So much for that theory

Good work if you can get it, being Waleed Aly that is. Something happens — another murderous assault by the commentator’s more ardent co-religionists, for example — and Ubiquitous Aly’s eye for the multicultural angle will soon settle on a perspective none but he might ever have perceived, a line of argument (to use the word loosely) immediately to be advanced on the opinion pages of the Fairfax press, at ABC microphones, on The Project and into the ear of our current PM at an Eid knees-up in Kirribilli (above).  It’s a unique talent and, or so one guesses, a lucrative niche in the media landscape on which to hold a monopoly. The Boston Marathon is blitzed by a pair of Islamist brothers and, sure as the sun rises, Aly is laying out his particular and peculiar take on the event: Nothing to see here, folks, and certainly no reason to think less of Islam, as such attacks are no worse than an “irritant” (and quite likely the work of white supremacists anyway).

In Wally World the problem is with those of us who deeply resent the need for bag searches and bollards, remember when Anzac Day parades didn’t need massive police protection and who bristle at the vacuities of politicians swearing that we will not change the way we live when every day we do and must.

Through it all, Aly chugs along untroubled, every week bringing fresh opportunities to advance his case that New Australians, as once were known, just can’t cop a break. Today, in his most recent column, it is citizenship and eligibility to sit in parliament that has triggered the reflex response of a dash to the keyboard. Aly has noticed that those federal politicians who have been obliged to step down amid doubts about their citizenship are of Anglo-Saxon background. You will have to read his latest extrusion to get the full gist of that analysis, but it seems to boil down to this: white politicians are prone to these problems because they are, well, white and, therefore, assumed by our racist society to be fit for elected office by virtue of birth and the presumptions of a dominant cultural imperialism. As multicultural members must forever counter suspicions they are not really Australian, at least as Waleed defines the status, they sort out their issues with former homelands before adverse circumstances oblige them to do so.

“…this saga shows it’s our unspoken, daily-experienced notion of Australian-ness that needs amendment,” Aly ejaculates, finally making his point after 900 words of waffle.

Unfortunately for Waleed’s thesis there are newspapers other than the Fairfax rags and this very morning one of them, The Australian, has a story of its own about yet another politician facing serious questions about citizenship and eligibility. Her name is Anne Aly, like Waleed she hails from Egypt, and apparently, or so reporter Joe Kelly relates, she didn’t take steps to renounce her status as a daughter of the Nile until after nominating for the WA seat of Cowan, which she won in a 0.7% squeaker.

Fortunately for Waleed his columns appear in the Fairfax press, which will print any rubbish just so long as it is  ideologically sound by the yardstick of inner-city readers, so making a fool of himself yet again will not likely inhibit next week’s inevitable exercise in smooth sophistry. So maybe he is right, at least to a certain extent: there are different rules for, as he would put it, Australians with the “otherness” factor.

The Australian‘s report on Ms Aly’s citizenship travails can be read via this link or the one below.

— roger franklin

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