By Michael Karadjis
English migrant Bernadette Wallace was stabbed to death in her home during a "home invasion" on August 20. The killers were described by her husband as having "short blond hair". On September 5, the state ALP member for Cabramatta, John Newman, was shot dead outside his home. There has been no description of the killers or any evidence of their ethnicity.
Yet since then we have been treated to a racist barrage from the media and political figures about "Asians" being largely responsible for crime, violence and "home invasion".
Violent crime, apparently, is "not the Australian way", and so article after article tells us we need to be more careful about the types of people we "let into" Australia. Many, we are told, bring violent traditions from their homelands into an otherwise peaceful Australia.
"Vietnamese criminals with criminal records were allowed into Australia up until several years ago", according to Eamonn Fitzpatrick, writing in the September 11 Sun-Herald, which featured about 10 pages deifying Newman ("Strong Relentless Crusader" declared one headline) and attacking "Asian crime".
The editorial declared that it "wholeheartedly supports the view that any non-Australian resident — irrespective of ethnic origins — be deported if they have been convicted of violent crimes like home invasion or trafficking in deadly drugs like heroin".
Did the Sun-Herald have some evidence that Newman's killers or those responsible for the bulk of violent crime are non-citizens? Obviously not, but the reference to "non-Australians" would have struck a chord with the chorus of racist voices who regard Asians as somehow less Australian and "Asian crime" as somehow more vile than "Anglo crime" or any other type.
John Newman himself had been more explicit on this point, calling for deportation of the most violent criminals in the Vietnamese and Chinese communities, apparently without regard to citizenship status. Where exactly Australian citizens can be deported to is unknown, and he apparently did not believe the same punishment should be given to criminals of non-Asian origin.
The same editorial denounced multiculturalism as a "debauched" term which "is increasingly used as a tool of verbal emotional blackmail to prevent the publicising of oppressive and often illegal practices in various ethnic groups". There you have it: violent crime is part of the culture of various ethnic groups which multiculturalists seek to defend.
The September 11 60 Minutes featured a public forum on the Newman murder with Cabramatta residents. Presenter Richard Carleton opened the discussion with the observation that every shop in Cabramatta seemed to be owned by Asians! "Is this a good or bad thing?", he asked the audience. He also informed us that many people in Cabramatta are scared to come forward if they have information, and went on to ask if someone in the audience might know something.
The effects of this hysteria are being felt by Asian youth in Cabramatta. According to John Greg, a Cabramatta youth worker, camera crews have been running around after groups of Asian youth and asking them if they are in a "gang"!
There have already been incidents of racist violence against Vietnamese. Fearing a police backlash against "gangs", many of these groups of young people have disappeared from public view, according to youth workers in the area.
Politicians join in
The media have been joined by politicians. At a speech to the NSW Bar Association, Premier John Fahey declared that his government would not tolerate "the very real problems posed by Asian gangs".
While cautioning against speculation about ethnic motives for Newman's killing, he then went on to imply he knew who the killers were: " ... those who seek to walk outside the law and come from different ethnic backgrounds to those that were born here ... can rest assured that the community, through its government ... will not stand idly by to allow that sort of lawlessness to occur".
Fahey is up against stiff competition from ALP leader Bob Carr, who wants the streets cleared of "gangs", which he defines as groups of young people with baseball caps turned backwards. The ALP's choice for Newman's replacement, Young Labor right-winger Reba Meagher, has declared she agrees with Carr's hard line. She ought to know about Cabramatta's problems, being fresh from the north shore.
While the "evidence" that he was killed by "Asian gangs" seems to revolve around the idea that he was a great crusader against gangs, the establishment media finally opened some of the file on Newman over the weekend of September 17-18. The Sydney Morning Herald revealed Newman's extraordinary number of connections with organised crime figures, while the Sun-Herald disclosed that in only eight years, up to 150 people who had worked for Newman had quit or been driven out, many comparing him to Hitler and Pol Pot.
None of this was news to many community and youth workers from the region. Obviously, none of this justifies his murder, but the point is that he made quite a lot of enemies, not just "Asian gangs".
And despite the elevation of Cabramatta to "crime capital", the Newman murder was the first homicide in Cabramatta this year.
Further, the only murder during a "home invasion" this year was that committed by men with "short blond hair", referred to above. During a recent bout of home invasions in suburbs other than Cabramatta, people with Asian features have not been implicated, and hence they have been of less interest to the media.
