Mordechai Brown

I am a former soldier, political apparatchik and academic. Now formally retired, I am a scholar and political activist.

I am an unreconstructed melange of contradictions. I am a Hobbesian realist; a Marxian idealist and an unashamed Theist. I am a moral conservative, a social traditionalist and a political radical. I believe in most things now considered unfashionable – such as good manners, respect for ladies, elders and my fellows. I have a firm belief that little children should be seen and not heard.

I have a deep and enduring detestation of social engineering, apathy and cowardice. I despise political correctness; relativism; fence-sitters and those that keep their silence when they should speak out. I dismiss any political party, movement or group containing the world ‘liberal’. I respect those with convictions, especially those who hold the public courage of those convictions, irrespective of whether I agree with same. I believe in the inherent superiority and desirability of Christendom and am an advocate of the traditional values contained therein.

I believe in the inherent common sense and the voice of the so-called ‘common-man’. I am unreservedly Australian and am an active advocate of what used to be traditional Australian egalitarian values. And I believe that, consequent to our declining ethical standards, our political structures are failing us and that we are in dire need of a period of thorough political upheaval – violent or otherwise - to cleanse our soiled constitutional stables.

John J Coe

John Coe is an historian and writer.

The son of a British army officer, John was born in Germany after the war and brought up in Malaya. He was educated at Lindisfarne College, North Wales and, after service in the Australian Army which included an extended tour of duty in South Viet Nam as a sapper, John obtained degrees from the Universities of Western Australia, New England and Queensland. He wrote his Doctorate on the Communist Party of Malaya.

He has worked in politics as an organiser for the National Country Party. He has been an historian at the Western Australian and Northern Territory Museums; Visiting Associate at the Institute of South-East Asian Studies in Singapore; Researcher with the Socio-Economic Research Unit of the Department of Prime Minister (Malaysia); Visitor at the Department of South-East Asian Studies, University of Hull and a founding member of the Centre for South-East Asian Studies, Northern Territory University. John has been a TAFE lecturer, a cultural consultant and agent intermediary specialising in Indonesia.

He was a journalist and sub-editor of a country community paper and founding co-editor of Amity, the Journal of the Victoria League for Commonwealth Friendship in Western Australia.  John has produced in excess of thirty industry papers for a diverse variety of clients which includes the Wran Committee on Darwin, and has written extensively on military history and has published a monograph on the Boer War. He is the author of four biographies, he designed The Factors of Revolt, a frame of reference for analysing revolution and conceived and edited the seminal anthology, Desperate Praise: The Australians in Viet Nam.

Now retired, John lives in Ingham, North Queensland, with his wife Wendy.

In retirement he is busy as a writer, historian and poet. He enjoys a cold beer or three on a hot day, for which reason he considers himself fortunate to be living in the tropics; and, ever mindful of Sir Kenneth Clark’s observation that “order is better than chaos, creation better than destruction” he remains perpetually bemused at our deprecation of the cultural and intellectual legacy of our forefathers.

Associations 

Member: Royal Queensland Historical Society 

Member: Royal Institute of Philosophy 

Books and Publications include:

Child of the Cold War: Biographical Essays. John Coe. Townprint Townsville. 2018. ISBN 978-0-9807380-8-7

The Package Deal: A Play in Three Acts. WritersandeBooks. Sydney. 2017. ISBN 978-0-9807380-3-2

The Smiling Aurtach: Reflections on Ethics. writersandeBooks. Sydney. 2013. ISBN 978-1-925 0239-2-3 

Not a Penny of Debt : The Life and Times of Henry Reed. John J. Coe. WritersandeBooks. Sydney. 2011. ISBN 978-0-9807380-2-5

Just as the Moon Went Down. A Biography of Trooper William Betts. John Coe. Townprint Townsville. 2010. ISBN.  978-0-9807380-1-8

 Merlot with My Breakfast: and other poems of the Herbert Valley. John Coe. Townprint Townsville. 2009. ISBN. 978-0-9807380-0-1

 Drums & Symbols- A moral argument concerning the affect of the South African War on the development of Australia’s Military Culture (Dept. of Army). Monograph. Published 2005 by the author on CD-ROM.   ISBN 0-646-45658-X

 In the Left-Hand Seat - A Sporting Biography of The Hon. John Dawson- Damer. Turton & Armstrong. Sydney. 2004. ISBN 0 908031 80 7

 Life’s a Hoot - The autobiography of James Harwood (with John J. Coe). Tangee Publishing. Perth. 2004. ISBN 0 9751289 2 2

 Facing the Dawn: A History of Kewdale Senior High School. Education Department WA. 1999. ISBN 0 646383574

 “Power, Authority and Liberty in East Timor”. Ch.13 in Power and Freedom in Modern Politics. University of Western Australia Press 2002. ISBN 1 876268 79 4

 "The 1989 Hat Yai Accords."  In The Beagle. Records of the NT Museum 1990 7(1).

 "The Unveiled Coast". In Debrett's Handbook of Australia. (Fourth Edition.) 1989.

 "Friendship Village No.1. Betong, South Thailand." In. Kajian Malaysia : Journal of Malaysian Studies. Vol.Vi. No.2 1988

 Desperate Praise: The Australians in Viet Nam. Artlook Books. 1982. ISBN 086445 040 0

 In Litt. Speakin’ Plain. Selected Letters, Aphorisms and the Occasional Thoughts

of Harold Sydney Munglesworth.

 In Litt. Dunia Melayu: A Short History of the Malay World. 

In Litt. A Detailed Account of Christendom: Decline and Revivication. 

Dr John Coe PO Box 655    Ingham  Qld  4850   Australia

Tel:  (07) 4776 5585

johnjcoe@bigpond.com