The University of Queensland Liberal Club has launched an unprecedented attack on the Federal President of the Australian Liberal Students Federation, including with tongue-in-cheek suggestions that he is a communist through their use of a hammer and sickle logo.
COMMUNIST CLAIMS "RACIALLY INSENSITIVE"
The Federal President, feared NSW Liberal right-wing numbers man Tim Andrews has hit out at the claims, saying that he is "deeply offended by the use of the hammer and sickle symbol as I had numerous family members murdered by communists and put in concentration camps by communists."
"The use of that offensive symbol sickens me and ought to be withdrawn by anyone with a sense of decency."
The claims were made by members of the UQ Liberal Club, one of the most successful Liberal Clubs in the nation, which triumphed in last year's student union elections there.
The UQ Liberals have stepped up the pressure on Tim Andrews, a part of the NSW Liberal Right group associated with David Clarke, by launching a website "The Truth of Tim Andrews" which includes the much-hated symbol of communism, the hammer and sickle.
QUEENSLAND LIBS GO IN HARD
The attacks were based on their discovery of what the UQ Liberals say is "a secret, left-wing manifesto written by Australian Liberal Students’ Federation President Tim Andrews." It's safe to conclude this was meant facetiously because Andrews is certainly considered well to the right of the UQ Liberal moderate or "wets" grouping
Toby Latcham, a spokesperson for the University of Queensland Liberal Club, believes Andrews' online writings on his livejournal are consistent with what he says are the ALSF President Tim Andrew’s misguided views of student politics, and highlights the gap between his organisation and what he says are mainstream beliefs.
“It has to be said – these views just go to show how out-of-touch the ALSF really is,” Mr Latcham said, “Here we’ve got the President – the leader of the organisation – who doesn’t even know which side he’s on! Mr Andrews is going through some sort of internal struggle between the right and left, and the result is the bastardised rhetoric we often see Mr Andrews spout out.”
ANDREWS FIGHTS BACK
Andrews hit out at the tactic of the personal attack site "It's thuggery of an ugly and racially insensitive and vulgar kind by people who are a tiny minority within the broader Liberal student movement. It is no exaggeration to say they are Liberals In Name Only."
He singled one prominent UQ operative Antonio Jardim as being guilty of creating a cult of personality. Jardim is certainly interesting figure, some say the Rasputin to the UQ tsars of power. In his thirties, he is an elder statesmen and trusted confidant to UQ student political leaders.
Curiously during Jardim's time, for example, he opposed the ALSF's fight for the Voluntary Student Unionism which led to the UQ Liberals leaving the Liberal Student Federation. See Update below.
Since then, ironically Andrews ushered them back to the fold, hoping they could all live under the one big circus tent.
BITING THE HAND THAT LED THEM BACK IN
But after recent outbursts, Andrews has had reason to regret his attempts at inclusion. Andrews told the OC:
Since winning student office due to a split in the left last year, their sole claim to fame has been censoring the Catholic Newman Society for distributing borderline pro-life material - an attack on freedom of speech unprecedented in even a Far-Left student union in living memory. The alleged Liberals in this club condemned the ALSF/Young Liberal Education Bias campaign, expressing their opposition to right-of-centre academic staff in universities, and only this week quoted with approval self-described left-of-labor activists on the future direction of the Liberal Party.
For the UQ Liberals who point to Tim's website, it's a case of the pot calling the kettle black:
“The major problem with the clubs affiliated in the ALSF has always been their failure to understand mainstream students, and thus win elections. The discovery of this manifesto really does shed a light on these failures – normal students can not be expected to support the closeted, left-wing views Mr Andrews regurgitates.”
JUDGE HIM BY HIS OWN WORDS SAY FEISTY QUEENSLANDERS
They respond, arguing that the attacks on them for being lefties are not that fair if the attackers have had "lefty thoughts themselves. They continue:
Mr Andrews aired his secret views on his LiveJournal website a few years ago, which features choice quotes as “Always wanted to be a leftie. Pity my brain won't let me. The curse of having a right wing mind stuck in a left wing body! Ahh well.”
Select quotes include: (OC: From five years ago apparently)
"Always wanted to be a leftie. Pity my brain won't let me. The curse of having a right wing mind stuck in a left wing body! Ahh well."
"Lefties, for all their faults, I still believe are considerably more intersting than our mob."
"DEAR GOD A WANT A BREAK FROM THEM! Liberals, despite their differences, all share numerous similarities. And I want a change, a break - some friends who aren't so f**king conservative!"
"I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.
And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries." (Yeah, WTF? - TL) (OC: Simon and Garfunkel lyrics)
" I just had one of the best conversations of my life. For the first time in so long, I was able to deeply explore myself, my feelings, my innermost emotions. I was able to get out what I held inside for so long. So much was realised.
Unfortunatly, this conversation was with my Christmas tree."
UPDATE:
In response to our query Tim Andrews made this statement on his Facebook page:
My friends.
As by now few of you are probably aware, a webpage was put up today at http://truetimandrews.googlepages.com/ , which takes extracts from a 6 year old webpage of mine long inactive, a few things I wrote back in 2000-01 & what was intended to be a very private blog I wrote a few years ago to launch a bitter personal attack on me. I even believe it's accompanied by a media release - what fun! To those of you who have not as of yet seen it, I strongly encourage you to have a look, a laugh and join with me in the knowledge that to trigger such a page, I must be doing something right - to be shit-sheeted is always a great badge of pride. And, well, the site is pretty funny.
