacking ethnic minorities and engage in substantive dialogue with the democratic opposition

And second, the UN Human Rights Council recently ruled that:

From now on, all references to human rights violations related to Islamic Shar’ia law are prohibited in the chamber of the UN Human Rights Council. So ruled council president Doru Costea after a dramatic debate in the recently concluded June session.

It all started when the heroic David Littman, undaunted by malicious attempts to expel him from the UN, tried to deliver a speech on violence against women and what Islamic scholars can do to prevent it. The Egyptian representative interrupted repeatedly and challenged the council president. “Regardless of the result of the vote — I couldn’t care less if I will win or lose this vote — my point is that Islam will not be crucified in this council!”

The president gave in: “Statements should refrain from making judgments or evaluations of a particular religion. . . I can promise that at the next evaluation of a religious creed, law, or document, I will interrupt the speaker and we’ll go on to the next one.”

A couple of big swings against the Labour Party, both here in Australia and in the UK. Starting in Australia and in the Gippsland by-election the ALP suffered an 8.4 per cent swing against them after only 7 months ago having achieved a 1 - 2 per cent swing the other way. The result was never in doubt, a National win, but the swing against the Government is promising. Rudd’s popularity is starting to wain as people start to think about politics again.

In the UK, the Labour Party suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the conservatives:

A HUMILIATING fifth place finish for the Labour Party in a parliamentary by-election was Gordon Brown’s anniversary present yesterday as he marked his first year as Prime Minister.

Labour’s candidate even lost his pound stg. 500 ($1036) deposit after failing to reach the 5per cent threshold intended to discourage joke candidates.

Labour supporters who have been wondering just how low the Government’s fortunes could plunge may have found out in the Henley-on-Thames by-election, as their candidate polled just 3.1per cent of the vote.

For the first time, Labour was beaten not just by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, but even by two parties that lack a single member of parliament: the Greens and the far-right British National Party.

Combined with promising polling in New Zealand for the conservative Nationals, and also with Liberal state oppositions here, it looks like the political pendulum is swinging back to the right all round. The latest from the SMH about Premier Morris Iemma:

The results of today’s Sun-Herald/Taverner Poll will be the final straw for MPs, who have stoically stuck by their man only to see their party’s support plummet, with political oblivion a certainty unless something is done.

The damning verdict of voters surveyed on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights will alarm Labor MPs.

An election held now would propel the Opposition into government with a 56-44 two-party preferred landslide.

Rudd was a former diplomat within the Department of Foreign Affairs. So you’d think that he’d understand the nuances of international affairs, especially within the East Asian region. Well think again, as outlined by Patrick Cook on Radio National Counterpoint.

Let’s start with India - India. Well that’s them offside.

And what about Japan - Japan. Another one bites the dust.

It’s a case of Rudd teaming up with the biggest bully in town, China, to get the rest of our neighbours offside. It smacks of Rudd’s own insecurity, his failure during his time at Department of Foreign Affairs and reflects his only real skill, the ability to speak Mandarin. Not much to recommend on the diplomatic front.

The left mocked Bush and his coalition for going to war in Iraq without UN multilateral support, i.e. without the support of China, Russia and France. Like this is a problem. Well anyway, if you want to see the workings of multilateralism (UN mandates) then look no further than Iran.  EU attempts to control the Iranian nuclear programme have been a complete failure - Iran continues on with their nuclear programme, regardless of sanctions. See the following Mark Steyn video from the 4 minute mark onwards:

Interesting snippet from Hoover fellow Tod Lindberg, speculating that a League of Democracies institution, as promoted by John McCain, may have been more effective at enforcing the original sanctions on Iraq. Presumably without China, Russia, and other like-minded typically undemocratic nations playing blockage on the sanctions enforcement agenda, Saddam may have been brought to account through peaceful means.

audio-here

I would further speculate that if the sanctions against Saddam had been effectively enforced, the need for the Iraq War would have dissipated in favour of more limited military action.

Why do we continue to suffer with the UN? It has become a forum for some of the most undemocratic regimes to use the quasi democratic rules of the UN to rile against the US and Israel. The latest is the appointment of Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann as the next President of the General Assembly:

D’Escoto will arrive at the UN with a record of active support not only for anti-Americanism but also Marxism-Leninism. An ardent defender of Liberation Theology, D’Escoto achieved prominence in the struggle to topple the Somoza dynasty in the late 1970’s. As a member of Los Doce (“the 12”), D’Escoto helped mask the communist orientation of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and played a key role in the Marxists’ rise to power. After the Sandinistas began installing a Cuban-style dictatorship and marched comfortably with Fidel Castro, the Soviet Union and a bevy of Third World despots, D’Escoto served as Nicaragua’s foreign minister, taking the U.S. to the International Court of Justice over its support for the Nicaraguan Contras. For these efforts, D’Escoto was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviets in1985.

Sounds like fun, but it doesn’t end there. A representative of the Burmese military junta is now a vice president for the General Assembly. And what does the new President have to say on the matter:

Addressing a press conference, D’Escoto Brockmann said his focus would be on the issue of more democratization within the United Nations.

“It is good to talk about democracy, but even better to practice it,” he said. “A concerted search is necessary in order to find ways to revitalize and democratize the organization, including the Security Council.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Is Rudd an intelligent man? maybe. Is he unread, definitely! Rudd’s grasp on history is scary, as evident with his proposal for an EU style Asia-Pacific organisation. What Rudd wants this organisation to do is not entirely clear, but given that Rudd mentions the EU as an example, let’s just assume that his idea really is for an Asian style EU.

