Chris Harries Tall poppies in the medium of politics.
MY physical bearing marks me out and has indelibly stamped my persona.
At a gangling 6 foot 4, I stand tall. A centre of attention ever since my youth, I have always looked down on those around me. Vertically, that is, metaphorically perhaps too. The constant exposure has made me an enigma. Who am I?
I have two known personalities: inside politics and outside. I did a backward somersault switching between the two. Stunned everyone. My two public profiles are irreconcilable – to me and to everyone else.
Inside the vortex of politics I am a machine man, party captive, loyal to a tee, I do their bidding faithfully. It’s the price of power. I play the game brazenly, resilient, apparently aloof. For good of country, you see. Yet secretly I resent who I am.
It’s all about the Power and Passion.
Outside politics I am as passionate as can be. Determined. Deadly serious. Tirelessly I beat the drum for many good causes, drum up enthusiasm, give spirit to the disheartened, the down-at-heel, the exploited.
I openly taunt the political machine men. I detest their dishonesty, their fakery.
My road to Damascus was the blunt interface between that rarefied arena of politics and life-in-the-real-world. When I transmogrified myself I unsettled and mystified my old supporters. Became despised by many, bitterly resented.
They think me a turncoat. Truth of the matter is they never understood the real me.
I am above them, always have been. They look up, I look down. Enigmatically. There is no need for reconciliation.
One thing I won’t do, can’t do, is reject my former life. I won’t resile from my early history, because that is my life story, savoured by those who fondly remember. Reverence locked in their memories. In my own memory.
How can I forego the legacy of history that made me me?
Am I different from that other man of history? Along the way our pathways intersected. Crossed over the same proverbial bridge. We could have nodded as we passed each other, recognising our own shadow passing in the night.
Chris Harries
September 2007
[Peter Garrett cut his activist teeth when Malcolm Fraser was Prime Minister of Australia, 1975 – 1983. As Fraser’s government was giving the go-ahead for uranium mining at Ranger, Garrett spearheaded the Nuclear Disarmament Party and many other social justice campaigns. Since his retirement Fraser has spearheaded many social justice campaigns, has vociferously opposed the Iraq war and has constantly harassed the Howard Government’s conservatism. In diametric contrast, Garrett, entering politics has backflipped on many cutting issues that were previously not negotiable.]
