Below is my submission for Julian Assange for the Australian of the Australian of the Year Awards for 2011.
I support his nomination for Australian of the Year because he's shown courage in letting the truth be known. Also the injustice he is suffering brings in to question what does democracy mean in Australia in the 21st Century? To me the best definition is by an Australian about democracy is by three times Miles Franklin winner David Ireland, 1927- in his 1971 novel The Glass Canoe
"Democracy is not for people who just want to be left alone, so long as they do what their told and don’t answer back. The key people in the democratic process are the critics, dissenters, reformers. If their sealed off from the political process, the system grows tired and sick, and turns into something else."
And also what Julian said in below in the British Guardian last week
"I am an Australian citizen and I miss my country a great deal. However, during the last weeks the Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, and the attorney general, Robert McClelland, have made it clear that not only is my return is impossible but that they are actively working to assist the United States government in its attacks on myself and our people. This brings into question what does it mean to be an Australian citizen - does that mean anything at all? Or are we all to be treated like David Hicks at the first possible opportunity merely so that Australian politicians and diplomats can be invited to the best US embassy cocktail parties."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2010/dec/03/julian-assange-wikileaks
John Tognolini
11/12/2010
Wellington, New South Wales
Australia
I support his nomination for Australian of the Year because he's shown courage in letting the truth be known. Also the injustice he is suffering brings in to question what does democracy mean in Australia in the 21st Century? To me the best definition is by an Australian about democracy is by three times Miles Franklin winner David Ireland, 1927- in his 1971 novel The Glass Canoe
"Democracy is not for people who just want to be left alone, so long as they do what their told and don’t answer back. The key people in the democratic process are the critics, dissenters, reformers. If their sealed off from the political process, the system grows tired and sick, and turns into something else."
And also what Julian said in below in the British Guardian last week
"I am an Australian citizen and I miss my country a great deal. However, during the last weeks the Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, and the attorney general, Robert McClelland, have made it clear that not only is my return is impossible but that they are actively working to assist the United States government in its attacks on myself and our people. This brings into question what does it mean to be an Australian citizen - does that mean anything at all? Or are we all to be treated like David Hicks at the first possible opportunity merely so that Australian politicians and diplomats can be invited to the best US embassy cocktail parties."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2010/dec/03/julian-assange-wikileaks
John Tognolini
11/12/2010
Wellington, New South Wales
Australia
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