ALL CONTEMPT AND NO RESPONSIBILITY

Now here’s an interesting article;

Māori have 'gone back like a beaten wife to the abuser',defiant Marama Fox says [Maori TV, www.stuff.co.nz]

Oops, and here’s another;

Te Ururoa Flavell won't be part of a Māori Party revival [ELTON RIKIHANA SMALLMAN, stuff.co.nz]

Well, the Maori Party has been booted out of the New Zealand parliament, in last weekend’s general election.  And wait . . . the leaders are ripping into their own voters!

For my international readers, let me set some context before I go any further.  We had a general election on Saturday.  New Zealand’s proportional representation system (MMP) gives us two votes (two ticks on the ballot paper); one for your preferred MP (Electorate Vote), and the other for your preferred party (Party Vote).  To complicate things further, the country has two, parallel electoral roles; 

• the general role, where the country is divided into 64 electorates for all New Zealand voters,
• the Maori role, where the country is divided into 7 Maori electorates for Maori voters or voters of Maori descent.

Voters can vote in either role, but must choose which role they wish to vote in by registering in one or the other before the election.  Traditionally, the Maori Party has contested only the seven Maori seats in the Maori role.  However, anyone can vote for the Maori Party in the general role by giving it their “Party Vote.”  The Party Vote is crucial, because for any party to sit in parliament, that party must secure 5% of the vote or win at least one electorate seat.  While Maori could win seven electorate seats, they could have “topped up” those seats with a higher percentage party vote.  However, the Maori Party reached none of the two thresholds, and is thus now consigned to the political wilderness for the next three years.  So, how did that happen?

Well, Maori Party Co-Leader, Marama Fox, is bemoaning the fact that Maori voters have sided with the mainstream Labour Party again, as they did before the Maori Party was formed.  Labour NZ contested and won all seven seats in the Maori role, thereby sending the Maori Party back to obscurity.  A bitter Fox likened the Maori shift back to Labour, “like a beaten wife [gone back] to the abuser.”  Maori Party Co-Leader, Te Ururoa Flavell, was equally resentful;

“[Flavell] said Māori may have shot themselves in the foot by going with Labour.  If it does turn bad for Māori voters, Flavell said don't call him for a shoulder to cry on.  ‘I hope they don't wake up tomorrow and start shaking their heads, saying, I feel sorry for you, because I don't want to hear it.’”

Call me old fashioned, but it’s incredibly bad form for politicians to slam into their support base – even if what they say is the truth.  Astute political leaders shrug off such political shifts by praising democracy then using words like, “We’ll have to do better next election.”  Kicking Maori, the way Fox and Flavell have done, shows remarkable immaturity, naivety and a distinct lack of political shrewdness.

Frankly, I have no sympathy for Fox and Flavell (pictured above); the Maori Party sold its soul for a few crumbs.  It was invited into government by the ruling National Party - when National had no need to do so.  I think it's fair to say that, the National Party is the party representing the New Zealand establishment; the wealthy, the business leaders, the civil servants and the corporations.  So the invite by National was a brilliant piece of counter-thrust politics; a stroke of John Key genius.  Maori were lulled into thinking they would secure more progress for the Maori people by being in government than in opposition.  In reality, the right-wing National government silenced the most radical party in parliament by wooing them with trinkets and false promises.

Well my friends, when you bed with the devil, there’s always a price.  I think voter shift back to Labour had nothing to do with the Jacinda Ardern effect.  I think Maori voters punished the Maori Party for cuddling up to the right-wing hacks.  Maori voters clearly perceived no value from the relationship with the monetarists.  All those years of spreading their cheeks for the National Party, and what was to show for it?  Maori are still over-represented in prisons, in obesity, in unemployment, in poverty and in domestic abuse figures. No sign of any change there soon.

On Duncan Garner's AM Show this morning, a whining Fox tried to explain what had been acheived by cuddling up to the establishment.  She bleated that every Law passed while Maori were part of Government had Treaty of Waitangi clauses in it. Well, big deal!  If I was a disenfranchised Maori voter, living on the breadline, I wouldn't see the value either!  I'd also stick two fingers up at the party which was supposed to represent me. I think that, sadly, the Maori Party in recent years has represented the Maori establishment - who really benefit from lucrative Treaty settlements - rather than the average Maori in the street.  No wonder Maori went back to Labour!

Fox and Flavell’s lack-of-contrition and contempt for their own people is bad enough.  However, their unwillingness to take responsibility for the party’s demise is nothing short of repugnant.  They've taken no responsibility for siding with the neoliberals, taken no responsibility for failing Maori, and taken no responsibility for the real reason Maori voters see a better deal in Labour.  Did the Maori leaders really believe their unholy alliance with the monetarists would have no consequences?!

