Life As A Penitent Wasn't Meant To be Easy

WITH the worst president in the history of modern America, Jimmy Carter, pushing ahead with plans to meet a Hamas terror leader later this week, the thoughts of Hal G.P. Colebatch on the foreign bungling of Australia's worst post-Whitlam prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, couldn't be more appropriately timed. The cold shoulder being given to Mr Carter, however, is different to the shoulder to cry on usually afforded Mr Fraser - at least since he decided years ago to reinvent himself as a penitent ex-conservative with a penchant for cuddling up to left-of-centre causes. When it comes to Robert Mugabe, Colebatch thinks the time has come for the Wannon whopper to do something to make up for his shameful role in Mr Mugabe's rise to power. Words of Mr Fraser's I had occasion to transcribe in January: "How did Western intelligence systems get it so wrong?" If he really is as concerned as he seems to be by how history will remember him, Mr Fraser ought to, first, explain how he got it so wrong and, second, follow Colebatch's advice on making historical amends. It's the least he can do.