Pansy Speak: Learning lessons from tragedy

23 April 2006

Pansy Speak

Learning lessons from tragedy

The speed withwhich arrests were made in the murder of Chinese student WanBiao will no doubt be of relief to his family, as well asinternational education providers. This sector is onceagain facing the effects that uninformed negative publicitybring -- they are left to battle against the tide on theirown in situations like this because of the Government sindifferent attitude towards internationaleducation.

Since the discovery of Wan Biao s body I haveread much about this tragic loss of life. Baseless commentsabout the murder being a 'Triad hit has reduced a very sadsituation to tabloid fodder. Police have said there is noevidence of gang connections, but this didn t stop the usuallines being drawn between Asian crime and triad gangs.

Iexpect I will receive mail from people asking me to takeresponsibility for this crime committed by 'my people . Amazingly, writers like these believe New Zealand had nocrime until Asian people arrived. The sad thing is that thevictims of Asian crime are almost all Asian, and the Asiancommunity is therefore very anxious about putting a stop toit.

The flatmate of the late Wan Biao has been quoted assaying "I just don t want people to think all Chinese peopleare killers, murderers. Sometimes it s very hard for us. We didn t do anything but people think we do something bad".This person is an international student who has been in NewZealand for only a short time and has already developed adefensive attitude of expecting the worst. It is time forus to reflect on how foreign youngsters are being treatedhere.

Many messages have been posted on local Chineselanguage websites lamenting the loss of a young life, withmany cursing the accused, society and a lax justice system. There are also explicit comments warning potential studentsabout the risks of studying in New Zealand. Throw inbaseless comments about gang connections, and these messagestake on a more sinister meaning.

We live in a global worldwhere information is shared in seconds, and where rumoursand malicious gossip can be taken as gospel. The only wayto counteract these 'Chinese whispers is for authorities torelease timely and accurate information to allow people tomake their own conclusions.

In this case, I acknowledgethis is what the Police did. What is needed now is for themto extend this communication to our ethnic media,particularly when speakers of another language are involved.This kind of information would ensure that any reports arebased on accurate information. I know that some Chinesewebsites have had to gather their information second-handfrom English sources during the investigation.

There is anancient Chinese proverb that says '"A tiger becomes realwhen three people say it". During the past few days someof our newspapers have trotted out the usual line thatAsians don t like to report crime, along with unduespeculation about gang-related killings (probably spurred onby comments made by various MPs). In this case, the parentsof Wan Biao contacted Police in China immediately about theransom demand, and the Police have dismissed gangconnections.

These kinds of comments don t do the Asiancommunity any good or help comfort the grieving family.Making stereotypical statements that Asians don t like toreport crime only leads them to being targeted by criminals.The truth is that I regularly hear from people who havereported crimes (especially burglary) only for their casesto be seemingly ignored by the Police. This also happens inother organisations -- a group of driving instructorscomplained to the Land Transport New Zealand about thedrivers license scam a couple of years ago but theirconcerns fell on deaf ears.

Last year, I tabled in theHouse a copy of advertisements that were published inChinese newspapers guaranteeing that those sitting theirdrivers licence test would pass on the first go and couldchoose their testing officer. The Minister and hisdepartment said they would begin monitoring ethnicnewspapers for these ads. Well, I have news for them -- these ads are still being placed and the company involvedhands out business cards promising that people can choosetheir own testing officers. It is clear that complaintsmade by Asians aren t taken seriously.

What we need tounderstand is that in certain circumstances people don treport crime because they fear their lives will be put atrisk because they don t have confidence their situation willbe taken seriously. Language barriers, accessibility, andrespect for the authorities, and vice versa, all play a partin this.

I am hopeful that our new Police Commissioner,Howard Broad, will help turn this situation around, becausehe was instrumental in putting together the Asian Policestrategy in Auckland in 2000. In the case of Wan Biao, goodwork by the police and information coming in from Chineseinternational students were important factors in the earlyarrests. I am hopeful that this level of co-operation willset a benchmark for any future cases.

PansyWong

www.pansywong.co.nz www.national.org.nz

ENDS
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