Endoh’s Dungeon

It’s a rare occasion to see a minister of any country to apologize for previous administrations and Australia’s newly sworn-in Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has definitely done it right. What he is apologizing for is not just bread and butter issues, but injustice committed against the Aborigines for more than 200 years.

In Japan, the Japanese ministers have never wanted to admit to their war crimes and atrocities in WW2. In US, there are more conspiracies than real policies to talk about. As for Germany, they have greatly denied the existence of the Holocaust despite the massive amount of evidences. How can we ever forget Singapore, who is absolutely tight-lipped when it comes to apologies?

To some, apologizing is a disgraceful act. Like many governments, they would rather let the issue sit on and hopefully one day, the wrongdoings will be forgotten. Surely, it takes a load of guts and conscience for anyone in a respectable position to apologize. Even in the corporate world, the fear behind the loss of revenues often plague senior management into adoption of a gag on words of apologies.

What they do not know is that, sometimes all it takes is ONE truthful apology to work wonders. I am making a bold guess that in most times that we think we deserve an apology, we are not exactly looking to punish the culprit. Instead, all we want is for the culprit to acknowledge his wrongdoings and rectify it as much as possible. If rectification is not possible, at least a certain form of compensation is made available. of course, an apology as to come from the heart.

Kevin Rudd, impressed me most when I heard him spoke in absolute fluent mandarin. (His mandarin fluency will put many Singaporeans to shame actually) I am sure he will do a lot of good compared to John Howard.

This is his speech to his parliament…

“The Parliament is today here assembled to deal with this unfinished business of the nation, to remove a great stain from the nation’s soul, and in a true spirit of reconciliation to open a new chapter in the history of this great land, Australia,” Rudd told Parliament.

This was “Government business, motion No. 1,” the first act of Rudd’s Labor government, which was sworn in Tuesday after a convincing electoral win over the 11-year administration of John Howard, who had for years refused to apologize for the misdeeds of past governments.

Rudd’s apology was particularly addressed to the so-called Stolen Generations, the tens of thousands of indigenous children who were removed, sometimes forcibly, from their families in a policy of assimilation that only ended in the 1970s.

In some states it was part of a policy to “breed out the color,” in the words of Cecil Cook, who held the title of chief protector of Aborigines in the Northern Territory in the 1930s.

“We apologize especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country,” Rudd said as hundreds of members of the Stolen Generations listened in the gallery, some with tears in their eyes. “For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

“To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.”