The idea of an Asian EU is a very naive proposal, made by someone who lacks the international kudos to make it happen. If international politics is meant to be Rudd’s specialty, then I can’t imagine how bad things are going to get on the domestic front. The EU is becoming a dirty word amongst conservatives everywhere, as it should be, while Rudd’s reference to the ‘brittleness’ of bi-lateral agreements in favour of strong trans-national institutions is code for, “un-elected socialist officials meddling in the private affairs of citizens and imposing mandates on democratically elected parliaments that will undermine people’s existing economic and political freedoms.” Check one against Rudd and one for Mark Steyn on the EU Constitution:

Only in totalitarian dictatorships does the ballot come with a pre-ordained correct answer. Yet President Juncker distilled the great flaw at the heart of the EU constitution into one straightforward sentence that cut through all the thickets of Giscard’s unreadable verbiage. The American constitution begins with the words “We the people”. The starting point for the EU constitution is: “We know better than the people.”

Can’t wait for the Asian version of that! Oh wait, the biggest player - China - is undemocratic right now so they should fit right in to an Asian EU. Even Paul Keating thinks it another Rudd dud idea:

“God knows, it has taken the Chinese 350 years of the modern age to truly recover their sovereignty - I do not see them sharing much of it with anyone else,” he said.

“And Japan remains one of the most insular, monocultural countries in the world, whose political leadership, at least for the last Japanese prime minster, was still reminiscing about China’s war experiences, including Japan’s foray into Chinese Manchuria in the 1930s.”

And further:

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer said no one in the region would take kindly to ceding sovereignty.

And Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Andrew Robb accused Mr Rudd of developing policy on the run, using it as a distraction from his problems with regional neighbours such as Japan and India.

“It’s half-baked … (there’s) absolutely zero detail in what he’s put on the table other than to say it should be something akin to the European Union,” Mr Robb told Sky News.

No one, including Australians. Why on earth would Australia, a country with the third highest standard of living in the world (according to the UN”s Human Development Index) and one of the oldest most successful democracies in the world, want to cede monetary, trade and/or immigration policies to our neighbours. Countries that have either only recently or yet to discover democracy and economic development. Is Rudd thinking that the Asian Development Bank should determine Australian interest rates? It leads me more and more to think that Rudd either is a China appeaser or is just finding his way as PM. Last word from Julie Bishop:

He puts out these thought bubbles and then everybody else has to scramble around behind to make sense of it. And to put in place the groundwork, the homework that should have been done before he even came up with the idea.

Now I don’t anybody’s asking questions about the quantity of ideas that come out of Kevin Rudd’s head, but certainly about the quality of them.

In case you have missed the Steyn surge here is a recent interview Mark Steyn gave about his book, America Alone. It is awesome! Both the book and interview. I read it a few years ago when it came out in hard back. The main thesis is that the western world is undergoing a major demographic shift towards Islamic migrant populations. It discusses the policy and political implications of this and how the USA (and to some extent Australia) are the last best hope for the world. For instance, France is unlikely to support any war against an Arab nation for fear of major unrest within its own country from disaffected Islamic populations; The undermining of Common Law with calls of Sharia Law for certain segments of the population; and the use of political correctness to marginalise the majority. And many more observations such as these:

At the heart of multiculturalism is a lie: that all cultures are equally “valid.” To accept that proposition means denying reality — the reality of any objective measure of human freedom, societal health, and global population movement…

In 2005, Anne Owers, Her Majesty’s chief inspector of prisons, banned the flying of the English national flag in English prisons on the grounds that it shows the cross of St. George, which was used by the Crusaders and so is offensive to Muslims. The Drivers and Vehicles Licensing Agency has also banned the English flag from its office. So has Heathrow Airport…

There’s a contradiction at the heart of Islamist confidence, nicely caught in a story from New Zealand about female Muslims driving around in burqas. According to some police representatives, this mode of dress somewhat restricts the field of vision, and also offers opportunities for fleeing bank robbers to disguise themselves as Muslim women. However, nobody wants to be insensitive, do they? And, on the whole, the police were happy to take the Islamic lobby groups at their word that the burqa was a requirement of these women’s faith. But as Greg O’Connor of the New Zealand Police Association couldn’t resist adding, “If one’s belief system was so strong that one didn’t want to show one’s face then perhaps that belief system should extend to not driving.” Indeed. If your clothing can’t evolve out of the came-train era, maybe your mode of transportation shouldn’t either.

The latest is an attempt by Canada’s quasi-legal ‘Human Rights’ Commissions to fine a Canadian magazine that published excerpts of the book. The book is mostly factual and the attempt to discredit America Alone in the courts is a manifestation of the book’s thesis - the undermining of western values and institutions due to demographic shift, in this case freedom of the press.

Positive news around the world for conservatives. In NZ the Labour Party is sending the budget into deficit to fund the first tax cuts in nine years. Given that there is an election in NZ this year and the Government is so far behind in the polls, it is a pretty desperate and conceited attempt to get reelected:

A Fairfax Media-Nielsen opinion poll published at the weekend showed Opposition leader John Key’s National Party on 56 percent and Clark’s Labour on 29 percent.

And in the UK the Labour Party has been routed in by-elections this week:

Mr Timpson surpassed Labour’s worst fears achieving a swing of 17.6 per cent in his party’s first by-election gain since 1983 - and the first from Labour for 30 years.

David Cameron described the result as “remarkable” and attacked Labour’s campaign which targeted independent school-educated Mr Timpson’s background, portraying him as a “Tory toff”.

He remarked: “It was in many ways the end of New Labour. I think it was a great mistake.”

Lets hope the trend continues in Australia.