So who are these people?

There’s hubris in Harawira’s assumption that somehow he knows and can speak to what his people want, as though he channels their feelings and thoughts.

Dusting off his megaphone, Hone Harawira echoed what has become commonplace for Maori MPs speaking of “Our People” as in, “the rights of Our People are important” and “We must always be guided by [creating a strong, Maori sovereign point of view within Parliament] because that’s what Our People want”.

When referring only to themselves, MPs employ the singular and speak of “My People”.

For example, when in hot water, Harawira declared, “I answer to My People, not to them or to anybody else.”

Bill English would be toast if he deployed the same affectation and spoke of “My People”. The reaction would be short and sharp. We would not tolerate it. His colleagues would assume he had lost the plot and dump him.

English is Prime Minister, not some ancient king with royal rights over us.

And nor is Harawira. “His” people don’t belong to him. Indeed, they voted him out.

And when he was an MP, the voters weren’t “his” but rather he was privileged to be their representative. He was their servant, not the other way around. There is more than semantics at stake. The claim demonstrates a born-to-rule kingly entitlement. There’s also hubris in Harawira’s assumption that somehow he knows and can speak to what his people want, as though he channels their feelings and thoughts. He doesn’t. And he can’t.

The concept also embodies the idea his people are of one mind. They are not. There is always a diversity of views.

Politicians talking about My People choose to deny that diversity and attempt to choke off dissent.

The use of the phrase also skates over boundaries. Who exactly are Harawira’s people? Is it the Mana Party membership, Harawira’s tribe, people who vote for him, his electorate or Maori generally?

And how does a person become one of Harawira’s people?

Is it possible to opt out? It’s certainly possible to be kicked out.

This concept is also deadly divisive. Harawira doesn’t presume to represent others, just his own people.

Such politics never fares well. It is the politics of insiders and outsiders and the politics of exclusion.

It’s invariably nasty, as the definition of who is in and who is out has no reason nor logic. It’s a simple matter of politics, as demonstrated by Harawira’s mum, Titewhai, in 2011.

“I have the right as a kuia of Nga Puhi to say that my people no longer are going to be walked on by Pita Sharples and Tariana [Turia],” she said.

So Sharples and Turia weren’t her people.

I suspect it’s a much smaller group than we imagine.

Indeed, the very idea is a fiction. It’s a simple attempt to add weight their words otherwise wouldn’t carry.