I have just read the book that won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for this year (Victorian Prize for Literature) written by Behrouz Boochani and translated by Omid Tofighian.
Boochani’s book titled No friend but the Mountains was written from Manus Island, where he still spends his days as an inmate.
This book was thumbed on a phone and smuggled out of Manus in the form of thousands of text messages.
Reading this book was difficult and emotionally disturbing as it challenged my beliefs that Australia was a land of decency, kindness, generosity and ‘‘a fair go’’.
None of these qualities are evident in Boochani’s accounts of hunger, squalor, beatings and abuse.
We can only be seen as the ‘‘Ugly Australians’’ by the world in general.
We have surrendered our right to criticise other countries for their inhumane treatment of fellow human beings.
Prisoners are controlled by the instigation of a Kyriarchal system.
This is a system built around domination, oppression and submission.
Boochani describes the Australian-run Manus Island Detention centre as a Kyriarchal system where different forms of oppression intersect.
Oppression is not random, but purposeful, designed to isolate and creates friction among prisoners leading to despair and broken spirits.
Any games are prohibited.
We have been influenced by our government’s propaganda relating to these desperate refugees as we accept our government’s word that these refugees are illegal and probably murders and child abusers.
We are now offered an insight from an intelligent prisoner and a magnificent writer as he shows us the other side of this horrific prison.
I would challenge those people who support the imprisonment of legal refugees to read this book and then to say to me that these people deserve this deprivation.
This is a must-read for all our supposed leaders especially members of our two major political parties who use this situation for their own political point scoring.
I remain disturbed.
Carole R Trotter
16°C