The Limitations of Existing Case Studies for an International Audience:

Appraisal Case Study: The 'Children of the Knights'

Commentary and Questions

It is the year 2000. We are in the Republic of Larasutia, where millennial fever has reached its height. Prophecies of doom preceded the coming of 2000. Larasutia has a sophisticated system of democratic government - as an ex-colony of Tribian, doctrines such as the separation of powers are observed as a cornerstone of the democracy. Having had a tempestuous colonial past with ethnic violence between the native Roikoes and the colonial Tribish, reconciliation between races was hard won in 1998. The new constitution has formally ratified the equality of citizens and instituted a popularly elected Head of State independent of the two houses of Parliament.

Public congratulation is high amongst the citizenry for the achievements of the last century which include independence, a new Republic status, a framework for racial tolerance and understanding, and a stable democratic government. Typical amongst democracies, Larasutia has a number of legislative provisions protecting the rights of citizens, including a Bill of Rights (enacted at the same time as the change to a Republic), an independent judicial system, legislation on archives, freedom of information and privacy laws.

Things were not always so optimistic. In its past, in common with many colonial nations, forced migration was employed to populate the 'empty' country. One instance of this attitude to migration was the program to remove orphans from the 'mother country'. This program of forced migration was undertaken in the 1930s through to the 1960s and was particularly strong in the aftermath of various wars on the other side of the world. The program was widely known about and strongly promoted by church and state. Its proclaimed benefits included saving children from poverty, populating the sparsely populated parts of the country, promoting the benefits of a Christian education and teaching the children trades for life. Church groups were particularly active in the administration and ongoing care of many of the children migrated. The Knights and Protectors of the Poor (KPP) were particularly active in this program.

The KPP ran many homes for these children over the 30 years of the program. Often they were located in rural areas, thought best for providing a healthy climate in which children would grow and assist the surrounding district with their emerging skills. KPP was supported by the government in its operations, receiving annual grants under the scheme jointly administered by the Department of Immigration and the Department of Welfare. KPP submitted annual funding applications and reported once a year on the program.

One such home was Nestling Creek, established by Knight Amour. This home was one of the more remotely located homes in the scheme, and in a poor area. Into this home in 1959 came Emmy Grant, Terry Fyad and Winsome Child, each selected for migration by the authorities in Tribian. (Although originally resident in orphanages in Tribian, not all of these children, it turns out, were orphans - some had parents alive, and consent from these parents for their children to migrate was not always sought).

Once at Nestling Creek, they were taught life skills - Emmy to bake the best Anzac biscuits, Terry to turn wood and Winsome regularly won the competitions for bed making. But, for some reason, these children were not happy. They were compliant enough, but not grateful to the scheme, the KPP or even fond of Knight Amour. Children had the habit of leaving the homes as soon as they were legally able to do so.

Emmy and Terry were particularly eager to leave and both did so within a year of each other in 1965. Both headed to the big smoke and failed to keep in touch with the home. Winsome, a placid young person, stayed with the home until its closure in 1969 and was then helped by the KPP to settle in the district into domestic service at the local hospital.

Years later, it was Winsome who instituted the idea of bringing together the children of Nestling Creek on the 50th anniversary of its opening. And what a can of worms that turned out to be! Where was the joyous reunion anticipated by the KPP? Instead there gathered a bunch of misfits and people with grudges. The authorities from the government departments invited to attend the reunion were not thanked, but regaled with stories of deprivation, cruelty and misery. Bringing the ex-orphans together was a disaster for the KPP. Slowly and haltingly at first, but then with more confidence and strength of unity, the former child migrants denounced the KPP as exploiters, harsh task masters and even sadistic abusers.

The tales of hunger, fear and emotional neglect haunted the departmental officials present. They took their concerns and unease back to their workplaces and suddenly more stories of a similar kind emerged. The 'Children of the Knights' gathered strength in numbers and formed a powerful support group. They used the media, who sometimes took only salacious views of the case, but none the less, this brought the issue of treatment of these children into the public arena. Terry Fyad headed the 'Children of the Knights' and eventually lobbied successfully for a formal enquiry into the treatment of the children at Nestling Creek.

In 1995 an Enquiry into Nestling Creek was established under the direction of Mr Sim Pathy. The Pathy enquiry heard oral testimony of the inmates and those of the Knights who were still alive. The testimony of Emmy Grant and Terry Fyad was particularly damning against the head of the home between 1960 and 1965, Knight O'Day. Repressed memories began to emerge from other 'children'. The case against O'Day was growing very serious with allegations of cruelty, child abuse and sadism. O'Day was not without friends however. Even in his extreme old age, he could muster support, both from within the Knights and with those in the government.

Suddenly the enquiry was terminated before the report of Pathy could be written and promulgated. The matter was officially ended. The Director General of the Department of Welfare ordered the files of the enquiry, all submissions and evidence destroyed. This order was endorsed by reference to the archives legislation - and carried out under pressure by the Department's Records Manager who was told to complete the reporting forms in line with the normal administrative practice provision.

Terry Fyad could not leave it there. He petitioned members of the government, he re-focussed the 'Children of the Knights', he created internet chat lines, web pages for disseminating information and retold the stories of the orphans. He questioned the legality of the Department's actions and those of the Tribish authorities who selected the children for migration, instituting legal proceedings for compensation against both sets of authorities. Thwarted at every turn, he lampooned the so-called democratic rights of access, freedom of information and the protection of the citizenry. His campaign and the inability to get to relevant information fueled the media's concerns that, despite appearances, Larasutia was a 'secret' state.

Meanwhile, the Department of Welfare was gearing itself for privatisation. The bean counters had decided that administering welfare was a wasteful government activity and could be undertaken with much more efficiency by the private sector. There was a need to get all this messy business out of the way, so that the function could be handed over cleanly. The due diligence procedure which precedes sale was undertaken by the Department in 1999, with strictest probity according to the guidelines for privatisation established by the Botch government. In the process, an email exchange was discovered between a departmental officer, Ignatio Rance, and the DG of the Department. In this exchange, Rance admitted that the Department had old evidence of suspicions of misconduct at Nestling Creek from the 1960s. But Rance concluded:

'Terry Fyad is a disturbed individual who is a danger to himself and the community, systematically distorts the truth and has become obsessed with Nestling Creek. This thing has the capacity to blow and if it does, it will rock not only the Department but our political masters who killed the enquiry.'

Knowledge of the email came to Terry who instituted proceedings under FOI and started a major investigation into the documentary record of his own case, that of Emmy Grant and Winsome Child and the community of Nestling Creek. In March of this year, during the case brought by Terry to appeal against decisions not to release information, the Department announced that all the electronic files on the case and messages in the email systems were destroyed as the millennium bug struck the Department on January 1st.

The Judge, Mr Justice Forall, is very unimpressed and in the wake of the furore raised, the prospective buyers of the Department back off and refuse to consider taking on the functions until this particular scandal is fixed.

Welcome to the 21st century.

'Larasutia' and other proper nouns are anagrams or puns

separation of powers = the separation of the judicial and the legislative/executive arms of government.

'the big smoke' = the city

'can of worms' = a source of unforeseen and troublesome complexity.

'bean counters' =Ý a financial officer, an accountant.

due diligence procedure' = an audit of business procedures etc.

FOI = Freedom of Information legislation