Actions of arrogant idiots

Idiots. Arrogant, egotistical, idiots. That was the first thought that ran through my head, as news of "Operation O-Desk" broke on Monday.

It wasn't the actions of the police that provoked my fury, but of those who'd forced their hand.

Since 1840, the progressive political tradition in this country has been almost entirely peaceful. With the important exception of the Sovereignty Wars of the 19th century, the sole initiator of organised violence against the New Zealand people has been the New Zealand State itself.

This long-standing rejection of "armed struggle" has conferred upon the New Zealand Left an enviable moral authority.

From the disgraceful occupation and destruction of Parihaka in November 1881, to the repeated batoning of peaceful protesters by police riot squads throughout the winter of 1981, informed public opinion has remained solidly supportive of progressive causes inspired and reassured by the Left's steadfast refusal to either initiate violence, or respond to the violence initiated against it.

Almost all of the significant social, economic and political changes in New Zealand history have been achieved by the democratic mobilisation of mass opinion. Ours is one of the oldest democracies, and our people's consistent rejection of violence as a legitimate political weapon has always, for me, been a source of enormous pride.

That's why I am so angry with the people upon whom the police have swooped. Whatever they were doing in the Ureweras, it was enough to persuade Police Commissioner Howard Broad that pre-emptive action was necessary.

I have known Howard Broad since he and his colleagues in the Dunedin police chased me and my future wife around that city's streets during the Springbok Tour. He is an honourable and decent police officer and no redneck. Indeed, on matters relating to the Treaty of Waitangi he is probably further to the left than I am. Which is why, if Howard Broad says he was obliged to act to preserve public safety, I for one am disposed to believe him.

And therein lies the tragedy of this week's events. Few people on the face of this blood-soaked planet are privileged to live in a nation so free of organised violence as New Zealand.

Ours is a nation so small and politically intimate that its leaders can walk freely among their fellow citizens without fear of physical attack or assassination. We enjoy a political environment in which citizens' rights are so zealously guarded that full democratic participation in national affairs is straightforward, simple and effective.

Which is why all those who declare that the resort to armed force has become inevitable are first obliged to demonstrate that all other peaceful and democratic options have been foreclosed.

The African National Congress' endorsement of armed struggle following the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre was entirely justifiable. And it was difficult to condemn the IRA's resort to armed struggle following the Parachute Regiment's murder of 14 peacefully protesting civil- rights marchers in Londonderry on January 30, 1972, Bloody Sunday.

But show me a Bloody Sunday in New Zealand. Show me a Sharpeville. Show me the bodies of unarmed protesters lying in the streets of our little land.

To turn to weapons before weapons have been turned against you is not only murderous folly, but supreme arrogance. Why? Because it signals your conviction that, somehow, your "side" has acquired a direct line to "The Truth".

And that allows you to walk away from rational debate, and set aside your neighbour's fundamental human rights. You no longer need the tremendous moral force of non-violent direct action as practised by Te Whiti O Rongomai at Parihaka a full 25 years before Gandhi deployed it in the Transvaal.

But to arrogate to oneself the power of determining who shall live and who shall die is to surrender to the very forces of lawlessness and injustice true progressives, through history, have fought with all their strength.

And so I say again: "Idiots". For causing my fellow citizens to turn with frightened and mistrustful eyes against the tens of thousands of decent, progressive Kiwis who have devoted their entire lives to making this country a beacon of freedom, equality, and social justice.

Without resorting to violence.