This year is the last year starting with 19. That much is clear. Debate still rages as to whether 2000 is the first year of the new millenium or the last year of old one. Many will ask, so what? Their lack of concern or sense of occasion is a sensible and rational position. However, many others see a sense of occasion and significance in this being the last year starting with 19. There is a sense of rounding off and hope for renewal, particularly in Australia as we end a century of nationhood and look forward to celebrating the Olympic Games. It makes us look to the big picture.
This year we will consider our nationhood with an intensity perhaps greater than at any time in the past hundred years. Australians will vote in a referendum towards the end of the year, probably, November, to decide whether we will become a republic. It may be that the preamble of the Constitution is also considered. This inevitably will raise the question of Aboriginal reconciliation.
These two issues present a great challenge to Australians and to our political leaders. In his first term, Prime Minister John Howard concentrated on economic matters. At the beginning of his second term, last October, he promised to pay greater attention to non-economic issues, including reconciliation. However, to date there is little to inspire confidence. He does not appear to have made any significant change in his attitude or actions on reconciliation. On the republic he maintains his position of public neutrality and personal preference for constitutional monarchy.
His eyes still remain heavily focused on the GST and other matters like the sale of another 16 per cent of Telstra and unfair dismissal laws. He argues that the question of a republic is rarely raised with him. Maybe, but the issue has engaged the public’s mind immensely in the past year, particularly at the time of February’s constitutional convention.
It is important for Mr Howard and his government to take the opportunity of the new year to show less pre-occupation with economic matters and a greater concern about what sort of society and nation Australia is and should aspire to. After all, greater economic prosperity has never been a guarantee of greater happiness or sense of fulfillment.
A better balance must be struck between pursuit of wealth and the building up of social fabric. Some inequality of wealth is inevitable and, indeed, desirable, but very large differences can prove destructive. Even if the nation’s total wealth gets greater, we are all poorer if inequality in society grows. Greater inequality results in alienation and resentment which in turn can lead to crime and other socially dysfunctional behaviour which makes the economic wealth less worth having.
On an individual level, whatever one’s view about the numerical significance of the year change, a new year brings with it hope for improvement. With it comes resolutions to do or achieve things. True, many fall by the wayside. Nonetheless stating them reaffirms desirable goals and can give individuals a sense of direction.
As we go into the new year as a nation and as individuals we should seek better human relations: greater understanding of the plight of the less fortunate in society and a commitment to do something about it, rather than just say something about it. That will require less greed and more generosity (both of spirit and material things) and a lifting of our horizons from the merely economic.