Journal Of Australian Studies, Online Review of Books, Issue 28, October 2004:

- Review of A Certain Maritime Incident: The sinking of the SIEV X, by Tony Kevin, Scribe 2004

• reviewed by Chelsea Rodd, Australian Centre, Melbourne University.

Website reference to the original of this review:

http://www.api-network.com/cgi-bin/reviews/jrbview.cgi?n=1920769218&issue=28

Not long after the now infamous Twin Towers were razed to the ground in New York, a human tragedy of immense proportions occurred in the waters surrounding Australia. An overcrowded Indonesian fishing boat, which became known as the SIEV X, sank, its human cargo jettisoned into the water. Three hundred and fifty-three people died — drowned in the sea somewhere in the Indian Ocean, near Christmas Island, between Indonesia and Australia. These women, children, and men were on their way to Australia to seek asylum. Australia was immersed in Operation Relex, a merciless border protection initiative designed to prevent refugees from entering Australia and engaging their right to seek asylum in a safe country; a right enshrined in international law codified in the UN Convention for Refugees.

In his outstanding investigation of the national shame and disgrace shrouding this incident, former Australian Diplomat, Tony Kevin, questions how this tragic event was allowed to occur. Kevin put his considerable skills, knowledge, and experience as a policy analyst to use. He sought an explanation of how, with all the surveillance invested in monitoring the movement and approach of asylum seeker vessels, such large-scale loss of life occurred. He uncovers and explores a dark tale of striking contradictions and inconsistencies irreconcilable with the official government reports on the matter. The story told by Tony Kevin sits uneasily with instinctual notions of conscience.

A Certain Maritime Incident is a critical examination of the moral, ethical, and legal flotsam and jetsam precariously floating around the story of this doomed boat. Kevin passionately argues for the need to have full and open disclosure of information about the circumstances and details of this public tragedy. His book is a comprehensive record of facts, truths, and silences. Kevin refuses to draw decisive, singular conclusions from the plethora of evidence, which is at once enthralling and unsettling. The ultimate utility of his work is to have a full and unbiased public record of the range of complicated half-truths and misrepresentations intricately inter-woven through this story. Open and free access to public knowledge is, after all, a cornerstone of democracy.

The official government report of the SIEV X, conspicuously blacked-out in sections, is an enticing and chilling preface-piece to the book, capturing the ominous and covert tone of the story to follow. A curtain of silence descended immediately, shading the truth and disabling intellectual and emotional public engagement with the full extent of the catastrophe. Explanation was muted and investigation into the details of how this was able to happen was denied, indeed thwarted, by the government. As images of the collapsing Twin Towers continued to saturate the media, news of this ill-fated boat full of desperate and hopeful people barely made a blip on the radar of the national conscience.

Coinciding with the government's hard-line approach to refugee controversies such as the Tampa and the Children Overboard Affair in the lead up to the election, the SIEV X incident is yet further evidence of Howard's heartless contempt for some of the world's most vulnerable people. Kevin states that 'Howard's war against boat people was well planned, timed, and executed' (p 4) and leaves readers in no doubt of the government's callous mishandling of the catastrophic loss of life. Kevin, assisted by researcher and owner of website sievx.com, Marg Hutton, concentrated on compiling and examining the available information about the SIEV X. Together, they diligently pursued the matter 'recording and analysing its accumulating log of discrepancies and inconsistencies' (p 11) despite the prevailing mood of public apathy.

In 2002, Kevin initiated a public inquiry into the events of the sinking of the SIEV X. He wanted to know 'who within the Australian government and its agencies had known about the tragedy, what they knew about it, when they knew it, and what, if anything, they did or could have done about it.' (p 6) None of the possible conclusions suggested by the evidence are good. The research raises startling and disturbing questions about the value of human life and the cost of Operation Relex and Howard's fierce border-protection policies.

In a federal election year, questions of conscience, ideology, truth, and accountability in public affairs become especially potent. Preserving the fundamental right of liberalism to criticise the government and demand access to all matters of public interest is paramount. Tony Kevin challenges official truths and questions government complicity in the deaths of hundreds of people. Many people believed the sinking of the SIEV X was just 'a dreadful accident, and accepted it as further proof of the dangers of the people-smuggling trade' (p 4). Tony Kevin has had the courage to challenge the surface truth.

Reviewer: Chelsea Rodd, Australian Centre, Melbourne University