Thoughts on Novak Djokovic’s Disparagement by the Australian Government
by Ahmed Olayinka Sule, CFA
When Novak Djokovic tweeted, “I’ve spent fantastic quality time with loved ones over break & today I’m heading Down Under with an exemption permission. Let’s go 2022!” on 4 January 2022, little did he know it would ignite a global media storm.
To recap, Tennis Australia, in response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, stipulated that participants for the 2022 Australian Open Championship would have to be fully vaccinated unless they obtained a medical exemption. When this policy was announced, many wondered whether Djokovic would be taking part as he had previously expressed his objections to disclosing his vaccination status and vaccine mandates. In December 2020, when he pulled out from representing Serbia at the ATP Cup in three cities in Australia, pundits assumed that he would not be defending his crown at the Australian Open. After his tweet, social media erupted with calls to eject him from the tournament. As the clamour for his deportation increased, the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, in a press conference, said that Novak Djokovic would not be allowed to enter the country. A few hours later, The Australian government cancelled Djokovic’s visa, and the Border Force detained him pending deportation.
What led to the most successful tennis male player treatment as a criminal Down Under? Djokovic has been very outspoken about his views on vaccines. During a Facebook Livestream in April 2020, he said, “Personally, I am opposed to vaccination, and I wouldn’t want to be forced by someone to take a vaccine in order to be able to travel.” In June 2020, he tested positive for Covid shortly after organising an unsanctioned Adria Tennis Tour. In October 2021, he told Serbian newspaper Blic that he would not reveal his vaccination status as it was private.
The outrage against Djokovic’s vaccine medical exemption and the call for his deportation is based on the flawed logic that because Australians had to abide by draconian covid restrictions, an unvaccinated global tennis superstar should not enter the country. Rather than questioning where we are heading as a society, some view the saga as a case of an elite athlete getting a pass he doesn’t deserve. Australia’s disparagement of Djokovic highlights many issues, including the scapegoating and othering of the unvaccinated, anti-Serbian bias, online mob rule, Australia’s tyranny, the appalling silence of many and western arrogance towards countries with limited global influence.
Djokovic is a twenty times Grand Slam champion who is considered the greatest male tennis player of all time. He has dominated his peers and has worldwide recognition. However, due to his views on vaccine mandates and his refusal to disclose his vaccination status, he is one of the highest profiled individuals in the world to take such a position. As politicians, the media and Big Tech shut down dissenting voices, Djokovic has been derided as irresponsible for taking such a stand because millions of people worldwide look up to him. The Australian authority has succeeded in humiliating one of the most high-profile vaccine mandate critics in front of a global audience as a signal to the unvaccinated. Even though twenty-three other tennis players applied for medical exemptions; even though a few were granted these exemptions; even though the acting minister of sports said the exemption process was robust, and no one had special treatment; even though Djokovic followed the due process; even though two medical boards approved his application, the government decided to treat him as a criminal. Upon reaching Australia, officers took his phone and wallet and detained him for nine hours, with two police officers guarding the door. Later on, he was taken to a detention hotel pending his deportation appeal. The message is loud and clear- It does not matter how rich or famous you are. As long as you are not vaccinated, you deserve to be treated like an unwashed animal.
American writer Isabel Wilkerson in her book Caste, notes, “In a caste system, whether in the United States or in India or in World War II Germany, the lowest caste performed the unwitting role of diverting society’s attention from its structural ills and taking the blame for collective misfortune.” This is being played out today where the unvaccinated are scapegoated and blamed for the spread of Covid despite the overwhelming evidence that both vaccinated and unvaccinated are susceptible to spreading it. In the days leading up to Djokovic’s public humiliation, establishment figures in the west made disparaging comments about the unvaccinated. Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, said in December 2021 that eligible unvaccinated people are idiots, while the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested that Jesus would tell people to get vaccinated and boosted. He also suggested unvaccinated people are immoral. French President Emmanuel Macron told the French National Assembly that he wanted to “piss” off the unvaccinated by making daily living difficult for them.
The treatment meted on Djokovic by the Australian government manifests Australia’s long walk towards tyranny. In September 2021, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the UN General Assembly that Australia is a proud, liberal democracy. He noted it was one of eight countries only involved in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and it will continue to strengthen the international human rights system. He said, “Respecting the rights and freedoms of the individual is intrinsically important — it is fundamental to our values as a people and as a nation.” Nothing can be further from the truth. Since the emergence of the pandemic, Australia has morphed into authoritarianism. It has created two classes of people — the vaccinated and the unvaccinated- the latter has been relegated to second-class citizenship. On the same day that the Australian government cancelled Djokovic’s visa, Michael Gunner, the Chief Minister of Australia’s Northern Territory, announced that unvaccinated residents would be locked down for four days and can only leave their homes for essential shopping, medical treatment, including vaccination or to provide care. They were also banned from going outside to work or exercise. Paradoxically, in a country with a 90% adult vaccination rate, Covid is still spreading like wildfire among the vaccinated and unvaccinated. Yet, it is still the unvaccinated, locked down and locked out.
But should one be surprised at the viciousness of the Australian government towards its unvaccinated citizens? Not really. Malcolm X once said that of all things that one can study, history is the best qualified to reward all research. To understand how the Australian government can be so heartless to Djokovic and its unvaccinated citizens, one only has to look at how the country has treated its Aboriginal population. Ever since the creation of the Federation of Australia, it has dehumanised the Aboriginal community; it has denied Aboriginal people citizenship; it has diseased Aboriginal people; it has deported Aboriginal people; it has stolen Aboriginal land; it has massacred Aboriginal people; it has kidnapped Aboriginal children; it has displaced Aboriginal people; it has sterilised Aboriginal women; it has incarcerated Aboriginal people. In November 2021, Health authorities in South Australia announced plans to prepare regional quarantine camps for Indigenous close contacts. Not much has changed except that Australia is now inflicting its malevolence on its unvaccinated population irrespective of colour.
