Every time the Greens bring in new MPs, they are scarier than the last lot. For the last three years, we have been ruing the fact that the Green party saw fit to bring in an anti-Christian, anti-Semitic communist by the name of Golriz Ghahmaran. But Golriz seems like a teddy bear compared to the latest intake; Teanau Tuiono, Elizabeth Kerekere and the very special Ricardo Menendez March.
Menendez March has caused a stir already, as there is a petition to remove him from parliament in his first week. Yes, some of the comments made against him were racist, which is a pity, because race is not the actual issue here. Menendez March has caused an uproar because he ridiculed the requirement of all members of the New Zealand parliament to swear allegiance to the Queen.
Surely if he had aspirations to become an MP, he must have found out at some point that this is a requirement in a Commonwealth country? What is it with these people who come here from third world countries and think they have the right to change everything?
Menendez March has responded to the attacks and the online petition in the usual way claiming that the attacks are both racist and homophobic. I do not condone racist or homophobic attacks so I was equally upset with March’s racist statement that there are “a lot of white men in these walls” that he made on the day he toured parliament for the first time. I don’t believe in tit-for-tat but Menendez March received the kind of treatment he dished out. White people founded this country. He should try to remember that.
Also, because I have no interest in Green MPs whatsoever, I had no idea he was gay. I don’t care either. This is not an issue about sexual preferences. This is about a new MP disrespecting our Queen, our traditions and our parliament.
After all, Grant Robertson is gay. Does anyone care? Louisa Wall? Kiri Allen? Apparently, we now have the most diverse parliament in the world. While this is not something that I feel especially proud of, I don’t particularly care either. Whatever floats your boat, as they say.
Some of the online comments suggested that Menendez March go back to Mexico. Of course, this was taken badly, but in all honesty, MPs are supposed to represent all New Zealanders and his disparaging comment about white men is hardly inclusive. Jacinda told us on election night that her next government would be a government “for all New Zealanders”. Menendez March obviously wasn’t listening, because he thinks he is entitled to his own special brand of separatist culture; of knocking down the old white men who built this country from the ground up. Judging by the reaction he got, he misread his situation badly.
This is the part that really made me laugh out loud though.
“People like John Key can have a conversation about being a republic and it is treated as being a fair political conversation that we can have.”
Menendez March has not even been sworn in to parliament, yet he is comparing himself to John Key. Clearly this lad is getting his ambitions mixed up with his capabilities.
John Key did raise the subject of New Zealand becoming a republic, as has Jacinda. It will almost certainly happen one day, but probably not while our Queen is still alive. After her death, and once most of the baby boomers have shuffled off their mortal coil, there will probably be more appetite for New Zealand to sever ties with the Royal Family, but only time will tell. In the meantime, seeing that we are talking about John Key, he intended his legacy to be about a change of the New Zealand flag. We all know how that worked out, so Menendez March should not get his hopes up about changing the way parliament works anytime soon.
Many MP arrive at parliament, fresh and full of ideas, thinking that now they have been elected (or selected from the party list), they can change the world, but very few actually manage more than the faintest scratch on the surface of the old traditions. Certainly, things have changed over the past 100 years; more and more female MPs, a raft of gay MPs, creches and breastfeeding in parliament to name but a few. But these things have evolved slowly, and have enhanced rather than stripped away the old traditions upon which our Westminster system of government is based.
Menendez March is not going to change anything overnight. In truth, he is unlikely to change anything at all. If he is genuinely concerned for the poor and the downtrodden in this country, then maybe he should focus his energies on that, and stop trying to drive a wedge between the people who were born here and those that weren’t. There is a reason why we have the Westminster system in New Zealand. It works. It may not be perfect (and if the result is that idiots like Menendez March can enter parliament without actually being elected, then clearly MMP is a long way away from perfect). Maybe Menendez March really should go home to Mexico and try to fix its parliamentary system rather than try to break ours. Someone coming from a third world country and telling us how we should be doing things is a bit rich, don’t you think?
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