The weekend's big news was the release on Saturday of Burma's democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi. Because it was so stage-managed by the Burmese Government, it's hard to describe the release itself as a step forward for human rights. More significant perhaps was reporting of how she faced her captivity.
A London Times report published in The Australian on Friday depicted her at peace with herself and her God. It said she rises early and spends hours in Buddhist meditation, before listening to the news on her shortwave radio. After a meeting with her last year, the British ambassador described Suu Kyi as 'composed, upright, crackling with energy'.
No doubt her attitude and spirit is what has the potential to carry the people of Burma forward. Availablity for political office is secondary.
Meanwhile Thursday was a momentous day for justice and human rights in Australia. Politicians, effectively engaged in mob rule by proxy, were humiliated. Separate High Court judgments upheld the legal rights of the Sri Lankan refugees M61 and M69, and South Australian bikies, in the face of fiercely determined political will.
Former prime minister John Howard was not mindful of the law and UN protection obligations incorporated into Australian law when he declared before the 2001 federal election: 'We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come.' He knew he had the support of the people, and this was soon demonstrated by the election result.
It was support of the people that mattered. His Labor successors had the opportunity to reverse the thinking. They could have declared: 'The law will decide who comes to this country …'. They did not, and indeed they could act to frustrate the legal rights recognised by Thursday's judgment.
Last year South Australian premier Mike Rann admitted he had a personal axe to grind against motorcycle gang leaders: 'I am determined that criminal bikie gangs won't run our pubs, our clubs, or run our streets.'
Thursday's High Court judgment ruled unconstitutional a provision in Rann's anti-bikie laws that allows the Attorney-General to use secret evidence to pass judgment on individuals on the basis that they are members of an organisation such as a bikie gang that is involved in 'serious criminal activity'.
Like federal politicians promising to 'stop the boats', Rann managed to cultivate fear in people, declaring that motorcycle gangs 'are involved in everything from murder to rape to extortion to kidnapping