'Crime capital'
In fact, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology, Vietnamese Australians have a significantly lower crime rate (including violent crime) than other Australians. As for Cabramatta being the "crime capital", its rate of 2.44 burglaries per 100 population is comparable to Campbelltown (2.69), Liverpool (2.56), Maroubra (2.43) and Kingswood (2.37), to name just a few.
Of course, none of this means that Cabramatta does not have a high crime rate. No-one could deny the terror suffered by the victims, overwhelmingly Asians, of the violent home invasions in the area. Nor have people forgotten the brutal murder of 17-year-old Thi Inthasan in 1992 and the fear of those who observed it to speak up. Such violent crime and the breakdown of social solidarity, the victims of which live overwhelmingly in working-class suburbs, are certainly legitimate concerns.
It is this concern and fear that politicians and the media play on with their hysteria about "Asian" gangs and the competition between the ALP and the Fahey government over who will introduce the longest prison sentences for first offenders. These simplistic slogans are aimed at covering up the real causes of crime and violence: the tremendous social crisis inflicted on working-class suburbs by the federal and state governments.
The ALP federal government has been responsible for allowing unemployment to remain at a post-depression record, while joining state governments in slashing welfare and education spending.
The result, predictably, has been a scramble by many of those on the bottom of the heap to survive by any means at their disposal. This, combined with the alienation of youth from a society that promises them nothing, has meant a life of crime for many is the only game in town.
While virtually all the media and politicians have focused on the ethnic diversity in Cabramatta as somehow part of the problem, there has been an almost total lack of even token reference to the socioeconomic situation in the region.
Youth unemployment
Australia's 10% unemployment has become a cliche; the devastation of the Fairfield region, which includes Cabramatta, is perhaps not so widely known. At its height in late 1992, the official unemployment rate was 23% — the highest in the state and more than double the national average.
Moreover, 40% of people under 64 live on welfare; around 75% of residents are on incomes of less than $20,000 a year. (The wealthiest 200 Australians are now worth over $37 billion, up 900% since the ALP took government in 1983.)
More than 42% of 15-19 year olds are out of work. But this figure probably masks much female hidden unemployment, because unemployment among males in this age group hit 71% in 1992!
With such enormous competition for the few existing jobs, plus tremendous overcrowding in high schools, an expensive and almost useless public transport system, and generally nothing much to do for entertainment, young people can see that little awaits them, no matter what they do. In many cases "gangs" are an attractive means of both survival and identity.
While these include criminal gangs, the great bulk of so-called gangs, baseball caps or otherwise, are merely young people who hang out together.
Even when jobs do come up, they don't always bring much joy. The number of young people who have walked into our office after working 60 hours a week for about $200 and no overtime rates is evidence enough of that (this is called "flexible work practices").
One of the Cabramatta street gangs is called Trai Lu Lac, meaning "young men with no family or home". This gives an idea of the social isolation and homelessness suffered by many youth in the area. The media emphasise heroin pushing, while the high incidence of suicide makes less press. Another gang is the "HD" gang, letters which in Vietnamese stand for "I hate my life."
Systematic racism
Recent arrivals to Australia from non-English speaking countries have drastically higher levels of unemployment than migrants from the United Kingdom. Over 63% of Vietnamese, 67% of Lebanese and 59% of Turks who arrived in 1991-2 are still unemployed, compared to only 14% of UK migrants.
"There is now sufficient evidence to justify concern regarding the development and consolidation of ethnically based underclasses in Australia", according to a report by the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University. Institutionalised racism is part of the problem, rather than part of the solution, as much of the mainstream media seems to believe.
The Youth Justice Coalition of NSW has gathered an enormous amount of evidence showing that people from non-Anglo backgrounds are far more likely to be harassed, strip searched, arrested or injured by police.
Many community and youth workers from the region emphasise the fact that this appalling economic situation is not the whole story of Fairfield and Cabramatta. This is absolutely correct: this a culturally rich and rewarding area in many ways. The "cultural desert" is largely a myth, with many people involved in community and cultural activities.
Far from multiculturalism being a problem, the coexistence of 130 ethnic groups has been tremendously successful. Despite the hype, inter-ethnic violence is extremely rare. Given that the socioeconomic situation is markedly worse than in most other areas, the fact that its crime rate is comparable to these areas may indicate a plus for the ethnic mix.
However, when making these points, community workers should not forget the drastic socioeconomic situation, caused by governments and their mates in the boardrooms. We must not let them off the hook.
[Michael Karadjis is a youth worker in Fairfield.]