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From its very formation the Maori Party has boxed above its
weight on domestic policy, but when it comes to foreign policy the
party's MPs have never found their mojo.
Their latest unfortunate dalliance with foreign affairs came when
co-leader
Tariana Turia told Q+A that her offsider Dr Pita
Sharples was considering leading a Maori delegation to Fiji to
negotiate with Commodore Frank Bainimarama. She argued that
Bainimarama is misunderstood and that New Zealand needs to learn
more about what's going on there. If that line sounds familiar, it
is. The Maori Party has used it before - with Robert Mugabe.
Back in 2005, when tens of thousands of black Zimbabweans were
being bulldozed out of their homes and starved while the media was
being muzzled, the Maori Party suggested that Mugabe was being
misreported and that it would be better if Zimbabwe's neighbours
worked alongside Mugabe for change. Sharples said because Zimbabwe
was working its way out of colonisation, "it's going to take a bit
of tough and tumble before they do find the way".
It may have been a well-intentioned stance, but it was
ill-informed. Mugabe's descent into dictatorship was not going to
be reversed by gentle hand-holding at that stage; he was
manipulating everyone, including those offering their hand in
friendship. And colonisation is no excuse for mass murder.
The Maori Party doesn't seem to have learnt from its previous
fumblings. Despite less-than-subtle advice from the Prime Minister
and Foreign Minister, on Tuesday evening the Maori Party seemed
determined to press ahead with their plans to send a delegation,
even if Turia and Sharples, as ministers, are unable to go.
The mission is fraught with fishhooks. To walk into a tense
political and constitutional debate without pre-conditions, clear
goals and significant expertise is to risk being made a fool of and
exploited for propaganda. It could undermine whatever pressure the
world's sanction-led strategy is applying.
Bainimarama is by no means a Mugabe yet. But to reach out to his
regime without making any condemnation of its decision to override
the rule of law and censor the media shows poor judgment. Whatever
you think about Bainimarama's ends, his means must be criticised
without reservation. Given their hard won constitutional review and
their loyalty to the Treaty of Waitangi, does the Maori Party
really want to give succour to a regime that simply ripped up its
own country's constitution when it didn't get its own way?
Party president Whatarangi Winiata has said the Fijians are their
"Pacific cousins" and so deserve a hearing, but the delegation is
by no means a pan-Polynesian strategy.
The Pacific Islands Forum , which has been trying
to strike up a constructive conversation with Fiji for several
years now, suspended Fiji on Saturday, with chair of the Pacific
Islands Forum and Premier of Niue, the Honourable Toke Talagi,
saying, "A regime which displays such a total disregard for basic
human rights, democracy and freedom has no place in the Pacific
Islands Forum".
The Maori Party is also at odds with the United Nations, a body it
usually points to as guardians of global human rights. Fact is, the
party is on its own, isolated from every body and government that
matters. It's left looking hopelessly naïve, even arrogant.
What makes them think they can succeed where other Polynesian
leaders have failed?
The problem with the Maori Party's approach to foreign policy is
that it's a party designed to see every issue through the window of
ethnicity. Calling them a single issue party would be unfair; they
have heft across a wide range of social policy. But they are
blinkered, and foreign policy demands a broad and subtle
view.
Their instinct seems to be to side with indigenous people
everywhere, and while that will put you alongside the downtrodden
in many cases, it won't work everywhere. Zimbabwe is the classic
case in point. As the Greens Keith Locke said back in 2005,
"the
co-leader of the Maori Party should understand that oppression is
colour blind."
Q+A - TV ONE, Sunday at 9am and live streaming on tvnz.co.nz
