Protest needs human rights watchdog to be moderator
Covid stretches psychological rubber bands
“Our AA guns fired on several drones last night and early this morning. Heavily armed police are patrolling the streets. At the moment we have food and water supply and communication lines are still operating.” That was a 10-day-old Facebook message from my nephew, Karuna Krishnasamy, from the township of Odessa in Ukraine. The first child of my eldest brother, Karuna is a software engineer domiciled there with his Ukrainian partner. The rumbling tanks of Russian President Vladimir Putin are audible in our hearts as we await news from Karuna. The President’s iron grip on power over the state institutions of the judiciary, the police, defence and media is undisputed. This is dictatorship. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the highest political office holder, the Prime Minister, has not been able to order the police to clear a bunch of protesters camped, and trespassing, on Parliament grounds. She has not been able to stop those affected by the vaccine mandate to test that imposition through the judiciary. And, what’s critical, the Prime Minister never tried to do that. That’s because the concept of the separation of powers is entrenched in our political and moral culture. The most recent case, where Justice Francis Cooke of the High Court ruled against the Government, is a telling blow.
The court victory makes an oxymoron of those who have been harping on, since 2020, about Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern being a dictator. Those of us who came from countries of centralised power with marginalised democracies find this depiction laughable. More an example of the ignorant naivety of this section of the protesters who also refer to the need to initiate the likes of the Nuremberg Trials to punish the PM and all those associated with her “dictatorship”. The danger of this
bunny-hole is that if you have a mind that believes this, then that same mind is ripe for those skilled in luring these minds into a rabbit warren of conspiracies including the dark dwelling places of the extreme right. This is not to say that amongst the protesters there are not those who have lost jobs and others who have felt the loss of the sanctity of their individual rights, parents who have seen their children discriminated against by the mandate. We are aware that two years of facing this pandemic have stretched the psychological rubber bands that hold us together as a civilised society, to breaking point. The forced isolation and limits to freedom of movement have taken their toll on mental health. We have also seen the alienated underbelly of Ma¯ oridom where the tikanga of mana whenua
has been trampled. This is the feedstock to the forces cracking the cultural innards of Team NZ.
No one has captured this better than Paul Hunt, Chief Human Rights Commissioner, who back in December stated: “Covid 19 is hurting many people . . . stoking fear and anxiety. People have been excluded from important public areas”, he said, adding that he regretted this exclusion. Observing that people are confused and angry, he advised, “We mustn’t take it out on the vaccinated or unvaccinated, whether we agree with them or not, each has their own history, fears, and reasons.” He regretted the passing of legislation through Parliament under urgency but also thanked Kiwis who worked extremely hard to eliminate and suppress Covid-19. “Now we must all work hard to eliminate avoidable social exclusion. I urge you to call for human rights — all human rights — the rights to healthcare, health protection, work association, and assembly — in this country and beyond. I urge you to support fair and reasonable balances between competing rights. I urge you to honour your responsibilities to your whanau, neighbours, society, and country. We are all human beings and we swim — or sink — together.” The Human Rights Commission, as a creature of statute, is well placed to help moderate the mixed forces at the protest in Parliament and those they represent. It’s also the best political tool to help separate the moderate protesters from the extremists circling like vultures. These vultures are the outriders of dictatorships.