Adele Horin writes about a forgotten detainee in an article titled; "Forgotten detainee only dreams of flight to freedom" . With detainees suffering under the arbitrary will of the US Executive in Guantanamo, and refugees being gaoled indefinitely in Australia, there is not much cause for rejoice with regards to the government understanding liberty.

Poll : Should defined limits on any form of detention be included in a Bill of Rights?

Habib

The United States detained two Australians in Guantanamo Bay. Mamdouh Habib and David Hicks. The Bush Administration structured their detainment specifically to put them out of the reach of the US judicial or civil system. They were detained with the distinct purpose of having them at the arbitrary will of the executive arm of government. That is befitting a nation of men, not laws. It is tyranny.

Habib was recently released by the Bush Administration from Guantanamo Bay. Having had no charge, or trial levelled at him, he will none the less, have his liberties in Australian restricted by the Australian government. So far his crime has been to fall under the suspicion of a nation-state. For that he will continue to be punished by the Australian government.

It is supposed to be the other way around. Australian liberties do not end at the edge of the continental shelf, and an Australian unjustly detained or charged overseas is supposed to be able to count on the Australian government to ensure every effort is made so that the person being charged has the same political freedoms, liberties and rights as they would at home.

The Howard government has shown they are more interested in other governments than their own people. Like any large beauracratic institution with great wealth and power, their first instinct is to perpetuate themselves and their like kind. The people are an inconvenience that have to be tolerated in order to ensure that access to wealth and the monopoly on coercion.

Qasim

Peter Qasim has been detained in the South Australian Baxter detention centre for six years now. He has no crime, he is unfortunate enough to live in a world dominated by the beauracratic structures of government that brand their people with numbers and papers. Qasim is stateless. He has no crime. Our crime is our lack of mercy or compassion.

There is one solution to end his unjust detainment - release him. Let him work and live in Australia. Even give him those papers and numbers that nation-states see as so desperately important to and individuals and their own existence.

Horin writes;

Qasim, now 30, has already spent most of his twenties locked up. He is lost in a bureaucratic quagmire. There is no pressure on the Department of Immigration officials - certainly not from the Labor Party - to resolve the issue speedily. Qasim's last hope is that the Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, will use her discretion to give him his freedom.

No government should be allowed to detain an individual indefinitely. It is outside the scope of government's authority to do so. Our biggest weakness is that we have no Bill of Rights which formalises this inviolable right of an individual. Consequently, Qasim is reduced to begging to an unjust government and the arbitrary whim of a government official in order to have his liberty returned.

Rights

Australia needs a constitutional entrenchment against indefinite detentions. The would be best dealt with in a Bill of Rights. I used to wonder how the Founding Fathers in the United States came up with a Bill of Rights. The answer is simple, they looked to the political sins of their time and tried to rectify it.

We are in the same situation today. We only have to look into our own political sins and place further limitations on unjust, immoral, arbitrary and impunitied government ability to use the monopoly on coercion the state grants it. Otherwise liberty will only exist at the political discretion of the government of the day, which in unacceptable for any individual.

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