"There is also no political will to revisit the issue"

My fellow bloggers of The Monarchist reflect on the Australian referendum's 10th anniversary.

The Monarchist is always worth reading, but this article has my special sympathy.

"... republicans know they don’t have a model that they know can win. They know that a president chosen by politicians is a vote loser. But they seem unwilling to commit to a president chosen by popular vote. Why? Because such a change would be even more radical than the 1999 proposal – and would probably go down to a substantial defeat after being subjected to the white heat of a referendum campaign. Direct election is apparently popular now – but other referenda proposals have had high levels of support that evaporated in the lead-up to a vote. This conundrum ties the republicans up in knots."

The Monarchists won the Australian referendum in 1999

... even if republicans will never admit that fact. It must be a very frustrating exercise to propagandise for a republican regime for Australia and not get any closer to the fulfilment of toppling the Queen of Australia. On the 10th anniversary of the referendum The Age continues its bombardment against the Monarchy by insulting all those who voted No: “The Age has long believed that … becoming a republic will be a crucial mark of Australia's adulthood. Sadly, the past decade has witnessed a national retreat into childhood.”

Ten years of constant propaganda for “a” republic by the united Fairfax & Murdoch media, by the ABC and other TV stations and what is the result: Opinion polls show no more republican sentiment than in 1999. A more democratic attitude of the mighty media owners and their servants would suggest to accept the outcome of a democratic vote and live with it, but this is not what they do. They increase their attacks on the Australian Constitution and the institution of the Monarchy.

Today Monarchists all over Australia celebrate the outcome of the 1999 referendum and they have all reason doing so. Their opponents run around like headless chooks, contemplating new plebiscites and referenda, hoping for politicians to come to their rescue and give them “a” republic. Haven’t they noticed that relying on politicians is the most unreliable way to get results - and another reason to keep the Monarch who is above politics.

The Age even had the chutzpah to return to “the enthusiastic endorsement of republicanism at last year's 2020 Summit”, without mentioning that the summitteers were all handpicked and no Monarchist was considered worthy to take part in this show exercise. Is the republicans' aim to exclude all those who oppose their sailing into the rough sea of a politicians’ republic from speaking out for Queen and Monarchy? Fortunately we will not know, in which way republicans might exclude Monarchists from the Australian agora, because there is no likelihood that they will win a referendum.

All the contemplation on plebiscites (The Age: "A two-part plebiscite that asks the threshold question - should Australia become a republic - and then offers voters a choice of republican models could cheaply and conveniently be held at the time of the next federal election.") does not take into account that plebiscites do NOT change the constitution. What will republicans do, should they win the suggested plebiscites, but lose the referendum? Ignore the referendum? Return to square one? Repeat the referendum until the result pleases the The Age and the people behind the media? Or will they finally accept a democratic result and live with it?

Open questions, which The Age's editorialist did not bother to ask, even less dare to answer.

Tony Ab-bott ser-ved the Queen of Aus-tralia.

SBS censorship

First the positve: SBS – Special Broadcasting System – provides an extraordinary access to news programmes from all over the world and has services in 64 languages. That is certainly a record and thanks to SBS millions of migrants in Australia can watch and listen to news from many countries in the world.

However, the republican virus has infected SBS. Or at least the editing of news journals sometimes gives the impression that could lead to such a conclusion.

The French journal “France 2” of 3rd November 2009, which was broadcast on 4th November in Australia was cut short. Not extensively, it was just three minutes shorter than the journal the French audience could watch. But these three minutes were a report on the French royalists and the second in line to the throne, Prince Jean de France. Anchorman David Pujadas had announced a report on “Les Royalistes français d’aujourd’hui” (Today's French Royalists) and a few pictures of Prince Jean scrolled on the screen, giving the audience an impression of what was to come.

But not for the Australian spectators. SBS deprived them of this report. Since the journal was not longer than usual it is up to everyone’s guess, why SBS deleted the report on “Les Royalistes du 21eme sciecle”, as it was titled on France 2’s website. Fortunately the news is available on the French website for a couple of days. Click on the 20 heures button of "mardi 3" and scroll down to the second last item of the content list.

France & Iran: "Being a Monarchist is not a crime!"

A Fourth Iranian Monarchist Sentenced to Death
Davood Fardbacheh Mir-Ardabili, born in 1973, is charged with being a member of the Iran Monarchy Association. He was arrested on May 4th that is to say before the demonstrations following the elections in June, which didn’t prevent a judgment by the Revolutionary Court of Tehran in charge of the repression of the events.

Davood Fardbachech Mir-Ardabil has not been allowed to be defended by a lawyer nor insure his defense by himself.

The International Monarchist Conference (IMC) is protesting once more against these arbitrary lawsuits. The Iranian regime has just marked a new stage in abject behavior. It is no longer only a matter of iniquitous cases but actual judiciary assassination.

Arash Rahmanpour

The name of Davood Fardbacheh Mir-Ardabili has just been added to the name of three other monarchist activists sentenced to death by hanging, journalist Mohammad-Reza Ali-Zamani (37 years old), Hamed Rouhinejad (24 years old) and the young Arash Rahmanpour (only 20 years old).

We demand the release of Iranian political prisoners!

Sign the petition: www.freezamani.org

Join the demonstration of November 3rd, 2009 at 7.00 pm, place d’Iéna in Paris, near the Iranian Embassy (Metro Iéna).

