Yanner learning the lessons of leadership
05.12.1998
By: KOCH A Source: QNP
FEISTY Aboriginal leader Murrandoo Yanner has probably learnt more about the role of a spokesman for his people in the past fortnight than in the totality of his tender years in public life.
Yanner, chairman of the Carpentaria Land Council, lives at Burketown, 80km from Doomadgee Aboriginal Community.
Two weeks ago, Premier Peter Beattie handed out a lesson in political pragmatism when he declared that the power line to join Gunpowder and Century mines would go ahead. If necessary the State Government would compulsorily acquire land under native title and pay any necessary compensation.
The line had been under discussion for more than a year, with local Aboriginal people _ led by Yanner _ opposed to it.
The cynics would accuse Beattie of using today's Mulgrave by-election to make his macho stance. That may have been a motivation, but the fact is that the power line should be built. The Century mine is necessary, both for the export dollars it will bring and the employment it will generate.
Beattie trampled over Yanner, who responded by protesting loudly, but no one listened. The reason no one listened was because Yanner has now reached a stage where his style of response, the predictability of his outrage and anger, has severely damaged his credibility.
Like many leaders from pursuits as diverse as politics, sport or business, what Yanner sees as his greatest strength is his greatest weakness.
Yanner, a former ABC radio journalist, proudly boasts that he does all his own media interviews without any assistance, or even the employment of a press secretary. The problem is that his message is now lost as he goes into auto-babble.
Take the powerline issue. Amid all the rhetoric and accusation, Yanner has an excellent argument on behalf of his people and other Gulf residents.
They say if a power line can be built to the mine, why not extend it an additional 60km so it can service the 2000 residents of Doomadgee, the township of Burketown and pastoralists in the region?
Century talks about jobs for local Aboriginal people, but Yanner dismisses the short-term manual work on offer as ``mickey-mouse''. He wants Century to give out contracts to his land council _ commercial contracts such as fuel supply, road construction or laundry. Meaningful work that would allow Aboriginal labour to be gainfully employed.
If Yanner could stick to clear and concise messages, people would understand and, in many cases, support him and his cause.
Last week, he was a guest speaker at the International Pathways Indigenous Conference at Toowoomba. He spoke forcefully, without notes for half an hour, a speech peppered with references to ``white insurgents'', ``oppressors'', ``invaders'' and ``murderers of our people''.
At a press conference later he announced he would be calling on the black nations of the world to boycott the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
He got his cheap headline, but the glory was over the next day when eminent African leader, Rev Makhenkesi Stofile, ANC member and Premier of Eastern Cape Province, said in his gentle tone that no such boycott would be occurring. Boycotts were not arranged at the drop of a hat, he said.
Yanner then spent a couple of days with two of the other conference guests _ Hlumelo and Samora Biko _ sons of famous freedom fighter Steve Biko who was murdered by South African security forces 20 years ago.
Yanner took the brothers to Doomadgee and Burketown, and the message he obviously got was that, if he wanted to tread the international stage as a spokesman for indigenous people, he had to change his ways.
He needed to broaden his knowledge of world affairs, travel, learn and listen to intelligent and respected leaders of other nations _ black and white _ and learn when to hold his counsel and when to go in, guns blazing.
Yanner is much-criticised by Australian politicians who do not care too much to engage him in debate. For all his youthful faults, no one can deny his commitment to his people and the black cause.
Unlike many of his Aboriginal colleagues, he chooses to live within his community. He is paid $30,000 a year when he could obviously earn three times that amount elsewhere.
He alone among Aboriginal leaders in Australia has had the courage to speak out against violence and alcoholism in their communities and denounces anyone who gets involved in domestic violence or other offences against their own people.
As well, Yanner has been smart enough to ensure that every cent of public funding that goes through his land council is properly accounted for. He knows too well the damage that is caused by criticism of indigenous communities that squander or pilfer public funds.
Next year he intends to accept an invitation from the Biko brothers and travel to South Africa where he will deliver addresses about Aboriginal life in Australia.
But mostly it will be a learning experience. What he will learn is that he has to read even more widely than he now does, and to be not so selective in his reading material.
But mostly he will have to learn moderation in his language and the desirability of getting across only the important message _ with the colourful rhetoric and nonsense stripped away.
Hlumelo Biko confided to me that he was impressed by the genuine commitment demonstrated by Yanner.
``I told Murrandoo that of all the people I had met, he most reminded me of my father with the way he fights for his people. He was quite chuffed to hear that,'' Biko said.
