by Sahar Foladi
Greater Dandenong mayor Jim Memeti’s meeting to restore “peace and calm” over the push to rename Afghan Bazaar has created new tensions.
The Friday 21 February meeting came after opposing petitions on the proposal to rename the precinct in Thomas Street, Dandenong to Little Bamyan.
Little Bamyan advocates are calling it out as a “photo opportunity” rather than addressing the root cause of the issue as the meeting excluded petitioners and Thomas Street traders.
On the other hand, Afghan Bazaar advocates backed the meeting, claiming their supporters had been subjected to cyberbullying and threats.
Cr Memeti emphasised the meeting was solely for community elders and leaders “to keep the calm” and calling for peace, rather than an event to discuss the petition or the name change.
“It wasn’t about bringing them (petitioners) along anyway because we’re not talking about the name at the moment. We’re calling for peace,” Cr Memeti told Star Journal.
“The name used for the Thomas Street precinct was not the topic of the meeting and nor was it discussed. It was referred to only for context.
“Apart from community safety, another strong theme was the democratic right to discuss opinions and even to disagree on matters, in a respectful and safe way.”
A joint statement was signed by 25 members at the meeting to emphasise”calm” as well as “peace, safety and security”.
“It is OK to have a strong opinion about an issue,” the statement said.
“It is not OK to threaten others, online or in person. Decent people don’t threaten others with violence or try to frighten and intimidate others.”
The meeting was attended by Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police and the Department of Home Affairs, community faith leaders and other members from the Hazara and Afghan community.
According to the mayor, the individuals were “all invited” by him.
“Through consultation with community leaders I asked people who should be invited, and these names were always coming up, so that’s why I invited these members of the community. We tried to make sure it was evenly spread.”
Little Bamyan petition advocates Barat Batoor and Yasin Hazara raised their concerns with the mayor after they found out individuals from the opposing petition were in fact invited.
“While people from the opposition group who have been heavily involved in the opposing petition were invited to the meeting, we were not consulted at all by anyone,” Mr Batoor said.
“It was unfair.
“Instead, individuals who had nothing to do with our petition, the individuals who are declared as community leaders in that meeting, who didn’t represent our group in any way, were invited for the sake of filling in the space.
“This stunt was just a photo opportunity to undermine this concerning issue for the Hazara community which has been there for over a decade.”
Both Batoor and Hazara say they had called on the mayor to include at least one member from their group, which led to a late invite to Hazara.
“It seemed that the people who attended didn’t have anything to say, no one spoke, they just sat,” Hazara said of the meeting.
“The meeting was prefabricated and the agreement preprinted ready to be signed, thus I see this meeting as not having any value as there was not much discussed to have an agreement/product as a result but rather just for media purposes.”
Invited individuals from the opposing pro-Afghan Bazaar group included Gulghotai Bezhan founder of Afghan Women’s Organisation Victoria (AWOV) and Rokhan Akbar.
Both Akbar and Hazara addressed the meeting as strong supporters from the opposing petitions.
“The purpose of the meeting was not to invite the petitioners, but to calm them,” Akbar said.
“The whole idea was to calm down the community, there’s a lot of threat and violence against the people who want to preserve the name (Afghan Bazaar).
“A few members of people in our community were threatened, cyber bullied and abused through social media platforms.”
Akbar refers to the fallout from Afghan Bazaar advocates Mursal Sadat, Khalid Amiri and Massi Ahmadzay’s social-media video post, which led to a barrage of online comments between both sides.
“Our committee members…were cyber bullied and most were given threats to their family.
“(Mursal) left Afghanistan and is now threatened in Australia – it’s disgusting.”
Akbar says the matter has been reported to Victoria Police.
During the meeting, Akbar urged the council not to proceed with the community consultation on the potential name change as it will create division and hatred.
“I expressed my concerns there and said to them there’s no need for consultation … because our community consultation took place from 2011-14 (which led to the name Afghan Bazaar).
“It was a comprehensive consultation, a lot of resources and taxpayers’ money was spent and the community made their decision.
“Now, this will create further division and hatred in the community to the extent of conflict.
“If not from our side, unfortunately we see the threat we see to our members from the other side.”
A peace statement signatory, who is pro-Afghan Bazaar, allegedly posted an online video asking, “Do you ever think that if one day a young person is killed here, if a Hazara is killed, Pashtun is killed, Tajik is killed, do you think Australia will let you live here in peace?”
Little Bamyan supporter Nematullah Kadrie says there seemed to be efforts to link the democratic rights of their request with an attempt to incite violence.
“The aim was to paint the issue in negative light, associate the cause with division – all while the agitators were sitting on the very table.”
He said articles reported Hazara traders’ concern and disapproval of the name Afghan Bazaar more than a decade ago.
Greens federal-election candidate and Greater Dandenong councillor Rhonda Garad, as well as the Little Bamyan group, questioned the mayor’s impartiality in choosing the invitees.
“They appear to be close associates of the mayor, persons known to be supporters of the mayor,” Cr Garad said.
“This is actually promoting division, when the mayor stands with one selected handpicked group almost exclusively leaves out another large group, is that promoting peace or division?”
The contentious debate has spread across Australia and worldwide on the internet.
