A friend of mine in Australia emailed
me a link to a Nikkei
Asian Review article that takes up the Abbott administration’s intention to “adopt
a review of the school curriculum that will severely cut back content about
Asia and explicitly celebrate what it calls the nation's ‘Judeo-Christian
heritage, values and beliefs’” and wondered what that might do the Abe-Abbott
bromance. I wonder what Gough Whitlam would say if he were alive today. Anyway,
I’m posting my response lightly edited here, since it might be of interest to
anyone else in Australia that reads my blog.
Not
much. Neither Putin's increasing tightness with the Russian Orthodox Church and
tacit acceptance of ethnic intolerance and anti-semitism nor Erdogan's
increasingly authoritarian rule under Islamist influence has stood in the way
of Abe's dalliance with these two strongmen (not to mention Modi and his (what
I believe is overplayed) Hindu nationalist background). No big deal. Hey, if
Abbott doesn't care if Abe goes to Yasukuni, why should Abe care about Abbot
teaching Australian schoolchildren that same-sex marriages are an abomination?
What
Abe should not do is to get too infatuated with the Australian policy swing
from Redd/Gillard to Abbott. The important thing for him is to keep an eye on
what has been constant in Australian foreign and regional security policy and
to make sure to nail down any gains that have been made (from Abe's
perspective) so that they will survive a pro-China regime change, possibly from
the Labor Party returning to power*.
*
For starters, I would do my best to ensure that the submarine deal is done and
well on its way by way of implementation by the time Australia’s next general
election rolls around.
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