Sylvain ROUSSILLON
General Secretary of the International Monarchist Conference
Spokesperson of the Free Zamani Action Group
http://internationale.monarchiste.com

Queen Elizabeth II met Her Victorian Premier at Balmoral



The Queen of Australia received the Premier of Victoria in an audience at Balmoral Castle. On 5th October 2009 John Brumby informed Her Majesty on the Victorian bushfires in February 2009. He expressed his wishes, that Queen Elizabeth II may return to Australia in 2010.

1st October 1949, a sad day for China

I was about to send the Chinese Communist embassy a letter of condolences, to regret the fact that 60 years ago a "people's republic" was proclaimed. A lamentable event indeed. But the real damage was done, when a republic was proclaimed on 1st January 1912. This “Republic of China”, which will celebrate its revolution on 10th October ("Double Tenth" of 1911) still exists, although its territory is nowadays restricted to the Island of Taiwan and some offshore islets.

For a Monarchist who has no love lost for this form of state, they are both undesirable. However, there are significant differences between the Republic of China and the people’s republic of China. While the once all-mighty Kuomintang on Taiwan gave up its iron grip on the population and paved the way to a multiparty democracy (it lost power in 2000 to an opposition party) Mainland China is still a one-party-dicatorship under an oligarchic Communist Party.

A Chinese Monarchist
When the Chinese Emperor was forced to abdicate far from every Chinese cheered the new republic. The great Chinese scholar Liang Qichao yearned for the return of the Emperor system after the abdication of Pu-Yi in 1912. Both this, and his urging for media freedom in China, "made him an unpopular figure both with Dr. Sat Yun Sen and the emerging Communist Party". Chris Devonshire-Ellis writes in his blog: "However, notable scholars of the day much admired him, including Lin Yutang, who called Liang 'the greatest personality in the history of Chinese journalism,' and Joseph Levenson who described him as 'a brilliant scholar, journalist, and political figure.'”

China's Imperial Flag was lowered in 1912

What about a Chinese Monarchy?
Daniel Bell, US professor of political theory at Tsinghua University in Beijing, gave an interesting look into his students’ thinking:

"One of my graduate students told me that she was dismayed by the uncritical coverage of the inauguration [of US president Obama], the kind of love-fest for a political leader that could only make the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party envious. We discussed, only half-jokingly, the possibility that China should adopt some form of constitutional monarchy, so that the public could project its emotions on a symbolic leader while evaluating the de facto political leader’s performance more rationally."

Who would be Emperor?
The Mad Monarchist from Texas found the right words describing the tragic end of Emperor Pu-Yi, who reigned as the Emperor Hsuan-tung and later as Emperor Kang The:

"Despite the best efforts of the communists the idea of the last Emperor as a villain never really took hold. Most today probably view him as a tragic figure but I take a more nostalgic view. It often seems that the world as a whole missed the significance of the fall of the Chinese Empire; an imperial system which lasted from the time of the ancient Greeks until the 20th Century. His life marked the end of an era and the start of a long period of suffering and terror for China. It also marked the end of China as a society based on the moral principles of Confucius.

"It is debated as to who would be the heir of the last Emperor today. In his book, Pu-Yi wrote that he designated his cousin, Prince Yu-Yan as his successor. He died in 1997 and if his line is accepted the heir to the Dragon Throne today would be his son Prince Hengzheng, aka Yuan Yuan."

Chinese Monarchists are starting to get organised. Here's a new website of the Imperial Qing Restoration Organization.

And the Mad Monarchist had his own thoughts on 1st October 60 Years of Red Chinese Tyranny.

Malta's republican "parliamentary coup"

"The 1974 parliamentary coup which transformed Malta from monarchy to republic was another first. Should this be on the candidates list for National Day? It remains memorable for the way it was done more than for its effect. Had anybody started a debate or called a referendum on whether Malta should shed it last remaining shreds of Monarchy a majority would have been found. The PN Opposition would have been outmanoeuvred, too embarrassed to defend a British Queen. Blessed by consensus, the transition may have eluded notice. Instead the new republican constitution, (little more than an amended version of the earlier one) was forced upon the country under threat by the government to seize absolute power on the pretext that Article 6 of the constitution which mere said that the constitution was supreme was not itself entrenched requiring a two thirds majority for its amendment."

"The constitutional amendments including the stopping of this loophole were agreed to by the opposition under apparent duress. No revolution took place on December 13th. There was no break in legal continuity and the Government was allowed its two thirds majority. Instead of consensus granting ownership of the change to all parties, we had coercion and we still have resentment."

Harry Vassallo in Malta: a babe in arms , 23rd September 2009

The Queen will meet Her Victorian Premier in October

On 5th October Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, will receive Her Victorian Premier at Buckingham Palace. Acting Premier, Attorney-General Rob Hulls, could not hide his pride. On Channel 7 he said: “I think it’s a coup for the Premier. I don’t think there has been too many premiers that had a personal audience with the, er, with the Queen.” It must have been difficult to say the Q-word, because he mumbled it and needed two attempts to say it. But he managed, he really managed well to announce that Victorian Premier John Brumby will meet the Sovereign on 5th October.

Channel 9 had this to say: “This is the first time an Australian Premier has been invited to a rare audience with the Queen. Buckingham Palace has contacted the government to request he visit her while in the U.K. next week.

“The Queen has taken great interest in the Black Saturday bush fires.

“She received daily updates throughout February and March and made a personal donation to the bush fire appeal.”

Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, was equally praised. Channel 7: “Princess Anne won fans visiting Melbourne for the National Day of Mourning.” And the Victorian Environment Minister Gavin Jennings added: “They were chuffed that in fact she was there. It made quite a big difference at that time of adversity.”

Even The Age printed a short notice on the forthcoming royal audience for the Victorian Premier.