Is this election a final chance?

A reflection on New Zealand 

politics

Seemorerocks

I would like to talk briefly about NZ politics which is something that I am 

less and less interested in. What has prompted me to get my thoughts together is two things:

• The new phenomenon of the NZ Public Party and Billy te Kahika that is making waves on social media at least. Judging from what I see if the election was decided by Facebook Billy would be our next prime minister.

• The other thing is a deep scandal within the opposition National Party which involces the leak of personal information of covid-19 patients and the resignation of the new leader, Todd Muller, after just two months only for him to reappear on the opposition's Front Bench under the new leader Judith “Crusher” Collins.

All of this happens against the backdrop of a supposed pandemic weeks after we came out of six weeks of lockdown and the suspicion that this is going to lead to another, even more draconian loackdown as early as August.

I have a pretty good memory of things having experienced the Muldoon government in the 70's and early 80's and even working in what used to be the Trade and Industry Department which afforded me a first-hand look at the neo-liberal revolution under Roger Douglas and Richard Prebble.

So, I have seen a lot of politics in the intervening years, including a decade or so in the Green Party.

I can say that I have not seen anything like this in my whole life.

People tend to think in tribes and in dualistic ways. 

We grow to dislike what a government is doing so the natural response is to vote for the other side. New Zealanders, to this very day seem to me to harbour a naive trust in the electoral process and to believe that a new political party will solve all our problems.

But what happens when things get so corrupted that in my view there is not a single party in Parliament that can be trusted to represent the interests of people? 

I am disappointed by the commentary of political pundits who tend to view things as “normal” when they are anything but. Heaven forbid that we should acknowledge the Bigger Picture.

We tend to look at things in a very insular and local way with a naive belief that if enough people get behind something we are going to be free to make sweeping changes without sanctions and intervention from bigger parties, not least our “colleagues”in the Five Eyes.

Everything has a simple answer even if a “solution” is nowhere to be seen.

Either, like most people, we believe everything we are told by politicians and media pundits or we fall into conspiracy theory and divide people arbitrarily into “good” and “evil”.

Conspiracy theories are fine and can shed a lot of light on what goes on behind the scenes. But like everything there are good, well-thought-out theories and there are bad ones which use one assumption as the basis for further assumptions.

Myself, I prefer institutional analysis.

I don' t think that we can look to any 'salvation' from politicians. Mostly, they are in it for themselves, whether it be ego or pecuniary interests – straight out corruption. A lot of people do come into politics with good intentions – they are not all “evil” people. However, the closer you come to the centre of power the more compromises have to be made and when people come into power, whoever they are they find that they are unable to introduce the changes they want to because we are (and have always been, as a small country) to bigger fish who determine what we can and cannot do.

Perhaps they find out that New Zealand has been signed up to an international agreement which prohibits a government acting in an independent or sovereign manner – which is why things like the Trans-Pacific Partnership are so dangerous. They learn that we cannot do certain things because of the Five Eyes or because of the United States or because of China. Governments find they are in thrall to the United Nations or the WHO.

It does not help when the politicians are ideologically-wedded to globalised politics and when prime ministers cut their teeth working for Tony Blair or made their fortunes by betting against the NZ dollar. 

The first big shock to New Zealand, after Britain essentially abandoned us after joining the European Common Market in the early 1970's was the Rogernomics revolution of the mid to late 80's and then the 9/11/2001 attacks in the United States and what followed.

To some extent the Helen Clark government tried to maintain some independence in foreign policy while following a neo-liberal economic model. However, it was 9 years of government under John Key that changed NZ fundamentally into the corrupt, democratically-challenged country it is now.

I was one of many that cheered when the present government came into power. However, hope quickly turned into disappointment especially after the Christchurch mosque attacks in March last year were used to bring in further anti-democratic changes - and perhaps were used by overseas parties to bring New Zealand into line with others' agendas. This would not surprise me in the least.

This has been greatly accelerated with the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns after ignoring all the signs and waiting for the WHO mandate. The rhetoric across the board that the government took “early and tough action” to “beat” the virus and that our PM, Jacinda Adern did so well is just plain false in my mind. I suspect that the “success” of the government has more to do with luck and the nature of the virus itself than with good, well-thought out policy.

The conclusion that I have come to is that there are two aspects to this: there is POLITICS as we are used to and I would have to say that at that level Judith Collins is definitely the greater danger.

However, there is the Bigger Picture that the vast majority seems to ignore. Whoever is in power the results are essentially the same for the reasons I have just given. 

Very dangerous changes are coming to this country in the form of economic depression and a lockdown that, it seems to me, is never going to end. And is going to come with an unprecedented attack on our liberties.

Deciding who you are going to vote for seems to be a choice – I am exaggerating slightly here for effect – between fascism with a fist inside a velvet glove (Jacinda) or fascism with an iron fist (Judith).

Ultimately, the results are the same.

So, in the circumstances we see today I am highly sceptical about the parliamentary process and finding answers and salvation there.

I am fascinated by and find myself attracted to the message of Billy te Kahika and the New Zealand Public Party that he has set up and has been trying to get registered for the election in two months time.

What makes him different in my mind is that he is open and, it seems to me, honest. Not the least in this is that everything he says is open and underpinned by a strong Christian-based moral compass.

He is no demagogue and certainly not a Brian Tamaki.

So, although I do not intend to get further involved other than through my pen I wish him well. It provides a context in which people can discuss the very real dangers to our democracy and hopefully a platform under which people can come together to start to offer resistance to what is already happening and what is in the wings.

At some stage people have to step away from their computers, phones or devices and come together to say that they do not intend to obey laws and regulations that are going to lead us all into servitude.

They need to disabuse themselves of the illusion of the possibility of change through the ballot box. As they say, if change came through the ballot box voting would be illegal.

I am certainly not talking about revolution – we know what the outcome of revolutionary change usually is. Instead, I am talking about withdrawing consent.

“I am going to maintain my self-respect and I am not going to obey”

We live in interesting times and we all know what that means in the old Chinese curse - “may you live in interesting times”.

I am deeply influenced by what someone told me 30 years ago - “optimism is the absence of realism”.

I prefer realism over ideals and hope – especially in what I believe to be the Final Days.



P.S. There WILL be another lockdown in New Zealand

Checkpoints, soldiers, door-to-door 

testing: NZ's new Covid outbreak plan