East and West

Press, 28 June 1989, Page 16

East and West

Sir, —Marxist apologists in your columns have noticeably turned to European questions when world attention has turned to China. Yet events in both areas share this feature: the use of “people’s” armies to impose State doctrine, a theocracy in reverse. Marxism maintains that under its benevolent rule workers need no separate representation as they are now the rulers. Those in authority however, shoot them and gas them, bulldoze them and burn them (Gdansk, Budapest, Czechoslovakia, Tbilisi, Peking). The breathtaking brutality of a regime which institutes its own morality, or employs ideology to justify its actions, knows no bounds, mocking relativists and every claim of Western police brutality since Peterloo. To prevent this, the doctrine of the separation of powers was instituted in Britain, and perhaps we in New Zealand should reconsider an upper chamber to stymie our home-grown caucus dictators. — Yours, etc.,

JAMES WOODS June 23, 1989.

Student loan scheme Sir, —Would an opponent of the Government’s proposed students’ loan scheme tell me how much extra a student would have to pay under the new scheme as opposed to the existing one? — Yours, etc., H. R. PATTERSON. June 25, 1989.