Why the Treaty is Holding Us Back [update 4]

If morning TV is your thing, then why not take a look at TVNZ’s Marae programme tomorrow morning, on which from 8:00 to 8:30 a panel of four is debating the point: “The Treaty of Waitangi is Holding Back Our Nation.”  I don’t think I’m giving too much away by posting the opening remarks of my colleague Tim Wikiriwhi, one of four on the panel debating the point (the others are Stephen Franks, Matthew Hooton and Hana O’Regan, in front of an audience including John Minto and Matt & Madeleine Flannagan).

Why the Treaty is Holding Back the Nation
by Tim Wikiriwhi

    We should not be surprised that those who profit from Treaty separatism should be painting you a rosy picture of it.  But what do they really sell us?
    They hope you have forgotten about all the corruption; about all the grievous racial division their Treaty separatism has caused; about all the welfare dependence it fosters.
    They want you to believe the Treaty did not unite us as one people but kept us in eternal division.  They want you to accept their sexed-up version of the Treaty—their talk of “partnership,” which has become just another word for a hand out.
    They want you to forget all the anti-immigration and xenophobia-mongering—all the talk of “holocausts” and “post-colonial traumatic stress disorders”—all the damning of '”Tangata Tiriti” as if that makes them second-class citizens --all the racist slurs against non-Maori (against white mofos) by racist politicians occupying racist parliamentary seats.
    They hope you never question having such a racially perverted democracy—where a racist party sitting in racist seats gets to hold the balance of power—never question all the racially perverted laws.
    They hope New Zealanders have forgotten all the frauds, all the nepotism, all the misappropriations of taxpayers’ money, all the noses in the trough.
    They hope Pakeha never work out that land was confiscated from some tribes because they rebelled against the sovereignty of the Queen and the Treaty.
    They hope you have forgotten Tame Iti’s terrorist threat--how he was planning to kill white people; and how silent his comrades have been about what he was up to.
    Most of all, they hope you have forgotten that for a society to be just it must have laws that uphold the principle of equality before the law—especially racial equality before the law.
    They want you to continue to vote for unscrupulous Quislings like John Key who kiss up to Maori radicals and allow them unquestioningly to impose and expand their racist agenda.
    I consider it my duty to call the perpetrators of this massive political fraud to account.
    I call for the abolition of the Maori seats in Parliament, and a new constitution upholding property rights and the rule of law— that’s one law for all, regardless of race.

UPDATE 1: Matt & Madeleine give out awards.

UPDATE 2: Watch it again on TVNZ On Demand.  Or, if you’re like me, watch it there for the first time.  It should appear here later today, presumably under the ‘RECENTLY ADDED’ heading.

 

UPDATE 3: Here’s the link to watch the whole programme:
http://tvnz.co.nz/marae/s2010-waitangi-special-video-3348418

UPDATE 4: And here’s what Stephen Franks prepared for his own Opening Statement.

"The real Treaty, the one signed 170 years ago was an asset to all New Zealanders, Maori and Pakeha. It was way ahead of its time.  The parties were hugely unequal. The British had only just abolished slavery. Maori of course had not. But it promised all equality before the law.”

Read on here.