by Corry Joseph
Once again, New Zealand has made race relations news for all the wrong reasons. A New Zealand First MP, Richard Prosser, has made the rather controversial statement that “If you are a young male, aged between, say, 19 and about 35, and you’re a Muslim, or you look like a Muslim, or you come from a Muslim country, then you’re not welcome to travel on any of the West’s airlines”.
Before we get into the legitimacy of this claim (spoiler alert, there isn’t any), we have to look at the validity of this individual within the Party system. Mr Prosser is a New Zealand First MP. And their party hasn’t had it particularly easy as of late. Affter their voter-enforced political hiatus from the last election cycle, they first had to deal with the alleged shady dealings of Brendan Horan, still not a matter entirely resolved, and now Mr Prosser’s “Wogistan” comments aren’t likely to make their Leader’s job any easier.
And then we have to ask what Winston Peter’s reaction tells you about the Party in general. While admitting the statement was “unbalanced”, he hasn’t apologised on his behalf, or asked for an apology from Mr Prosser (Of course Mr Prosser did apologise this morning, which raises questions of how well Peters is managing to keep his party in line). Peters could have quite quickly distanced himself between himself and the Party by simply stating that the opinion piece in Investigate Magazine was not a representation of Party Policy. Once again, this statement fell upon Mr Prosser to make.
Of course there are going to be calls for Mr Prosser’s resignation by the rest of Parliament. Everytime someone so much as steps on a snail in Parliament there are going to be calls for resignation. Puffery is part of the Political Process. The problem is that Mr Prosser is a representative of New Zealand First, and nothing else. He has no mandate from the electorate as he is a list MP, the only reason he’s in Parliament is New Zealand first had the power to put him there.
There are those who would argue that this is no surprise from a party which has made its name in creating divisive issues over race. But for a party that is trying to portray itself as a truly centrist party, its inability to distance itself over this issue raises serious questions. According to the Dom Post, New Zealand First has been trying to reach out to minority ethnic and religious groups in an effort to broaden its voter base (which considering its ageing voter base at the moment is only logical), so this sort of bigotry isn’t going to help.
What gets me is that this is not just an off-the-cuff remark, said in passing. At any point during the creative or editorial process before the magazine went to print, Mr Prosser would have had the opportunity to review this article and taken out the inflamatory comments. He’s been in Parliament for two years now and would surely have had some idea how a statement like this, regardless of context, would have been taken. Surely he should have known that he would have had little to no support within Parliament (whether or not within NZ First’s caucus could be a subject for debate). This would suggest to me that he was making these statements purely to get people’s backs up, to create an uproar. It’s almost on level with the worst of the American political right (think Glen Beck or Rush Limbaugh), making him essentially a troll.
Apart from the fact that a Muslim is simply someone who follows the Islamic faith and don’t have a specific way of looking or acting, there are an estimated 41,000 Muslim individuals in New Zealand, quite a substantial part of the electorate to piss off. The idea of banning people from travelling based on their religion or way of life is abhorent to most of us. New Zealand First came into power on a wave of disillusionment over the other parties in power. If New Zealand first MPs continue making this kind of remark, they may find themselves exactly where they were three years ago again after the next set of elections.
Politisphere 