KEY POINTS:
Labour and National should stop squirming over Tibet and be straight with us. It's embarrassing having them wringing their hands telling us how "concerned" they are about the suppression and killing of Tibetan independence protesters by their Chinese occupiers.
Apparently, our leaders need to get more facts about
what was happening before denouncing human rights atrocities. I presume they will get the information from the Chinese authorities, who also just happen to be the occupying force in Tibet.
They also have imprisoned the Tibet opposition, put armed soldiers on the streets, outlawed political activity and banned foreigners and international media from Tibet.
The sudden flare-up of Tibetan political dissenters shouldn't be a surprise. The Tibetan opposition would always use the Olympic Games as a platform to embarrass China over the occupation of their country.
This week's protests were obviously co-ordinated to provoke the Chinese occupiers to clamp down violently. Reliable reports indicate some Tibetans deliberately attacked people of Chinese descent.
Predictably, the Chinese security machine over-reacted. But in this instance they haven't quite caught up with the wonders of cellphone cameras and the internet.
Millions of people saw the violence on their home computers. By the images getting on to the internet, Tibetans hope the international media will report it. Then if large numbers of people outside Tibet support their cause, foreign governments and even Olympic athletes may speak out.
The last thing the Chinese Government will want is international sports stars using their medal podiums to highlight the Tibetan cause.
In previous times when the Chinese dealt with mass political dissent, they could easily ignore external and internal outrage.
For example, when the scared old bosses in the Chinese Communist Party massacred thousands of students in Tiananmen Square in 1989 they didn't give a toss what the world thought.
This time, their nation's honour and need for respectability is at stake. China's "coming of age" as a respectable superpower hinges on a successful Olympic Games this year. Of course the rest of the world leaders will duplicitously play along with the Chinese Government's agenda, provided they keep the occupation of Tibet, human rights abuses and the imprisonment of political dissenters out of headline news. But this is Tibet's slim chance for freedom.
I guess the Olympic bosses were hoping that if opposition can be limited to a few "over the hill" film stars like Richard Gere and Mia Farrow kicking up a stink, we can pretend that our right to play sport shouldn't be muddied by our Olympic Games' hosts right to take away their citizens' human rights or the Tibetan people's right to have their country back.
Let's be honest about the status of Tibet. It was invaded by China and annexed by military force in 1949. When the people rose up against their occupiers 10 years later, they were brutally crushed and the Tibetan leader Dalai Lama fled to India.
Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans were imprisoned, tortured and executed. Lengthy prison terms await anyone who even suggests that Tibet is a separate entity.
China is intent on assimilating the six million Tibetans into the larger 1.3 billion Chinese population.
A railway was built to their capital Lhasa with the sole purpose of bringing in huge numbers of Chinese workers to settle permanently. China is intent on exploiting Tibet's natural and mineral resources to fuel their economic bonanza.
To manage this strategy, the region has been militarised. The Tibetan Buddhism religion, their culture and language are being actively suppressed. The Chinese communist state promotes atheism which, of course, is intended to cut the link to the Dalai Lama.
Opposition groups say a crass example of this is the regular political "patriotic re-education" campaigns, where locals are forced to publicly denounce the Dalai Lama and their culture.
They also claim 6000 monasteries and temples have been severely damaged or destroyed. The remainder are under the control of the Chinese authorities. Tibetans wanting to maintain their culture and language must flee to exile in Indian or Nepal.
As we celebrate Easter, Christians will be reflecting on the reasons Jesus was executed by the Roman occupiers of his country. This weekend, we might like to consider some of the parallels between the struggles of the Judean Christians and their spiritual leader 2000 years ago and the Tibetans and their spiritual leader today.
But then we already know why our two main parties won't stand up to injustice and murder in Tibet. There's that small inconvenience of a Free Trade deal with China, ready for signing. It seems our leaders don't want free trade and social justice to mix. After all, the Easter story wouldn't be complete without gross betrayal for silver, would it?
