A weekend article written by Steve Elers of Massey
University's School of Communications includes some interesting observations of
the Prime Ministers character. I would recommend it to anybody who is concerned
about the prospects for this nation as we try to reassert ourselves post Covid
19.
Elers attempts (successfully in my opinion) to establish a link between the ideological beliefs that formed the basis of the Prime Ministers former career (pre parliamentary politics) and those that drive her in her current position as Leader of this country.
Elers attempts (successfully in my opinion) to establish a link between the ideological beliefs that formed the basis of the Prime Ministers former career (pre parliamentary politics) and those that drive her in her current position as Leader of this country.
He suggests that
it is impossible for "the leopard to change its spots" and that the
position she held on most issues and advocated for pre 2008 would most likely
be the same today as it was then.
Consequently,
Elers argues that when you research the reported statements from her time as
Leader of The International Union of Socialist Youth you will find an indication
of the sort of country she and her colleagues would like us to become as we
emerge from this current nightmare.
And, when you
delve into the possibilities that are available to her and her government at a
time when she is granted extraordinary powers to do whatever is necessary in
these unfamiliar times, it all becomes a bit scary.
Why do l make that
rather flamboyant statement?
Simple really and
at the same time - rather ironic!
One of the reasons
why we have been able to navigate the lockdown so successfully in this country
compared to similar situations faced by most others, is because we have as our
Prime Minister a person with extraordinary communication skills.
Heaven knows what
difficulties we might have encountered if that had not been the case. The
messages have been clear and sensitively delivered at every press conference -
well done Prime Minister. On that score alone we are in your debt.
However, as we change
from a country under siege to one trying to establish a new direction, the requirements as a leader change
dramatically and it is quite possible that our current Prime Minister has
exhausted her small bag of tricks leaving us in the hands of the other
ideologues in her party who are more than willing to oversee our immediate
future.
That, according to
Elers is the worry and l for one (as you might have expected) totally agree
with him.
Not only are we in
danger of emerging from this period of martial law looking like a patient
recovering from a massive bout of plastic surgery that shows us as a markedly
different model than we were even months ago, the new appendages (budget
measures) we are carrying are not designed to help the body corporate operate
as needed - they are purely cosmetic!
In other words,
the government has no idea or is un prepared for where the emphasis for this
spending bonanza should be directed and so has used the opportunity to change
the whole character of this nation from one that has served us well for at
least the last 150 years to one that is ideologically driven in sympathy with
its current coalition partners.
While you can't
blame them for grabbing the opportunity to restructure our society in a manner
that is foreign to most kiwis, it is rather dishonest to impose this dogma on
an unsuspecting public when we are so vulnerable and at a time when we have to
accept the medicine irrespective of whether it is good for us.
Wouldn't it have
been better to take their ideas to the electorate in September and taken their
chances. But that would have taken guts - not a visible characteristic of this
government.
Clive Bibby is a commentator, consultant, farmer and community leader, who lives in Tolaga Bay.
Clive Bibby is a commentator, consultant, farmer and community leader, who lives in Tolaga Bay.
2 comments:
Scary indeed. Coupled with the ideology of the Greens,(Reds) Labour will do whatever they think is required to to achieve their socialist utopia.
I doubt that much thought has gone into what New Zealanders would like to see in the years following the current crisis. It will be full steam ahead with changes the like we have never seen.
Labour need be very careful what they wish for.
As a number of political commentators have said, locking people away and throwing cash around like confetti is easy, the difficult bit will be seeing that the money is efficiently used to rebuild the economy. Efficient and socialism are words not often seen together. While " Cindas Kindies" been a great success with the media, particularly the international media, it should be of great concern that some of the press have been excluded from them.
I believe that the question for voters in the coming election should be, " Do I believe that the Labour Party has the competence to rebuild New Zealand's economy" . Cinda may be a very credible leader but she has a very small pool of competent ministers, the rest would be better employed planting seedlings. She cannot afford to delay the election, the later it happens the greater the risk the the electorate will see the extent of the damage she has caused and how poorly she is equiped to remedy the situation.
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