Charles Chubb
The demand for a Maori Parliament was shocking but not particularly surprising to me.
It was always a matter of time. It dates back to when Geoffrey Palmer opened a can of worms when he mentioned “The principles of the Treaty of Waitangi”. When such a statement is made, it only opens up room for interpretation.
Over the subsequent years we have watched the activist judges interpreting “the principles” in whichever way relieves their perceived white guilt, so they can go brag to their friends at their cocktail parties about how altruistic, progressive and virtuous they are.
It trickles down into the universities, to our young people who know no better, and who wish to feel they’re a part of something bigger. What happens? Those young people go on to careers in law and politics, making and interpreting laws to make themselves seem virtuous. They all believe it is harmless.
As far as I can see, the introduction of this ‘interpretation’ laid the bedrock for key groups of New Zealanders to disagree on the fundamental definitions and terms related to the
founding of our nation.
Something that should have been bitten in the butt thirty years ago, was let slide because
‘what’s the worst that can happen?’
Even now, in light of this news, I hear friends not too fazed by it. It seems the attitude is
“let them have their fun and they’ll go away.”
I may be old-fashioned, but I don’t believe in two different classes of New Zealand citizen,
Maori and Pakeha. No, I believe we are all equal under the law. I believe we are one nation that should live together. I do not believe there is an oppressor and an oppressed.
The long-term goal of this movement is independence for Maori or a genuine apartheid state, where the few have different ruling rights than the many.
One issue which I also can’t get out of my head is that there has never been one unified
Maori nation. As many people know, without the British as the common enemy, New
Zealand was a place of many warring tribes. What happens if ‘Pakeha’ are no longer the
enemy? Are they all going to forget their tribal affiliations and move forward together?
Whenever a common enemy is removed, tribal warfare returns. We have seen this across the Middle East, Africa and even South America. The fall of Saddam saw a power vacuum
which led to more war; that of the Hutus in Rwanda led to the first Congo War.
I am not saying this is what is going to happen here in New Zealand, but the Maori Party is stoking the fires of secession which, if left unchecked, are a slippery slope to things we haven’t seen on this side of the world.
This movement needs to stop. Maori are not a different class of citizen to Pakeha. We are all New Zealanders.
New Zealand is our country and we are are a democracy.
