The Sydney siege was handled totally wrongly.
Terrorism is not directed at the immediate victims but at
nurturing fear in the wider population.
The NSW authorities made sure that the entire nation shared the terror
of the hostages. They refused to communicate
with him via public media, but it would have been better if no one knew what
was happening till it was over. In the
end, the tragic deaths of two young people, one a parent of three infants, were
not an isolated, tragic incident and became a frightening possibility for every
Australian. Public attention is giving
oxygen to their deranged operations.
Nothing is likely to encourage more of the same acts than a total media
coverage, worldwide, of the power of an individual. Ironically, they are often not clearly aware
of their own cause, for which they are pleased to die.
There should have been a complete media ban on it until it
was resolved. One madman took an entire
city hostage, not just a score of people.
There was no need to lock down and evacuate such a large area. He could not have had a large bomb. The police were in contact with him, but
refusing to negotiate; even though the best response to a madman is to humour
him. Once they knew who he was, did they
bring anyone from Lakamba to talk to him?
Apparently not. Instead of a
single operation, it appears many government departments besides the police
were involved and a lot of effort went into co-ordinating them.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy is how we, as a society, failed
the perpetrator. There are no bad
people, just people who do bad things.
Certainly, he was a madman; sane people do not behave like that. He is not alone in blaming others, or society
in general, or “them” for our own failings or for imagined insults and
self-inflicted damages; he was out on bail, but apparently there had never been
a psychiatric assessment of him (though there had been on Gordon Bryant, for
all the good that did) and should have been receiving psychiatric counselling,
perhaps with regular group work that included re-examining his religious
beliefs in a more socially acceptable way.
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