Aborigines greeted Prime Minister John Howard's surprise plan to give constitutional recognition to Australia's indigenous people with mixed views yesterday, with many calling it a stunt ahead of coming elections.
Howard, who has been at loggerheads with indigenous leaders on many issues during his more than 11 years in power, made an abrupt about-face on Thursday, admitting past mistakes and offering a new plan for reconciliation between black and white Australians.
Howard said he would hold a referendum that would ask Australians to enshrine Aborigines in the constitution as the original inhabitants of the country. If successful, the change would not give Aborigines greater rights but would be powerfully symbolic.
Howard said the referendum would be held within 18 months if he is returned to power at elections. He is widely expected to call elections within days, but opinion polls show he will struggle to win them.
Critics said Howard's conversion to the reconciliation cause was too little, too late and appeared to be an election ploy.
"Mr. Howard's actions over 11 years belie his words," said David Ross, the director of the Central Land Council that represents Aborigines in part of the Outback Northern Territory. "When a snake sheds his skin, he has a shiny new skin, but he's still the same old snake, with the same old venom."
Aborigines are a minority of about 450,000 among Australia's 21 million people, and are the poorest and most disadvantaged group, with a life expectancy 20 years shorter than other Australians. While Aborigines form a tiny voting bloc, their plight is a national political issue that has divided liberal and conservative Australians.
Other Aboriginal leaders said Howard's move was a surprise, but he should be given credit for it, no matter what the timing.
"I think that it's a big shift for him, but this is about the nation's reconciliation, it's not about John Howard's reconciliation," Pat Dodson, a former reconciliation commissioner, said on ABC radio. "I think it's a positive contribution to the process."
Howard again ruled out making an official apology to Aborigines for past wrongs -- something he conceded had helped stall relations between his government and indigenous people in the past.
"He has got a problem with that five letter word called sorry, and he really needs to come out and make a proper apology to indigenous people," Aboriginal leader John Ah Kit told ABC radio.
With much pomp and circumstance, Cairo is today to inaugurate the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), widely presented as the crowning jewel on authorities’ efforts to overhaul the country’s vital tourism industry. With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the museum houses thousands of artifacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of more than US$1 billion. More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates 5 million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display. In the run-up to the grand opening, Egyptian media and official statements have hailed the “historic moment,” describing the
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
‘NO WORKABLE SOLUTION’: An official said Pakistan engaged in the spirit of peace, but Kabul continued its ‘unabated support to terrorists opposed to Pakistan’ Pakistan yesterday said that negotiations for a lasting truce with Afghanistan had “failed to bring about a workable solution,” warning that it would take steps to protect its people. Pakistan and Afghanistan have been holding negotiations in Istanbul, Turkey, aimed at securing peace after the South Asian neighbors’ deadliest border clashes in years. The violence, which killed more than 70 people and wounded hundreds, erupted following explosions in Kabul on Oct. 9 that the Taliban authorities blamed on Pakistan. “Regrettably, the Afghan side gave no assurances, kept deviating from the core issue and resorted to blame game, deflection and ruses,” Pakistani Minister of
UNCERTAIN TOLLS: Images on social media showed small protests that escalated, with reports of police shooting live rounds as polling stations were targeted Tanzania yesterday was on lockdown with a communications blackout, a day after elections turned into violent chaos with unconfirmed reports of many dead. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan had sought to solidify her position and silence criticism within her party in the virtually uncontested polls, with the main challengers either jailed or disqualified. In the run-up, rights groups condemned a “wave of terror” in the east African nation, which has seen a string of high-profile abductions that ramped up in the final days. A heavy security presence on Wednesday failed to deter hundreds protesting in economic hub Dar es Salaam and elsewhere, some
RSS