Simon O’Connor
Husband, step-father, and longtime student of philosophy and history. Also happen to be a former politician, including chairing New Zealand's Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Committee.
Imagine going onto a marae and, as the karanga begins, someone starts screaming and throwing white camellias – the symbol of the women’s suffrage movement – to protest most iwi’s rules that women are not to sit in front, or speak, on marae. There would be an uproar, and rightly so.
While there will be divided opinions on whether such rules are appropriate or not, most would agree that breaking protocol/tikanga in such a way, and at such a time, would be wildly ‘out of order’.
Of course, we hear a lot about the importance of tikanga from the Māori Party. But as we have seen repeatedly, they don’t really believe in protocols and respect. They only believe in themselves and it is well past time that New Zealand saw and understood them for who they are – zealots and Marxist revolutionaries.
The behaviour in parliament by the Māori Party MPs, and ably assisted by the lunatics in the Green Party, was appalling. We are yet to see if the Speaker will do anything meaningful or, as we have seen in the past, just allow such actions to go by with little consequence and so just escalate the next time.
We should not forget that this is not the first time we have had such outbursts and threatening behaviour. We very much have a two-tiered system in parliament when it comes to protest. People there for social justice issues (climate, environment, Māori rights, and so on) pretty much get a free pass. It is why the behaviour gets more and more brazen for there has never been any real consequences.
If you are there protesting or advocating on pretty much any other issue, then the Speaker and parliament acts very swiftly. I am thinking some pro-lifers who were ejected from parliament simply for wearing the ‘wrong’ T shirts and trying to politely speak to MPs. You can of course reflect on the Covid mandate protests too and how the likes of Winston Peters were served trespass notices!
All of this is a bit symbolic really of the whole treaty debate currently underway – do we have one law, or two sets of law depending on who you are or what cause your promote?
But my issue is not the debate around the Treaty Principles Bill; I’m quite comfortable with all and any debate – in fact, all sides should be able to speak, protest, and be heard on this fundamentally important matter.
What does concern me is the growing danger that these radicals pose to New Zealand’s democratic systems. It must be said clearly – the Māori Party do not represent Māori, not by a long shot. Mainstream media commentators would do well to stop speaking of this minor political party as the party for Māori. Not that I hold out much hope with the fawning and biased reporting of the hīkoi, or the fact that one of TVNZ’s most senior executives attended the Auckland protests while simultaneously protesting how professional and impartial the broadcaster is.
When you step back and consider the Māori Party (and Greens to an extent too), they believe themselves to be feudal lords. Their core belief is they own all and everything in New Zealand and everyone else is simply there to serve them. Society owes them in effect and it is why their calls for separate systems always comes with the proviso that society – not them – pay for it.
The Marxist revolutionary aspects are very clear in both their words and actions. Just listen to any speech from leaders of the Greens or Māori Party and it is replete with Marxist dogma which, as I have noted before, is quite ironic seeing these activists are appropriating a European man’s thinking.
The final observation is the zealotry involved in the protests. No matter the driver – be it political, religious, or otherwise – zealotry is dangerous. Zealotry is not calm and rational, but instead violent and emotional. History is very clear where zealotry leads, but the direction is also clearly visible in contemporary times – threats of violence, imagery of weapons, and an ‘us and them’ mindset. Importantly, there is no care or consideration of the other, only the cause – and no amount of harm to others is too much so long as the cause persists.
Just one example of the violence-invoking imagery being used.
We are fortunate here in New Zealand to have inherited a Westminster system of democracy. It is a system that allows for varied views and perspectives to be constructively discussed, and a resolution found. In many ways, it is a theatre that provides legitimacy to decisions, even when disagreement remains. It is also the system these zealots wish to undermine. As far better thinkers and writers than me have pointed out, such revolutionaries are very good at pulling things down, but hopeless at building things back up again.
This article was originally published by On Point.
