OPINION
Willie Jackson, once again, has made the mistake of opening his mouth. Willie is something of an arsonist in the sense that his comments are designed to be inflammatory and have an incendiary feel about them. He aims to light a fire under the topic he is speaking on.
Willie’s latest effort in this regard concerns the Treaty of Waitangi. In Willie’s world, this document is not up for discussion. He is incensed that a little so-called Maori upstart by the name of David Seymour wants a referendum to let the people determine the meaning of the principles of the Treaty so that they apply to modern times. This, of course, is not democracy as Willie understands it. He’s already enlightened us to the fact that ‘democracy has changed’. Democracy, in Willie’s view, appears to be ‘the world according to Willie’.
Willie would have us believe that he understands the Treaty and his understanding is the correct and only one. Not so, according to his ex-wife Moana Maniapoto. She wrote in February 2017 that Willie had no understanding of the Treaty. She said she tried to break it down for him once on a drive from Rotorua to Auckland. She said she’d ask him to repeat back to her what she’d just said, but he’d give her a blank look, a shrug and then laugh. This is the same man who purports to be an ‘expert’ on the matter.
This is the same man who is threatening anyone who tries to interfere with his understanding of the Treaty with civil unrest: in other words, violence on the streets. He told Jack Tame in a Q+A interview it would be of such magnitude that the Springbok tour protests would pale by comparison. After reading the words of his first wife it’s hard not to conclude that he is nothing more than a bully. But the reality is that he and his ilk are a danger to the harmonious society most of us want to live in.
Willie and his fellow travellers in the Maori Party have a controlling agenda. Willie and his mob want the minority to take control from the majority. These types are in it for themselves and they don’t care who the casualties are along the way. Except for Ngai Tahu, can someone tell me which members of other tribes have benefitted from monies gained through government payouts for land confiscation? Virtually none of it has reached ordinary Maori trying to put food on the table.
Can anyone tell me who of the Maori population has benefitted from the ‘by Maori for Maori’ approach? If any have, I doubt the numbers would justify the taxpayers’ money spent. The truth is Maori as a whole are no better off. Nothing has majorly improved for them as a result of these initiatives, which I prefer to call rorts. The same health and education issues are apparent, Maori crime statistics are still too high, there are too many in gangs, too many incarcerated (or should be), and the family violence continues and babies are suffering and dying as a result. Willie would be better off rallying his people to get active in these areas.
Most Maori want to live in harmony with their fellow citizens. Is this what Willie wants? No, he doesn’t. It’s divide and conquer for him. He says we have nothing to fear from co-governance. One only has to read the He Puapua report to see what there is to fear. That is exactly the reason Winston didn’t get to see it. Who had the fear at that point? The answer is Willie. He was fearing that, if Winston saw it, his and Nanaia’s plans for owning the water would dry up, for the same reason Willie didn’t want any interference with the Treaty. It’s his way or the highway.
Willie has made it crystal clear that if he doesn’t get his way and the Treaty is in any way interfered with there will be war. It would seem Willie no more understands democracy than he does the Treaty. Willie needs to understand the big part he played in Labour’s historic loss on October 14. He allowed the Greens to increase their vote and gave Winston another chance in government. Every one of his utterances caused fair-minded people to quit Labour in droves.
Willie may not understand the Treaty or democracy but he needs to understand this: the majority in this country will not put up with his divisive and racist rhetoric.
The Maori Party need to heed the same message. Your average Kiwi is fair-minded and supports a fair go for everyone. What we don’t support is the minority trying to rule the majority. If the Maori elite, because that is what they are, continue down the road they are on at everybody else’s expense then they will achieve nothing.
These people are no doubt cognisant of the result of The Voice referendum across the ditch. Willie knows only too well a referendum here would replicate that result, which is precisely why he says we shouldn’t have one. It is precisely why we, or at the very least Parliament, rather than the courts or the Waitangi Tribunal, should determine exactly how the principles of the Treaty relate to New Zealand in 2023. Hopefully, ACT and NZ First will ensure this happens.
Willie can organise his protests if he wants but that will only ensure he, his Labour Party, the Greens and the Maori Party will continue to occupy the opposition benches. In other words, the majority will continue to set the agenda for having harmonious race relations in this country. Long may that be so.