April 09, 2014
Harawira’s deal with Dotcom raises issues
WIILIE JACKSON OPINION
The criticism around Hone Harawira doing a deal with Kim Dotcom is not only unfair but raises questions of hypocrisy and racism.
Hypocrisy because why is it that other political leaders in the country are able to utilise and manipulate MMP to their parties' advantage and Hone Harawira apparently is not allowed to?
And racist because it looks like Harawira is again being singled out because of his strong pro Maori views.
Political commentators have seen nothing wrong over the past 18 years with parties like New Labour, the Democrats and Liberals coming together under the Alliance banner – parties that were at opposite ends of the political spectrum and philosophically opposed to each other in more ways than one.
Yet these parties used MMP to get their members into Parliament, just like Prime Minister John Key did when he had a cup of tea with ACT leader John Banks. ACT was dead in the water at the time. But Key needed a coalition partner and manipulated MMP to secure this.
He didn't worry at the time about Banks' reputation or ACT's, he just wanted a partner to form a government and his decision was widely praised by the media.
So why is it so different for Harawira? If he partners up with Dotcom and wins his seat he will probably take at least another two MPs into Parliament with him. Dotcom's Internet party might get one or two MPs and everyone's a winner.
But some in the media like Fran O''Sullivan from the Herald and Duncan Garner from Radio Live find the idea unprincipled and think that Harawira is just being too opportunistic for his own good. In fact Garner says that any liaison with Dotcom is bound to end in tears because that's how all these types of relationships end.
He may well be right, certainly that's how it ended for us when I was an Alliance MP. However what Garner forgets is that while our party did tear itself apart in the end, along the way we got real gains for your average Kiwi.
In fact in the short time we were in government we set up Kiwibank, won paid parental leave and played a major role in getting rid of the employment contracts act. Also who cares that we imploded and does it really matter if the same thing happens to Hone and Dotcom?
All that should matter is will the vulnerable and struggling Kiwis who Harawira represents have their lives improved if a deal is done?
And the answer is obviously yes, so if it was good enough for Jim Anderton, Helen Cark, John Banks and John Key to do deals it should be no different for Hone Harawira and Kim Dotcom.
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