Ae Marika! 2 July 2013

Posted on July 2, 2013 by admin in Ae Marika

Last week I had to go to a tangi down in Kaikohe for Raumati Para, Apotoro Wairua for Te Haahi Ratana and staunch MANA supporter.

I first met Raumati properly during the Maori Party selection process in 2005. I was hugely impressed with his strength of purpose and asked him to campaign at my side. I owe much of my early success to Raumati’s support. He was also one of the first in the mid-north to declare for MANA in 2011 and as chairman ensured MANA had a solid and stable presence during those hectic and tumultuous early days.

I recall seeing him down the Pa earlier this year and he looked strong and healthy and positive – right up till he keeled over and ended up in Wellington hospital!! I visited him and that’s when I first learned he had a long-standing heart condition, an ailment which eventually led to his passing last week.

Raumati was a strong character from the old school. He carried himself with dignity, he was possessed of a disciplined mind, he had a very strong sense of justice and he also had very clear ideas about how things should be done.

Whenever I went across to Kaikohe I would always take time to talk to him, sometimes about nothing more important than the state of the weather or the quality of the sausages sizzling on the BBQ outside the office. Raumati was a touchstone, whose authority and strength was a reassuring presence in a world of change.

He will be missed by his Haahi, by MANA, by his hapu and his whanau. Haere e te rangatira, haere.

And while I’m talking about MANA … just a note about the by-election down in Ikaroa Rawhiti. Congratulations first of all to Labour’s Meka Whaitiri for her victory.

Labour has the country’s biggest political machine, more than 30 MPs, hundreds of staff, and a comprehensive voter identification strategy; the Maori Party has two ministers, access to millions of dollars of government funding, dozens of staff and the ability to throw more than $100,000 at a single campaign; and the Greens are the country’s 3rd biggest political party.

MANA’s Te Hamua Nikora on the other hand, started with 10c in the kitty, 2 staff, 1 MP for a few days, and heaps and heaps of passionate people. He focused on simple issues – feeding the kids, building houses for the poor, and a job programme to get everyone working.

But he did enough to beat out 5 others to take first runner-up, reduce Labour’s majority from a whopping 6,500 to 1,700, and signal MANA’s emergence as a serious player in NZ politics. Interesting days ahead …

AE MARIKA is an article written every week by Hone Harawira, leader of the MANA Movement and Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau. You are welcome to use any of the comments and to ascribe them to Mr Harawira. The full range of Hone’s articles can be found on the MANA website at www.mana.net.nz.