Why am I also bitter about the Maori Party’s demise?  I'm bitter, because there aren’t enough radical parties in New Zealand’s parliament.  Before the Maori Party went into bed with the devil, I thought they were a party with some good, radical ideals which this country needed.  This country needs radicalism.  We’re not going to turn back 40 years of monetarism with faint hearts and lovely speeches about “values.”  Only radical politics and taxing the rich will put an end to the dreadful consumerism and inequality that has been the hallmark of monetarist economics.  But clearly, New Zealand voters don’t want to hear that.  It might be bad form for a politician to slam into their electorate, but I have no such remit or compunction.  New Zealand voted for a born-to-rule sheepshagger and an extra $20 a week.

Crumbs from the rich man’s table [Luke 16:21].

 Further Reading;

Mike Hosking says he 'confused' the Māori Party by sayingonly Māori could vote for them

 

Mike Hosking offers 'clarification' over his Maori Partyvoting comments on Seven Sharp

Māori Party founder Dame Tariana Turia plans return to helpsave the party

Winston Peters hints at backing down over Māori seats

SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN THE STATE

Now here’s an interesting video clip:

"News Anchor Completely Loses It"

Poor guy; he’s toast.  His corporate bosses at MSNBC will have him and sack him for “losing his temper”  or “ranting.”  Now, you and I would call that,” being passionate” or “expressing his frustration.”  Regardless, the sad thing is that he’ll be sacked or sanctioned for expressing some real home truths that the corporate establishment don’t want you to know.

What did he mean, by “bought Congress”?  Well, these short videos sum it up beautifully;

"Corruption is Legal in America" [5 mins 50]

"The American Dream" [3 mins 12]

What the newsman’s hinting at, is the fact that there is a real disconnect between what voters want and what Congress actually passes.  For example, most US voters want universal healthcare and gun restrictions.  Yet Congress seems to filibuster and block such legislation!  This is because the  respective health and gun lobbyists have told their bought-Congressmen to vote accordingly:

"20 years of data reveals that Congress doesn't care what you think"

Congressmen are wooed - or blatantly bribed - by persuasive lobbyists representing various interests from America's corporations.  This bribery is actually legal and is labelled, "campaign donations" or "sponsorship." So, because almost every Congressman is addicted to the honey poison or actual money poured in from corporate lobbyists, a Congressman will vote with how his sponsors tell him, not with what his electorate wants.  Therein lies the state of democracy in the so-called “Land of the Free.”

If you look at the accompanying Facebook comments under the video, you’ll see a plethora of support and encouraging comments for the passionate newsman.  So, I would love to believe that something will change.  But it won't.  How can it?  How can you take money away from the establishment that runs our countries; the Congressmen, the chief executives, the excessively wealthy?  You can’t.  And yet, we actually elect that very same establishment!  

In becoming a whore to the US, John Key has taken New Zealand’s democracy to a dangerously similar state as that of America.  Right-wing money owns our media, who tell us who to vote for; through adverts, editorials and subtle messages.  After 30 years of this propaganda, “radicalism” and “social democracy” are now swear-words.  30 years ago, before monetarism, these words meant something; they reflected a desire for community betterment, not the betterment of the few.  

Our banks, the police, the Reserve Bank, the civil service also contribute to actually running the country, and so have no interest in real change, or being accountable to a thinking electorate.  So, none of these sub-strata have any interest in changing the current system.  

The current system is this:

• Justification of tax cuts to the rich by giving broad tax cuts across the board ["Crumbs off the rich man’s table," Luke 16:21]
• Clawing back that tax from the middle-income earners by regressive taxes; increasing the price of electricity, increasing GST and cutting government services.
• Destroying communities by convincing middle-income New Zealand that, they’re fighting for their “individual rights.”
• Keeping the mortgage whores fighting among themselves, as they wrestle each other for the same job promotions, the same prized school spots, or the same overpriced houses.
• Keeping middle-income earners busy and distracted with dumbed-down television, paying off the mortgage, and changing the flag; so they don’t question en masse, political decisions.

Perhaps the police might question the system, or at least your average policeman might.  This is because the average policeman is concerned that the police force is systematically being starved of resources.   However, the Police Chiefs - politicians in uniforms - have their jobs dependent on their right-wing overlords.  As a result, I've never seen a police chief rock the boat.

I digress a little.  Let’s get back to the point of the video – it has relevance here in New Zealand, as I've highlighted.  As a result of years of corporate-orientated, business-funded, right-wing governments, we are more and more being consumerised.  We may be voters and taxpayers, but we are having less and less say in how our country is run and what our government does – supposedly in our name.  The conclusion of the secretive TPPA talks this month, as we are distracted by the bread and circuses of the Rugby World Cup, is a prime example;

"Groser Loses TPP High Court Secrecy Fight: Greenpeace Response"

Something is rotten in the state of our democracies.  Watch Norman Jewison's visionary, "Rollerball." Made 40 years ago, it's scary how close we are to that corporatised world.