Julian Assange, from Townsville, has heaped embarrassment on world leaders and as a result has heard calls for his arrest for treason and even for his execution – and that’s aside from his current arrest. The question being asked in most democratic countries around the world is whether WikiLeaks is a force for good or evil and the public seems split. The question is even more pertinent to Australia given it is also Assange’s birthplace.
There is no question that Assange is providing a riveting insight into America’s take on global affairs: from Berlusconi’s alleged corruption, to naming Russia a Mafioso state; from Saudi’s pressure on America to bomb Iran, to America’s less than complementary comments on Gordon Brown and Kevin Rudd. Perhaps surprisingly WikiLeaks has exposed what many of us thought we already knew; but even so it has been a game changing moment for the world’s so called secret and confidential information.
When I worked at No10 I very quickly came to the view that there are very few real secrets. With most issues the media had a pretty good sense of what was going on and while they may not have known the specifics, their general observations were about right; this also appears true for WikiLeaks.
We may not have known the specific allegation of Berlusconi’s backhanders from Russia, but the revelation is consistent with our general sense of the Italian PM. And I shouldn’t think that too many people were surprised by the allegations of Mafioso corruption in Russia, and the irony of such a revelation in a week when a discredited Fifa awarded them the rights to host the World Cup.
Aside from the red faced diplomats I actually think the last couple of weeks speaks well of the free world that intentionally or otherwise allows the public greater access to information. Can you imagine if WikiLeaks was to spread to Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran and other countries with poor human rights records and obsessively secretive and undemocratic ways? It wouldn’t just be a threat of arrest or execution, he would most probably be dead already! The spread of WikiLeaks to those countries who have most to fear from openness, might just be the trigger that is needed to make a real difference to the world.
So WikiLeaks demonstrates the power of the internet age, its capacity to get more information into the hands of the many and to expose truths that politicians may have preferred were left unknown. Not surprisingly politicians have been all over the place in their response but I sense the public is moving to a place where they think more good than evil will come from this.
Where there is little argument is that this is a game changing moment in global diplomatic and political terms. If as a result of WikiLeaks, Governments around the world are less able to conceal information from their people and forced to be more transparent about issues that affect us all, then WikiLeaks could ultimately be a force for good. When change happens on this scale no one can be sure how it will work out in the end but on the basis that this could be a game changing moment for good, I for one believe the actions of Julian Assange the campaigner will come to make Australians proud.
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