Defence heavies doing the big brother thing
October 12, 2005
Always good to see the lumbering mass of government exercising its natural tendency to suppress free thought . For a while it seemed that it was focusing on its core function, administration. But bureaucracy can’t help itself sometimes. AM’s segment on the Department of Defence’s efforts to suppress the work of Major Fernandes. Nick McKenzies excellent report is worth a read. Bottom line is that the good Major wanted to turn his PhD into a book. Nothing uncommon there. The problem is that Reluctant Saviour touches on “no no” issues of the Jakarta lobby with the Service and taking a swipe at the Government. All the kicks were grounded on documents and information in the public domain. Perhaps a bit impolitic but not a breach of Public Sector guidelines or the Crimes Act, as the drooges in the Department menacingly suggested.
This time round the Department wasn’t going to repeat the fiasco of the Spycatcher type trial. It decided to do what departments do best, drop the weights on the lad with increasingly nasty correspondence with a posting to departmental Siberia until he screams “enough!” Right out of the text book of departmental torture. It is heartening to see that Fernandes didn’t buckle but fought back. The ultimate irony is that Reluctant Saviour is now recommended reading at the Australian Defence Force Academy.
A rare victory for the little guy and a kick in the teeth of the censors!