Mohamed Haneef

Walking the dog this morning, I met up with a lady who works with aboriginal communities in the North West of Western Australia. As our dogs played, we got talking about the way the Howard government is handling the problems faced by aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, and her view, quite understandably, was that Howard's solutions are short-sighted and politically motivated. And this lead to a chat about the plight of Doctor Mohamed Haneef. Doctor Haneef has been charged with '"recklessly" supporting a terrorist organisation, with the Australian Federal Police alleging he supported foiled plans to detonate truck bombs in Britain'. If he is proven to be guilty, then he deserves to be punished - terrorism is a despicable, weak, and cowardly crime that has no place in modern society. However, our justice system relies on the presumption of innocence and, at this stage, Doctor Haneef is innocent. Furthermore, the magistrate who heard Doctor Haneef's bail application obviously saw a very different person to the person seen by our immigration minister, Kevin Andrews. In what could quite easily be seen as a political stunt, Mr Andrews revoked Doctor Haneef's visa, resulting in Doctor Haneef's incarceration in an immigration detention centre. How convenient.

Let's not forget that this is an election year. In the 2001 election, Mr Howard sailed home to victory at the helm of the Tampa, and Doctor Haneef is being set up to be Mr Howard's Tampa II. The line will be that we now have a terrorist in custody, someone that could have killed innocent Australians. Just as he did last night on the 7:30 report, Mr Andrews and his Liberal colleagues will be very sketchy when pushed for details about why they've made the decision to revoke his visa. They will hint at his poor character, at the atrocities committed by his second cousin, and the dangers we face - all as a way of drumming up fear that they know full well wins elections.

What will sadly go unchallenged is the manner in which our judicial system has been treated with contempt by those in power. In the context of threats to our society, Doctor Haneef is a tiny risk compared to prostate cancer, depression, youth suicide, and motor neurone disease. But because he represents something that generates so much uncertainty, so much mistrust, and so much fear, he is the unwitting pawn in a political power play that is set to destroy his career and any hope of financial independence for his family. Guilty or innocent, Doctor Haneef and the Australian public deserve more respect than what they're receiving from the Howard government.