Tsebin Tchen

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Tsebin Tchen (born March 10, 1940) was a Liberal member of the Australian Senate from 1998 to 2005, representing the state of Victoria.

Tchen was born in Chungking, China, wartime capital of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War (more commonly known amongst Chinese as the War of Resistance). His father was then a junior diplomat with the Chinese Government and was posted overseas when Tchen was two-year old. Tchen followed his father to various postings and never returned to China to live, except for two years (1954-56) in Taiwan, where the Nationalist government under Chiang Kai-Shek had fled after losing the mainland in the Chinese Civil War. His father continued to represent the Republic of China government until 1975 when he retired to live with Tchen in Australia. In 1958, Tchen gained a student visa to Australia to study, at that time the only way for Asians to enter Australia due to the White Australia Policy. Eventually, he obtained a master degree in town planning at Sydney University.

From 1966, Tchen worked as a New South Wales government town planner in Sydney. In the meantime, Harold Holt succeeded Robert Menzies as Prime Minister and altered the immigration law to allow Asian migration - to prevent it was the main purpose of the White Australia Policy, an Australian Labor Party platform never formally stated in law; it was officially repudiated by Gough Whitlam when he became Prime Minister in 1972. After weighing up his choices, Tchen decided to remain in Australia, and gained citizenship in 1971.

Tchen was interested in Australia history and had come to the view that one of the factors that brought about the anti-Chinese attitude in Australia that culminated in the White Australia Policy, was the often self-imposed isolation of the earlier Chinese community. So in 1972, he joined the Liberal Party of Australia. He also became active in Melbourne's Chinese community, after moving there to work in 1973. At the 1993 election, Tchen was preselected on the Liberal Senate ticket for Victoria, in the unwinnable fourth position. In 1993, there was no surprise, however, though by gaining that fourth spot, Tchen did achieve a first of some kind by being the first Asian migrant to be endorsed by either major party in Australian politics at a national election. Tchen made another run for pre-selection in 1998, at the height of the Pauline Hanson controversy, and this time, was successful.

However, in order to gain preselection, Tchen had to replace a sitting Senator, Karen Synon. Despite being already in the Senate, she was demoted to the fourth position Tchen had in 1993 - a rare event in Australian politics. Although a political myth has grown up around this episode, that Tchen had succeeded by gaining the support of then-Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett, who publicly backed him to replace Synon, in fact Kennett's public support only came after Tchen had won preselection. This was probably a blessing in disguise as Kennett had a dismal record of supporting successful candidates for preselection at a Federal level. Nevertheless, there was little doubt that Kennett had preferred Tchen over Synon, and this sparked a major factional dispute within the party, as the Federal Treasure Peter Costello and Michael Kroger, a Liberal powerbroker, and both sworn Synon supporters, attempted to fend off Tchen's challenge. When the preselection was held, Tchen proved successful by a comfortable margin and in due course, after a rather more strenuous effort in the election itself, became the first Asian migrant to win a seat in either house of the federal parliament.

In spite of his rather turbulent introduction, Tchen performed quietly in parliament. He served on a large number of committees, performed electoral duties energetically, and on the floor of the senate was often seen but more rarely heard. He was a strong advocate of multiculturalism but with a forcefully positive approach: with the emphasis on seeking common purposes rather than identifying differences, and of demanding acceptance rather than just tolerance. As chair of the government members' policy committee on immigration and multicultural affairs between 2000 and 2004, an elected rather than a nominated position, Tchen had an unpublicised, but nevertheless of some influence, role to play as Australia tried to grapple with the vexing issues of asylum seekers and boat people.

In December 2003, Tchen stood for preselection for a second term in the Senate. However, despite the support of Prime Minister John Howard, Tchen lost a closely fought battle and suffered the same fate as his predecessor, being dumped in favor of former lower house MP Michael Ronaldson. Tchen declined the offer of the fourth spot and did not stand at the 2004 election. He retired from the senate when his term expired on 30 June 2005.

Uniquely amongst the about a dozen or so first-generation Asian Australians who entered mainstream politics in the 1980s and 1990s, and the only successful one at the federal level, Tchen declined to capitalise on his Chinese background for political preference, instead opting for a low-key supporting team role. No doubt his age - he was already 59 when he entered parliament, quite unusual in Australian politics - had something to do with his measured approach, but perhaps more important was his awareness that, as the first Asian migrant in the national parliament, he was not only a forerunner but always an exemplar as well. If the praise - unusually high for a one-termer - he received from his colleagues as well as some respected journalists such as Alan Ramsey upon his retirement were to be believed, then Tchen had had some measure of success in his brief political career.