Silencing Dissent

Last night I managed to squeeze into a packed session at the Sydney Writers' Festival featuring a discussion with David Marr, Clive Hamilton & Sarah Maddison on the issue of dissent being silenced under the governance of John Howard & even longer.

The event was used to launch a collection of essays "analysing the tactics used by the Howard government to silence independent experts and commentators as well as public servants and organisations".

In a packed Sydney Dance Company studio four hundred of the converted gathered to hear about the systematic decay of public political debate within Australia. The event was, for the most part, an extremely thought provoking discussion that considered issues such as the centralisation of power, character assassination of anyone with informed contrary opinions, the fear of the media in vocalising dissent and the policing of public servants by the AFP (known as the Leak Squad).

What is always interesting in Australia is the level of public debate we have even within such an open forum such as the one last night. The first person to ask a question from the floor was from a representative of the East Timor Association. I have seen this man attend numerous events, asking usually inappropriate questions that generally don't relate to the issue at hand. But the way he was silenced by the panel and the audience was, to say the least, ironic.

This is one of the main problems in this country which is coupled next to that of silencing of dissent. Here is a man, who was talking about some shocking examples of enforced silencing of communities and he doesn't have a forum to talk about his concerns. What's he going to do? To be perfectly honest, I think he should start a blog.

It is interesting to consider what the effect of political silence is having on the other sections of our community. Is the silencing of dissent leaking into other forums of debate? Or is it, as my companion suggested, the other way around? Is there a total lack of dissent within our society that makes the smothering of debate politically so easy?

Take for instance the result of people throwing around dissenting views within the performing arts community and the ways that cultural institutions have reacted. Why is there so little debate and discussion within the arts? Is there a growing centralisation of power within our community? Is the arts media fearful of those same institutions? How often does character assassination occur when someone begins debate?

Through my discovery of the 1968 almanac of the performing arts a month or so ago, it would appear that debate and discussion about the direction of the arts was much healthier forty years ago. Open and robust debate about the role of critics, the direction and placement of Australia's performing arts in relation to cultural influences and geography and debates about the future of arts training methods.

The wonderful forums that are now being created through the internet has welcomed in an exciting period for a whole host of social movements and this new network has created an immediacy of debate, whether it is in the arts or otherwise. That is what I was really furious about when I attended that forum at the Australia Council. Yesterday's people are having a silencing effect and we can include the mainstream media in that group.

Internet discussion is gaining a momentum that is ever so gradually bringing debate to all levels of our community. But are we ready for it and do we know what to do with it? Are we prepared to take the beginnings of this debate and discussion to another level - that is, to turn debate and discussion into constructive answers for the future of our industries? To be able to engage with a diverse tree of opinion and publicly debate them without the fear of not getting that acting/directing/commission job? To allow open criticism and not get bogged down into the personal argy bargy so commonplace within the world of the Andrew Bolt's and Piers Akerman's of this world?

I know we are a small community but surely it's big enough now to set an example, similar to what we had forty years ago, for others within our society. It really is time to get arts debate going, and it is my hope that this blog will, even in the smallest way, help in pushing that along. As the Guardian website describes on its blog header - get amongst the fray.