Great Divide Will Forever Mark Howard's Legacy
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday February 28, 2006
In an overview of the Howard prime ministerial decade (1996-2006), the division between the first half (until 2001) and the second half is clearly defined.
The first half coincided with the governor-generalship of Sir William Deane. His was the voice of moral leadership, calm, reasoned, but persistently directed to the needs of the disadvantaged, especially Australia's indigenous population.Pauline Hanson's shrill rhetoric of racist slurs and more legitimate concerns was the antiphony.During these years John Howard was seen as an efficient economic manager, although he was widely regarded as a spoilsport who thwarted the moves towards a republic and effective Aboriginal reconciliation.The era reached a climax with a triumphal blaze of impeccable organisation, artistry and sporting prowess at the Sydney Olympics, which were opened by the governor-general rather than the Prime Minister. The second half has indisputably been Mr Howard's prime time. The catastrophe of September 11, 2001, with the aftershocks of Madrid, London and especially Bali, so frighteningly close to home, ensured his pre-eminence as crisis leader. By his perfervid embrace of the US President, George Bush, his promptitude in committing Australian troops to the war in Iraq and his subsequent locking up of Iraqis who fled from the tyranny, Mr Howard became an antipodean version of President Harry S. Truman, the ordinary man, seemingly modest, who seizes control of epoch-shaking events. History will judge Mr Howard according to the view, in hindsight, of the success or failure of the military intervention in the Middle East by the coalition of the willing. Contemporary Australians will have further complaints about his meanness to hospitals, schools and welfare recipients. His defenders will maintain that he kept us safe and prosperous.Whatever the verdict, one fact is indisputable: John Howard like his hero, Winston Churchill, and former president (atom bomb) Harry S. Truman, claimed his Finest Hour. Pamela Chippindall Woollahra
© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald