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ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU. HIS MESSAGE FOR JACINDA’S GOVERNMENT?



It was hard not to be moved by the death of Archbishop Desmond Tutu last week. The tributes to him captured the essentials of the man: his extraordinary energy, his infectious laugh, his unwavering message of equal rights for all people, his unfailing opposition to racial segregation in all its forms. He visited New Zealand in the early 1980s, and I had the privilege of meeting him and talking about apartheid in South Africa. As an MP I had recently visited the country, and I made two more visits, one in 1983 and another in 1990. I wanted to understand precisely how apartheid worked. Tutu gave me advice on what to look out for, which I took. Having lived in the American south in the early 1960s, I had seen the ways in which insidious rules, often referred to as “Jim Crow” rules, made opportunities unequal for people with black skins. Tutu’s smile broadened as I outlined some of the things I’d seen in America, his head nodding vigorously.



What surprised me this last week was that some of the New Zealanders who spoke so warmly about his visit to New Zealand in the 1980s haven’t said a word in criticism of the steps toward apartheid in this country that have been taken by Jacinda Ardern’s government. Nanaia Mahuta directs the strategy, and cabinet ministers and caucus supporters fall into line. Laws that bestow privileges on groups of people on the basis of race, however slender their qualifying Maori DNA component might be, are just as offensive in principle as those introduced by South Africa’s Dr Hendrik Verwoerd to privilege the white minority of that country. True, we haven’t gone as far as Verwoerd yet, but we have started down the slippery slope towards racial separatism, and there is an urgent need to stop it before race relations become too polarized in New Zealand. If left unchecked, separatism will eventually lead to violence. It’s a fair bet that had Archbishop Tutu read He Puapua, the Labour Government’s undeclared road map towards separatism, he would have warned against it.



The year 2021 began with Mahuta’s determination to ride over the top of local referenda that had rejected separate Maori wards for local government. Her Three Waters plans are to confiscate local authority assets and place them in entities drawn along tribal boundaries. With a strong wind behind them, Maori numbers reach 17% of our total population. They would be given equal voting rights over those assets with the 83% of the total population who aren’t Maori. Plans are currently underway to erect two racially divided health systems in the country. One will govern for those with a Maori ancestor, the other for all the rest of us, but with a Maori veto in case things proposed for the 83% don’t meet with approval by those in charge of the 17%. Already taxpayers’ money is distributed to various Maori health groups according to rules that are much less rigorously monitored than those applied to everyone else.



A major part of the problem New Zealanders face is that there is only a relative handful of us who have actually seen racial segregation at close quarters. We all accept Article Three of the Treaty of Waitangi that promised Maori “the same rights and duties of citizenship as the people of England”. Of course, the Treaty hasn’t always been adhered to by all New Zealanders. Yes, Maori have suffered from racial discrimination. But in the past, whenever examples have been revealed publicly of racially-based actions against Maori, the public with the media in the vanguard, have shamed the racists into change. Think back to the hulabaloo when Dr Henry Rongomau Bennett, the superintendent of Tokanui Hospital, was refused a beer at a Papakura hotel in 1959 because he was a Maori. The Labour Prime Minister of the day, Walter Nash, stepped in and criticized the hotel which fell into line and served Maori. The New Zealand Herald played a major role in publicizing that issue. Ask the public, and it’s a fair bet that most people have always believed in equal rights.



And yet today, Jacinda Ardern, Walter Nash’s Labour successor, is happily tripping down the road towards racial discrimination in many areas. She tells us that He Puapua is not the government’s official policy, but virtually everything her government does is in line with that document’s aim to over-ride the principle of one-person-one-vote. Jacinda’s goal is transparent for anyone who cares to read the document: the overwhelming majority of New Zealanders are to be subjected to rule by a largely un-elected Maori minority.



Where is the New Zealand Herald in all this? Forgetting its former role as part of the nation’s conscience, and happily pocketing money from the Public Interest Journalism Fund, lionizing the Archbishop as a celebrity, but deaf to his message and principles.

 
 
 

62 Comments


mmainnz
Jan 12, 2022

Great points. Jacinda's government has already laid the foundation for another important tool of the South African apartheid regime: identity cards that must be shown to confirm your status and right to be in various places or to receive various services. Currently it's a 'vaccine pass' but it does identify you and is required for entry, participation and receiving services in various contexts including being allowed to leave Auckland. It's getting us used to a model that can easily be adapted to provide proof of acceptable ancestry that will be required for access to beaches, regions, facilities and services. For example, such identity cards will almost certainly be needed to ensure that those horrid pakehas don't get to use better-fund…

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Robin Gardiner
Robin Gardiner
Jan 12, 2022
Replying to

Anybody who thought that these Communist/Socialist leaders of ours would stop at covid for these passes is a dreamer

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ron
ron
Jan 05, 2022

'Breaking Views' has just published details of a call from Maori education leaders to create a Maori education authority, similar to the Health Authority: https://waateanews.com/2022/01/05/time-right-for-maori-education-authority/

What next a Maori justice authority, as we head towards dual sovereignty by 2040.

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Replying to

Yes, it seems so. But we should resist and fight back while we can. And we can, we still can have this blog, we can protest, we have oppostition political parties.

Mind you, Maoris were those who asked for English schools and education in the past and I am sure there are many who will prefer them today as well.

There was a popular hymn during the religious wars in Bohemia (today Czech republic) sung by adherents of Jan Hus (a reformer 100 years before Martin Luther who was burned at stake in 1415) which goes like: Do not be scared of enemies and do not look at their numbers.

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mowbrayclan
Jan 04, 2022

Just another great example of why this country will fail to reach it’s potentially on all fronts. the focus for too long has been trying to right the subjective wrongs of the past rather than the success of the future. As I say to from time to time, hard drive forward when your eyes are fixed in the rear vision mirror. The on going, unsubstantiated grievances will continue to be the fabled albatross around our necks. Opportunities to lift ourselves out off any inequalities, economic or otherwise, will be lost or overlooked as it becomes the norm to equate success with hand outs rather than hard graft. Personal responsibility continues to be contracted out on so many levels. The downward…

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chuckbirdnz
chuckbirdnz
Jan 05, 2022
Replying to

The only major party that will do anything is National. I am am active member and I do get listened to.


We live in democracy. You say no political party is any good as they do not do what you would like and write anonymously criticizing Maori as a group or join a political party. Who did you vote for in 2020?


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kenmartin44
Jan 04, 2022

“….and become the leader of the UN and ultimately PM of the world“. Yeah right. But more like an overactive imagination. Troll-like?


There is no way any NZ politician is ever going to be PM of the world. We are just too insignificant.

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ron
ron
Jan 05, 2022
Replying to

The level of cognitive maturity could well be similar, with both being Forrest Gump like cult leaders.

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This comment was deleted.
Frank S
Jan 04, 2022
Replying to

Well said, Bob. That was what NZ was like before Ardern et al started destroying this once great country for her own benefit -- to be seen as the greatest Wokeist ever on the world stage, to gain personal glory from the useless UN and their like-minded ilk, just so she can claim "credit" (as "credit" is seen by these useless organisations) and become the leader of the UN and ultimately PM of the world.


One has to ask "what is happening to our world": Prince Charles has always been a couple or so deviations from the mean and confirmed that by becoming a member of the World Economic Forum with all its drivel about the Great Reset and Build…

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