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Former Aussie PM Fraser criticizes US and John Howard

Australia's government and close ally the US behaved in a tyrannical way and for "evil purpose" by jailing militants at Guantanamo Bay, former Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser said yesterday.

Fraser, a conservative and mentor to current Prime Minister John Howard, said Australia seemed to have lost its democratic path under the man who served as his treasurer before becoming leader in 1996.

In an election year criticism of US influence over political direction in Australia, Fraser said Howard should never have agreed to a citizen and accused Taliban fighter, David Hicks, being locked up for five years at Guantanamo Bay awaiting trial.

"Today, for a variety of reasons, but not least because the government has sought to set Muslims aside, discrimination and defamation against Muslims has been rising dramatically," the 76-year-old former center-right leader said in a lecture at the Australian National University.

"We used to believe that those in positions of political authority would respect and work to protect the rights of all Australian citizens. We now know that to be naive and incorrect," Fraser said.

"Policies now applied suggest that the rule of law and due process for all people, regardless of influence, race, religion, color or country of origin, is under threat," he said.

Fraser, who led Australia from 1975 to 1983, has become alienated from his political roots and has been a staunch critic of many Howard policies, including enforced detention for refugee hopefuls in remote offshore processing centers.

In one of his strongest anti-Howard speeches so far, Fraser said Australia's agreement with Guantanamo military tribunals was a disgrace.

"The main story is a willingness of two allegedly democratic governments prepared to throw every legal principle out the window and establish a process that we would expect of tyrannical regimes," he said. "That our own democracies should be prepared to so abandon the rule of law for an expedient and as I believe, evil purpose should greatly disturb all of us."

Howard usually adopts a policy of not responding to Fraser's criticisms.

Fraser is a critic of the invasion of Iraq, which was supported by Australian troops, and of the US' failure to engage in diplomacy with Iran and Syria to resolve the ongoing conflict in Iraq.
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