
Here’s why the media demonise Harawira | Matt McCarten | NZ Herald
Posted on May 26, 2011 by MANA in CommentaryI wasn’t going to write about Hone Harawira this week, given my conflict of interest as the chairman of the Mana Party’s working group.
But you’re all grown up and there’s no doubt that the Don and Hone show is the only political story in town.
Until this week, this country was sleepwalking to the most boring election ever.
We knew the election date; we knew John Key was going to wallop Phil Goff; we knew that Labour was campaigning to come in second place.
The Greens would come in third and Rodney Hide would slip into Epsom to allow a handful of his colleagues to get through.
The Maori Party would come through with possibly three MPs, followed by Harawira and Peter Dunne holding their seats.
The only question was whether John Key’s National Party was going to be able to rule alone.
The cliche that a week is a long time in politics is a cliche because it’s true. The political landscape has been energised with a new party of the left led by Harawira and a revitalised party of the right under Brash.
The contrast couldn’t be wider. There was effectively a right-wing corporate takeover of Act by a moneyed cartel. It’s breathtakingly cynical that three MPs, who all owe their parliamentary seats to Rodney Hide, ended his career by supporting a 70-year-old non-MP. As a consequence, someone not in Parliament will tell the Prime Minister who will be in his Cabinet. The people in Epsom who elected Hide as their electorate MP are hapless bystanders.
In contrast, Harawira last Saturday launched a new party and sought a mandate from his constituents. The twittering press hacks who wrote breathlessly about Brash’s coup went into fits of faux outrage over the cost of a Tai Tokerau byelection.
I’d be more sympathetic if they managed the same outburst as guardians of the public purse when Helen Clark and Winnie Laban dumped their electorates, forcing byelections, because they got better job offers elsewhere.
In Mt Albert we had various parties’ list MPs (Melissa Lee, John Boscawen and Russel Norman – none of whom were locals) running for the job, all the while collecting salaries and parliamentary perks during the campaign with help from assorted taxpayer-funded staff.
The argument that there is only seven months until the election is phony. The bigger parties set the rule that any MP who left their party should seek a new mandate up to six months from the election day. The voters of Te Atatu would have liked a by-election when Chris Carter was pushed out of his party.
In fact it seems outrageous to me as a citizen that deposed Act leader Hide does not go back to the voters of Epsom for a new mandate. Hide should either run as an independent or accept his ousting and allow Act to stand either Brash or John Banks.
Instead, a sordid little deal has been done in which Hide agrees to go quietly on the basis he keeps his baubles and rank of Cabinet minister for the rest of the year. Principled politics? I don’t think so.
There are clear personal agendas by some Press Gallery hacks in Wnetmellington to demonise Harawira. However, the real reason for the different slants on Harawira and Brash is that most political journalists are creatures of the system and have no idea of politics outside of Parliament. They are threatened by any change to their cosy relationship with current parliamentary press officers, from whom they get their stories.
Whether we agree with them or not, Harawira and Brash offer clear visions of the future. National and Labour are so grey it’s hard to tell the difference between them.
The Act and Mana parties will excite the electorate in a way we have not seen since the 1980s. It would be helpful if the mainstream media and the other parties catch up with what is happening.
Brian John Evans says:
Post Author May 29, 2011 at 11:30 amhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl2JQfxnnHU&feature=player_embedded#at=52
WE are not allowed this sort of thoughtful debate on our farty-girly-men crime-show-junk-food-drenched ‘media’
Hone just says ‘BOO!” and the media does girly squeals of rage. and the people go baaa baaa baaa like the sheepies we have become
Hone Harawira make the ‘BOO!’ noises, short but tantalising we should encourage
baaa baaa baaa
has become a boring cacophany of a willing coalition of kiwi sheepies always demanding someone slit their stupid dumbded-down selfish sheepie throats
Go Hone!
Kia kaha Mana Party!
but with Green Party stickers on the beanie – Cher!
http://mana.net.nz
http://bestpoet.com
http://evanscartoons.com
http://greens.org.nz
Brian John Evans says:
Post Author May 29, 2011 at 11:39 amhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl2JQfxnnHU&feature=player_embedded#at=52
Do you still want to allow the NZ govt to drag kiwis around with these insane so and so s”
If you wonder how the government can ignore the wishes of the public and violate our rights, do a google search for ‘
Why Does the Government Ignore Our Wishes?’
You’ll learn how they get away with horrible crimes.
which are happening and increasing toward total FASCISM
Brian John Evans says:
Post Author May 29, 2011 at 9:09 pmA big question:
What is the Mana Party’s foreign policy, as regards – do we keep following the terrorist US which sucks up to terrorist Israel?
Guilt abour the Holocaust on Jews in World War 2 causes this hysteria by baa baaa sheepies of the US Congress. Look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=52CiEbDBEh8