If you have not had the pleasure of seeing this site as of yet, through it you shall learn apparently devastating insights about me such as:
* I found university to be intellectually unstimulating
* I have a tendency to go for left-wing females
* About two years ago I was feeling rather depressed about elements in my life.
* I wish I had more non-Liberal friends
* I feel that if you stay true to your beliefs, its not easy being Liberal at university
* I am a big fan of Simon & Garfunkel (whose artistic genius the authors I am honoured to read seemed to confuse with my own words)
My God! What scandal! Certainly worth the authors calling Landeryou, writing a media release, and putting all that the hard work, time and effort into creating this site!
The page concludes for calling on my removal as ALSF President, an attack on me for believing in conservative values, and was accompanied by emails calling on me to seek psychiatric help.
Whilst much of this was intended to be private introspective musings, and I am incredibly flattered and very amused to be the object of such attention, I do feel it appropriate to make a few comments in response.
I freely admit that many of the posts in the LJ were grossly self-indulgent, and served little point other than an attempt at a form of cathartic relief in whining (which I acknowledged whilst writing them) and as some sort of an outlet - I do laugh at how silly some of the things I wrote back then are. I mean let's face it, when we look back at our younger selves wallowing in self pity over minor things, it is pretty funny. Ahh the follies of youth! Having said that though, I reject any notion that there is anything wrong with the crux of the views I expressed. Indeed, if there is anyone out there who seeks to criticise my desire to continually challenge myself and grow as a person, and my occasional regrets at not doing this as effectively as hindsight would have allowed, then I say shame on them. For us to grow as people we must consistently challenge ourselves and our beliefs, else we do nothing but stagnate.
With this in mind therefore, I stand by the comments I made, and do not believe there is anything within them even remotely damaging to me, and hence don't mind its publication one iota! Indeed I am puzzled somewhat by how people could construe the core of what I said as any negative or character defect. I challenge anyone to find fault with my desire to increase the degree of intellectual stimulation to which I am exposed. I challenge anyone to criticise my desire to meet new people, and share experiences that are not limited to those of an identical mindset to mind. I challenge anyone to tell me what is wrong with seeking different experiences.
It is, however, a very good lesson in never putting anything online that you wouldn't wish to see on the front page of the tabloids, irrespective of how private you believe it to be, a lesson I have certainly learnt well. As such, I must apologise if anyone was offended by any of the comments I made, they were not intended to be as such. Looking back, and admitting the various internal issues I grappled with, what I do now say is that full credit can only go to the Liberal Student Movement for allowing me to overcome them. What I can say without doubt is that the one consistent thread throughout my uni life has been the strength that the Liberal Student movement has given me. My closest friends I met through Liberal Students, friends who share the passionate yearning for freedom, and who I shall always cherish. Whilst so many elements in the party float with the wind, ungrounded in any form of ideological grounding, for as long as I can remember the ALSF has remained steadfastly loyal to true Liberal Beliefs - those of individual freedom, small government and free markets. Throughout its history, it has been categorised as 'extremist' and condemned for believing in what is now mainstream thought - one needs only look at the history of the battle for freedom on campus and VSU. In the end, the ALSF's consistent message of freedom has triumphed. Fads come and go, people leave uni and move on, but the principles of the Federation do not waver.
As such, I reject wholeheartedly the trigger behind this whole attack, and the UQLC Doctrine that the ALSF should abandon its ideology, jettison its values, sell its soul and prostitute itself for no greater good than to win a student union election. To quote Reagan after the Republican loss in 1976, "I don’t know about you, but I am impatient with those Republicans who, after the last election, rushed into print saying ‘We must broaden the base of our party’ when what they meant was to fuzz up and blur even more the differences between ourselves and our opponents... A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers… if there are those who cannot subscribe to those principles, then let them go their way" (OC: Can someone put this in a memo for Ted Baillieu?)
To do otherwise shall lead us only to intellectual bankruptcy, and ultimately electoral annihilation. I am proud that the ALSF is at the forefront of the battle of ideas, and in fighting the culture wars, and I know it shall continue to do so in the years and decades to come.
There is a lovely Goldwater quote which unfortunate I can not find at this time, but its essential theme is that if you wish to join us in our fight for freedom, then we will welcome you with open arms. If you do not, then f*ck off. To those behind this website, I say to you with all my heart: f*ck off and return to the dustbin of history where you belong.
UPDATE:
A response from Antonio Jardim:
Minor correction to your story on Tim Andrews - I didn't oppose the ALSF policy of VSU. In fact I always supported it wholeheartedly. I wrote an opinion piece article in 2003 for the ALSF magazine where I said that I supported VSU completely, but given the numbers in the senate at that time, VSU shouldn't be the sole focus of ALSF.
Later the next year UQLC disaffiliated from ALSF simply because it couldn't be bothered paying the membership fee and thought it all pretty ineffective.
The two events weren't connected.
Oh yeah, and I only recently turned 30. (OC: Congratulations)
since failed candidate 
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