Monday, January 04, 2010

Excerpts from DDB's Autobiography on Justice for Hamidur Rahman pt 6

This follows part 5. Hamidur Rahman was a boy I met in passing. I had nothing to do with his death. However, had my abusers not been so bent on abusing me, I believe Hamidur Rahman would be alive today.
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With Helen abusing my students to get to me, Richard sending children with messages to me that he is watching my progress, Bruce following me to Chess engagements for school while he was Principal, James threatening my teaching I had decided that I could no longer sit back and wait for Helen to retire from old age. The department would not listen to me because I had warned Hurlstone about Hamidur's sickness a year before he died. So I sent a letter to the new Minister of Education in 2007. I ad wanted the ALP to lose office, and thought they would, so I held off until after the election. Disappointingly, the ALP won and Della Bosca was made the new Minister for Education. I sent the letter to him. The problem was getting the message to him. Parliament screened incoming messages, so I passed it on to a local member. However, my local member was Joe Tripodi who had promised me he would look into my issue in '03 at a chess event and then told me he didn't know why I was being mistreated, but he would represent me in parliament. Joe had earlier distinguished himself by lying to parliament and claiming he had spoken with the Principal of Canley Vale HS over the gun issues in the late '90s when he hadn't. Reba Meagher was local member who had visited Canley Vale HS after the assassination of Newman and her subsequent election, telling junior students she had had an affair with a senior member of the ALP who was married and that was how she got her position. I sent the message through Khoshaba, who was in an adjacent territory and whom I knew nothing about, except he was local. Della Bosca's office acknowledged receipt. I was called by the Department of Education legal office which asked me some yes or no questions with reference to a few paragraphs of my message. I was later told that the Minister felt there was nothing worth addressing.
I had promised Della Bosca I would resign and speak publicly on the issues if he didn't address them. So I did. Channel 7's Today Tonight's current affairs program expressed an interest if I resigned in telling my story. Shortly before the actual day they decided they wouldn't. I was confident someone else would. Pat, Principal of Canley Vale HS gave me the option of changing my mind, but could not help me with regards to the actual issues I faced. There was no recognition for my service at Canley Vale HS as I left in my thirteenth year. Even one month block casuals get given a spoon. Apparently Pat told the students I had decided to follow my own path. Apparently one staff member decided to tell my kids that I had committed suicide. My reason given for resigning was my wish that I would not have to endure further harassment.
I got in touch with Centerlink for social security and contacted local papers and journalists I had been in long term email contact with. I had never been unemployed before. I had hoped that Centerlink would help me address the issue in Industrial Relations court and I knew I only had a short time frame with which to work. My first problem was that Centerlink would not accept my identification papers. I needed to show I was Australian. But, I was born in NYC to Australian Parents and had lived in Australia since I was eleven years old. I had come to Australia with my mother, but there was no evidence of that. I had a birth certificate but it needed to be authenticated. It took me five months to establish my credentials, and in that time I was timed out of Industrial relations court.
My early attempts at contacting media seemed promising, but I needed to get the attention of Della Bosca quickly so as to let him know he needed to investigate or my story would break. I approached Della Bosca through my local member Tripodi's office. I explained to them why my situation was current and needed to be investigated, including my fears regarding James. Before I left Tripodi's office I was asked who the media were I contacted, and I told them, thinking that if they tried to restrict them then my story would gain credibility. Instead, all of the links dried up. The Fairfield Champion journalist said it was important that I got a reply from Della Bosca before they would run with my story. They even asked me to draft an outline. Della Bosca took some ten weeks, and when he replied I had been timed out of IR court and he referred me back to James. Tripodi's office did the same. The Champion said they wouldn't run the story as their editor said it wasn't newsworthy. They pointed out Hamidur Rahman was not a local school boy, did not go to a local school and did not die locally.
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The story continues

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