The debate around the Sri Lanka asylum seekers is beginning to spiral into Tampa territory with the Australian public ready to support tough action over compassion and prepared to believe the boats are harbouring terrorists.
For the PM it is a diabolical political dilemma, with this week’s Essential Report showing his attempts to play tough cop are failing to translate into public approval for his handling of the issue.
Given the bind, I reckon his only option is to follow the lead of his predecessor John Howard – not in sending in the troops, but by shifting debate through invoking the nation’s obsession with sport.
I’ve got to admit, the responses to this week’s questions on the current showdown surprised me, the level of fear and loathing being generated by 78 asylum seekers has a sizeable majority of then population wanting the government to play tough.
On first reading, these figures suggest Rudd should be beating his chest, standing firm and holding up the “Do not Enter” sign.
But in playing tough Rudd is not translating his position into support for his performance – with only 36 per cent rating his performance as excellent or good, compared with 55 per cent rating his performance as not so good or poor.
For a leader riding so high in the polls, who is rarely being marked down on anything, this is not a good return on effort.
From where I sit, the problem for the PM is that he is playing the issue as it presents itself – rather than trying to use his position as leader to redefine it.
It is here, where our polling questions may provide a way through – we gave voters two options for the reasons behind the current influx with the following response:
This suggests that if the public were presented with a story that humanised the plight of the asylum seekers they would be more likely to take a global view and less likely to blame the Rudd government for the issue.
This is not a story the PM has told yet, but it is one that he has the authority and political capital to articulate - which is where the opportunity to tap into our obsession with sport presents itself.
Cricket is his way into shifting the debate – because through cricket we have formed a national bond with Sri Lankans; having welcomed them into our living rooms for 20 years surely it is surely harder for us to demonise them.
I remember the first time Sri Lanka toured Australia – they were absolutely hopeless at a time when we couldn’t win a Test; but they had hard spark and spirit. The slow fast bowlers Rumesh Ratnayeke and Ravi Ratnayake; the fat captain Duleep Mendis, the only batsman who could make it into the teens Arjuna Ranatunga and the bowler who only had one hand whose name I forget.
I also remember them slowly growing in stature, dashing bats like Kalu and Jayasuria, tough nuts like Aravinda, the genuinely quick Vaas and of course Murali – whose resilience through the chucking controversy showed a special breed of mongrel.
Somewhere along the way, I came to know the Sri Lankans by their first names.
I have an inkling that I am not alone – maybe not everyone can remember the names, but the notion of a Sri Lankan in Australia seems to me as unthreatening as a Kiwi, a Brit, a Yank.
Now, I know there are inconsistencies – very few Sri Lankan cricketers are Tamils – although champion spinner Murali is one of them; but the cricket team managed to show a degree of unity even as civil war was tearing the nation apart.
So let’s start a discussion about people who play cricket just like us – batters and bowlers not jihadists – and see if we can’t quell the beast and help find a way of getting these souls off the boat without cutting our international reputation adrift.
Rather than “processing”, we need to start vetting for real skills, like the ability to move a ball off a good length – after all, if we have a national crisis right now its our inability to find a top flight spinner. What if the next Murali is on board?
PM, it is time to pad up.
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