An open letter to The Hon Kevin Rudd MP

Mr. Rudd

Australia's Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd

PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Let be begin by saying that I have no reason to believe you are anything other than a humane and decent man. I am not an Australian citizen, nor have I had any great exposure to your country’s domestic politics. I have no opinion either way on your stances concerning divisive issues such as the Iraq war and gay marriage.

This letter is motivated neither by a will to embarrass or discredit. I simply desire action.

As a user of social media and, no doubt, as a keen upholder of tasks mandated under your position as Australia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, I am sure you are aware of the case of Australian citizen Austin G. Mackell, who was arrested in Egypt last weekend and charged with incitement at a protest rally in the Nile basin city of Mahalla.

Austin is a journalist, and in case his ordeal has not registered on your agenda, details of his bogus arrest and incarceration can be perused here.

Given your previous declarations on Egypt’s transition to democracy, I can only assume you are aware of the climate in which foreign journalists operate in and around Cairo, and that you take a keen interest in it. You yourself last year stressed the need for reform and progress to “ensure the opportunity and freedoms that ordinary Egyptians have been calling for.” One such call, Mr. Rudd, was for a free press.

As I have already confessed relative ignorance over Australian realpolitik, I am compelled to assume that when you took the opportunity to inform the world of your hope over Egypt’s future, you did so out of genuine concern for its inhabitants, and not from a perspective of grandstanding or opportunism. We are all proud of what the Egyptian people have achieved Mr. Rudd, and I believe we can all agree that sharing in their revolutionary euphoria is legitimate so long as words are corroborated with action.

I referred to you as something of a social media aficionado; I see now you have more than 1 million followers on Twitter. You (or, more likely, a member of staff) tweet with pleasing regularity. The problem that myself and many other users have encountered in recent days is that our messages about Austin’s predicament seem to be passing you by. I have no evidence to suggest your engagement with micro-blogging is a misguided attempt to stay relevant to a younger electorate and continue the slow dissemination of 140 characters of valedictory spin, but you will – I hope – forgive the thought having crossed my mind these past few days.

I know that your schedule as the Foreign Minister of Australia is extremely taxing on the time and concentration of yourself and your team, and for that I sympathise. There are surely complicated diplomatic considerations at play, out of the view of the general public, which need to be taken into account before the Foreign Minister can utter so much as a word on the situation. But to have successive requests for assistance ignored, and to see your country’s mission in Egypt respond in so underwhelming a manner to the plight of one of its citizens has, I am afraid to say, sapped most of our patience with the quiet diplomacy approach.

While I appreciate that there must be a fair amount of hysterical requests bombarding you at the time of writing, I am fortunate enough to be a trained and qualified journalist. So, Mr. Rudd, for your guidance, the facts:

Austin Mackell is being wrongly investigated for crimes that could carry a significant punishment. His passport has been confiscated and a travel ban is in place. He has been threatened on the street and propaganda insinuating to the public that such treatment is tacitly approved by the state has appeared in newspapers and on television. His accommodation has been raided and he is currently homeless. He is a journalist and an Australian citizen. You are the Foreign Minister of Australia. You can do something about this.

There is no need for me to point out Austin’s total innocence; the courts will, I have faith, eventually determine this truth in an official capacity. Nor do I need to mention the thousands of human rights abuses and unlawful arrests that continue within Egypt, for they are not my concern within this letter (and you follow Egyptian affairs closely as it is).

I do hope my take on your silence on the matter so far has been accurate and received in the hopeful manner it was conceived. I would hate to think that a politician of your standing and gravitas would be so pusillanimous as to deliberately ignore requests for assistance.

I remain firmly convinced the former is the case. But I think it is only fair to tell you, Mr. Rudd, that we will not let this drop; that the case of Austin Mackell is not something you will be able to avoid or ignore indefinitely. We will keep up the noise, and you will have to listen. If you do so voluntarily, then I shall be pleased for Austin and pleased that my initial assessment of your compassion and professionalism was correct after all.

Yours Sincerely

Patrick Galey

Egypt’s football riots

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It didn’t take long for the conspiracy theories. As soon as the news broke that dozens of fans had been killed during a football match in Port Said, Twitter became flooded with people trying to rationalise the horrific violence. The incident had, variously, all the hallmarks of Mubarak, SCAF, the Ministry of Interior, the ultras, foreigners.

I took a trip up to Port Said this afternoon, and the mood was among the tensest I’ve experienced. It’s not unusual to be accused of being a spy here by people in the street, but there was sustained and genuine hostility towards me and other members of the media. The most striking thing, as was the case watching footage of the killings last night, was the absence of anything resembling law enforcement or security activity.