And Seats For All…
I guess it was only a matter of time before someone would start advocating for Maori seats on all town councils. Ngati Whatua spokesman Ngarimu Blair declares:
““We will be looking to other iwi leaders and tribes from around the country to also join that chorus because there is a super city or super town coming to their tribes and there should be Maori seats on every council, every local government from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island. This issue is a national one, so I do think that will be something that the Maori Party will have to sit up and take notice of and carry through for us in future coalition deals.””
The evil cynic in me was struck by the absurdity of this idea when it comes to small town councils. Assuming that seats are allocated proportionally, one wonders:
- Who will fill up the quarter seat on the Gore Town Council, and will Mr. Blair be donating his leg for this purpose?
- Will their be a token Pakeha seat on the Tokoroa Town Council?
- As there are apparently only two Maoris in Cambridge, will they decide who gets the seat by coin toss?
OK, I’m only fooling, but, in general, the idea of Maori seats just makes me puzzled. Why, exactly, will Maori people in Maori predominant areas apparently vote for the white fella? There are several wards in the new supercity where I would have thought that a decent Maori candidate should be shoo-in. And, why, all of a sudden, is the idea of dedicated maori seats in all town councils now being mooted? Sounds suspiciously like naked political opportunism to me.
Can we please get some decent Maori candidates for the Auckland electorates. Now would be a perfect time to demonstrate that the Maori people have progressed beyond the patriarchal idea of token seats (Apartheid. indeed) and can take their place as an integral and vital part of New Zealand society – one that needs hand-outs from no man.
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Sep 19 09 7:28 am
I am beginning to wonder if their issue is not Maori representation but the “right” (ie them) representation. It has struck me that these people crying for dedicated Maori seats have realised they are not electable to the population so they try to get in the back door, and those elected are the ones who have some get up and go with little sympathy for their bludging cousins.
Don’t these clowns get it it is racisism pure and simple, it makes no difference who does it. Fools.
When I was in Fiji recently I was struck by the number of people who were talking about Fiji going forward as one country I want the same here. My daughter is a 6th generation Kiwi on her Dad’s side and she calls herself a New Zealander period.
I saw something recently from a American who asked when he went from being an American to a hyphanated African-American. This has struck a chord with me as I now realise that these numpties don’t understand that unless we get together as New Zealanders we may wake up one day and wonder why we are now the sattelite state of another country.
Sep 19 09 8:03 am
What Charmaine said. Exactly.
.-= kg´s last blog ..Sovereignty? What sovereignty? =-.
Sep 19 09 11:30 am
The mentality of Maori is proving to be Why work for something when you can get it for free?
Sep 19 09 12:08 pm
Lucy:
My experience is that the vast majority of Maoris are perfectly willing to work and stand on their own two feet with the rest of us. There is a small group of political opportunists who know how to get political mileage and publicity from situations like this and also know how to play on the Maori people’s sense of uniqueness. Thus they produce what is essentially an artificial division between “white” New Zealand and Maori. This division provides them with opportunity but does nothing at all for their people.
A close examination of standard economic and health indicators would tell you immediately that gains for Maori have closely followed gains for New Zealand as a whole and are entirely unrelated to treaty deals.
Sep 19 09 5:04 pm
Sorry Macdoctor. Once I would have agreed that the division between Maori and white NZ was “artificial” now I do not believe it.
If the majority of Maori are still willing to work and stand on their own two feet then their silence over ‘Maoris entitlement to special treatment’ really lets them down.
If they dont agree why dont they say so?
We have Maori getting ready to go back for their 5-6 ‘full and final’ settlement for greivances that are suspect at best.
We have demands for special treatment for Maori in all walks of life.
Sorry but I now believe that those Maori who take pride in achieving through hard work and perserverence are the minority and not the majority.
The Majority have an entitlement mentality and as I said they dont figure why you would work for something if you can get it for free.
Other polinesians (PIs) have much lower unemployment stats, crime stats etc so Maori can not blame the white man for “not letting the brown races” get ahead.
They have to look at themselves and change their attitude. No one else can do it for them.
Sep 19 09 5:34 pm
Lucy:
I still believe the division is artificially sustained by the environment, rather than believing Maori are intrinsically a “gimmee” people. Having lived in an environment (South Africa) where the political division was far greater than the cultural or ethnic one, I find it easy to tell the difference.
The silence of Maori on the issue of entitlement has the exact same root cause as the silence of White South Africans on Apartheid. You might be uncomfortable with it, but you shut up and invent comfortable fabrications as to why this is OK, when in reality:
a) It is to your advantage.
b) You will be ostracized if you speak up
I am not comparing Maori entitlement to apartheid here, merely the mechanism by which the doubting majority stay silent.
Sep 19 09 6:47 pm
Apartheid.
“What makes South Africa’s apartheid era different to segregation and racial hatred that have occurred in other countries is the systematic way in which the National Party, which came into power in 1948, formalised it through the law.”
Isnt that what is slowly but surely happening here now. Different entitlements and laws for people determined by race.
Im sure that when it started in SA it was never envisioned to be the destructive policy it was. And dont be taken in by the argument that ‘only the whites can be racists”
Sep 19 09 7:12 pm
Lucy:
While the mechanism by which a majority may remain silent remains the same, this is not apartheid. Here, Maori are not oppressed, they have all the same entitlements of all other New Zealanders, plus some more. While this may be called affirmative action in some circles, it is still an ethnically based policy and, like all ethnically based policies, it is both divisive and unsustainable.
Im sure that when it started in SA it was never envisioned to be the destructive policy it was.
You are too nice. Apartheid was always intended to “divide and conquer” it was never intended to be a nation-building policy.
And dont be taken in by the argument that ‘only the whites can be racists”
No chance. Seen too many of the coloured persuasion to buy that.