Djokovic’s treatment in the hands of the Australian regime also demonstrates western arrogance and its anti-East European bias. There is a two-tier classification of whiteness in today’s world where the west (comprising the United States, Western Europe, white Australia, white Canada and white New Zealand) sits at the top, and those from Eastern Europe are relegated to the bottom. Ever since Djokovic burst onto the tennis scene, the west has viewed him as an outsider who gate-crashed into the western tennis dominated party. Before his emergence, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer were seen as the twin pillars of tennis. However, Djokovic disregarded this notion and conquered his peers to take a seat at the tennis summit. Despite his accomplishment and domination of his two western peers, he is disrespected and often jeered in Grand Slam tournaments. Due to his Serbian heritage, it is easy for the Australian authorities to disgrace him despite winning the Australian Open nine times. Would the All England Lawn Tennis Club and the UK government treat Wimbledon champion Roger Federer eight times in such a manner? Or would the Fédération Française de Tennis and the French Government treat thirteen times French Open champion Rafa Nadal in such a manner?
The Australian government can afford to treat Serbia’s most prominent citizens as a criminal, perhaps because Serbia doesn’t have as much influence as other superpowers on the international stage. The only language the west appears to understand is power. When it sees a nation or continent that it considers weak, it will implement irrational policies without considering the consequences. For instance, Britain placed several African countries on the red list of countries after the emergence of omicron, yet it excluded other countries in Europe which had higher cases of the variant. While the Australian government can relish in dehumanising its unvaccinated citizens and a high-profile Serbian, it lacks the backbone to confront a superpower like China. Whenever there is a clash with China, Australia (a vassal state of the USA) runs to its overlord for protection by signing defence pacts.
The silence of tennis players, celebrities and people passionate about justice towards Djokovic’s ill-treatment is plain to see. Some social justice warriors have expressed support for the Australian government’s actions in some instances. Others argue that since he chose not to be vaccinated, he should bear the consequences. Tennis stars like Rafa Nadal, Jammie Murray and Paul Annacone have suggested that Djokovic is to be blamed for not following the rules. Those who profess to break with convention and support the cause of the oppressed are condemning Djokovic. Toure, the American writer and cultural critic, wrote on Twitter, “Djokovic getting an exemption to play in the Aussie Open despite a national vaccine mandate is yet another example of an elite athlete getting a pass he doesn’t deserve. Stop coddling the unvaccinated.” Martin Luther King once said, “There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal.” It is concerning the silence of human rights organisations as the world stripes the unvaccinated humanity from Austria to Australia via Italy.
Australia’s treatment of Djokovic and the unvaccinated is not an isolated incidence. Throughout the globe and the west, in particular, governments are using coercive strategies through vaccine mandates and vaccine passports to get people vaccinated against their will. Those who refuse to comply face the threat of loss of income and ostracisation. Censorship of contrary opinions occurs, and contrarians are dismissed as anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theories and refuseniks. The definition of anti-vaxxer has been revised to include people opposed to regulations mandating vaccination. History is unfolding before our very eyes, yet we are oblivious to repeating past historical mistakes. When one looks at what happened during the McCarthy, Mussolini and Stalin eras, one can draw parallels with what is happening today. Just as anti-communist sentiments were the order of the day during McCarthyism, anti-unvaccinated sentiments are rife today. Just as Mussolini claimed that there was a hierarchy of races in the 1920s, the government has created a ranking of citizens based on vaccination status in present-day Italy. Perhaps Netflix should release a sequel to its docuseries, “How to Be a Tyrant”, by showcasing how the present-day leaders in the so-called bastions of western democracy are, in the words of Emmanuel Macron, “pissing off the unvaccinated.”
One of the most disturbing aspects of the reaction to the Djokovic saga is the general public’s attitude and the online community. After Djokovic mentioned that he had obtained a medical exemption to participate in the Australian Open, there were calls by tennis fans to jeer him or boycott his matches. What happened on social media following Djokovic’s announcement and subsequent detention could be described as the rage of an online lynch mob. Twitter was inundated with messages like: “Novax Djokovic can get f*cked”; “This might go without saying but if anyone goes to the Aus Open this year for any other reason than to launch projectiles at Novax — you are dead to me”; “Until vaccinated, you must be banned from the sport!” “The best thing about Novax Djoker is that when he leaves Australia later, he’ll be banned from returning to Australia for 3 years #novaxdjokovic.”
How could the public be supportive of this form of injustice? The power structure has effectively used divide and rule tactics to devastating effect. When leaders like President Biden, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian describe Covid-19 as the pandemic of the unvaccinated, they are adopting the playbook used by despots over the centuries by invoking an imaginary external threat. This has created a situation where the general population fears the unvaccinated and cheers their humiliation. It is also an effective diversionary strategy as the general population vents its frustration on the unvaccinated instead of the leaders who have denied them their freedom. The angst towards Djokovic exhibited by the online crowd is misplaced. Djokovic was not the one who imposed restrictions on them. Suppose they channelled their frustration at the government’s incompetence in the same manner, they are doing towards Djokovic; they would not have been in this position. Rather than demonising Djokovic, he should be celebrated for sticking to his convictions. Until the masses stop consenting to their oppression, politicians will continue to use them as pawns in the theatre of tyranny.
Since this essay is contrary to popular opinion, it could be censored on social media. I also would not be surprised if I get hate mails in response to what I have written. If this is the price for speaking the truth, then it is a cross that I am more than willing to carry.
Selah
Ahmed Olayinka Sule, CFA
@Alatenumo
January 2022
