Hone shoots off the other foot
What was Hone thinking? Does he think? Or is it just stream of consciousness?
This morning on Auckland's Radio Waatea, Hone Harawira delivered his long-awaited apology for his comments about "white motherf.....s'' ripping off Maori for centuries.
It was, he said, a poor choice of words, and he apologised for the damage it had done to the Maori Party and its relationships with other parties in Parliament, and to the wider public. All good so far.
Then he went straight on to call Labour Party leader Phil Goff "a bastard'' who, he opined, "should be lined up against the wall and shot'' for passing the Foreshore and Seabed Act.
In response Goff has organised a press conference for early this afternoon, where presumably he will take umbrage at being so described.
So Harawira's great opportunity to clear the air with Pakeha New Zealand and explain what he really meant by his intemperate outburst in that email to a supporter over his trip to Paris has turned into yet another debacle.
Now, it's true that to say someone "should be shot'' is a colloquialism and I'm not suggesting for a minute that Hone really believes Goff should face a firing squad.
But you'd think, wouldn't you, that in the context of delivering an apology for one's bad language - and when one was in trouble with one's party for denigrating others and making their relationships with others in Parliament more difficult - one might refrain from calling the Pakeha leader of another party a bastard who should be shot?
In political terms, this is a spectacular own goal that further cements Harawira as a hothead who simply says the first thing that comes into his head, and who appears to have no political judgment whatsoever.
The Maori Party's president and its co-leaders will be tearing their hair out over this, since Harawira has succeeded in giving the story oxygen rather than shutting it down.
I'm also interested in the qualification contained in the rest of the apology, which is interesting if you read it. Hone said he was sorry for the language he used. He continued:
"I suspect if I had said something like European colonisers have been responsible for the loss of 63 million acres of Maori land over the past 150 years and it is inappropriate that you should be holding me to the standards set by people with such little regard for Maori land and Maori custom it wouldn't have rated a mention in the media.''
So if I've got this straight, Hone is saying that he - and presumably his party - should not be held to the same standards as other MPs or other New Zealanders, because they were set by people whose ancestors took Maori land unlawfully several hundred years ago.
That, actually, is in a way more damaging than the original swear words. It's certainly not "mana-enhancing'' to the relationship between the Maori Party and National.
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Seriously, just fire him. Get rid of him and stop having him represent any of the people in NZ. It is embarassing.
He's clearly a loose unit and wouldn't be able to hold down a job if he tried that sort of behaviour in any other job arena. Why should Govt accept that this is a way for their party representatives to behave?
He is a disgrace to the Maori Party and to New Zealand. Personally I believe he is taking racism back a step and undoing all the work done to create equality by recreating tension.
oooooops from Hone.....he will be on RadioLive @ 1pm being interviewed again by Willie Jackson.....should be interesting :)
Harawira is nothing short of a back-alley thug and bully with a brain that has half the acceleration capacity of his high performance mouth. To say he appears to have no political judgment whatsoever would an understatement of gargantuan proportions. We should not be surprised, however, as he and his immediate family appears to live on vitriolic hate, racist fury and mis-directed outbursts if the last 25 years are considered. Even by the racist and seperatist maori party standards he is an extremist loose cannon. They had best dump this grenade with out its pin before it explodes in their faces. Unfortunately I suspect that explosion will be many voting for a return to the horrible FPP system just to dump the maori party because of these sorts of troublemakers.
Will the Prime Minister now demand "a bit of an apology"?
Let's cut the waffle on this. There's right and wrong, and Hone's words and deeds on this whole issue are wrong, and any sane person can see that, and it doesn't matter a damn whether we vote ACT or Green or Bill and Ben.
He can damage his own reputation as much as he likes. But he's also damaging New Zealand's parliament and political discourse, and I'm sick of it.
Hone, please take a long, long holiday. I hear France is nice.
Although I find Hone H actions dispicible perhaps it is because there are many things where the benchmark for Maori does not have to be as high as Pakeha to acheive. ie the educational entry into some university courses and what about the given Maori seats in parliment. Perhaps its is the time now to get rid of these.
Hes a disgrace and lowers the tone of Parliament.
Know doubt for share spite the right wingers will think his comments are fine and dandy!
Brilliant! This just gets better and better. Rodney will be looking to the heavens going "thank you Hone, thank you" while Tariana and Pita will be slowly banging their heads on their desks going "why why why". Although to put the comments in context, how bad is it really? To have someone lined up and shot is a readily used and accepted figure of speech, and Labours Seabed and Foreshore legislation was blatantly discriminatory in denying Maori their day in court. But for Seabed and Foreshore the Maori Party wouldn't even exist, so how hard a line party leadership can take over this latest gaff is going to be interesting. Phil Goffs press conference will be a hoot, I expect he's just happy to have something to get him in front of the camera.
Disgrace Hone learn NOTHING, obvious he got his verbal diarrhea in Paris. How long Maori leaders will tolerate this imbecile.
Is anyone really surprised to find out the Maori party has a racist MP? after all he does belonging to a separatist, ethnicity based political party?
But....shhhhh, remember, the poor Maori can't be racist...only us white mother f****rs....didn't you all know that?
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This is great stuff, the guy is a just a joke now. Can't wait for what he will say when apologising for his apology!