1. Key’s “can’t remember”, “won’t go into it” stance will ultimately be more damaging than saying, Yes I supported apartheid sports teams at the time. I apologise and put my hand out in friendship to those who did oppose apartheid.

   Of course he has refused to do this.

   John Key has deliberately compounded his error with a narrow minded attack on the Mana MP, Hone Harawira, an active opponent of apartheid sporting tours.

   John Key’s refusal to examine his past views, has let many others off of the hook in this country, who if John Key had acted with dignity and reflection appropriate to the occasion, would also have had to reflect on their own entrenched views on race.

   In his own words, because he “couldn’t be bothered” John Key has done nothing to advance good race relations in this country.

   If John Key had, on the occasion of Nelson Mandela’s death honoured the example of reconciliation exemplified by Nelson Mandela in life, it would have been so different. It would have marked a new beginning in race relations in this country.

   Instead nothing was learnt.

   John Key’s cynical behavior and lack of reflection reminds me of the final depressing line, from the last verse of the Beatle’s most depressing ever song ‘Eleanor Rigby’.

   “…wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave
   No one was saved”

   • wot jenny said..

     phillip ure..

2. I couldn’t have put it better myself, Jenny.

   It is this attitude of “we’re never wrong” from politicians that lowers them in the sight of the public.

   Of course most people know that Key lied. But it’s all “wink, wink, nod, nod”, and it goes mostly unchallenged…

   However, more and more, Key’s brain fades are being openly reported, discussed, and scorned for what they are; weak attempts at outright lying.

   Much like the Standard & Poors Affair back in 2011; http://fmacskasy.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/i-dunno-i-wasnt-told-i-wasnt-there/

   • Thank you for your kind vote of confidence Frank.
     My above comments were my immediate visceral response on reading your posting of Key’s sell out of Mandela and his legacy.

     You are absolutely right Frank that it is all about, “wink, wink, nod, nod”.

     By saying he forgets where he stood, John Key avoids having to do one, of two, unpleasant/risky things.

     1/ Having to apologise, if he said he was for the tour.

     2/ Risk getting caught out in a lie, if he said he was against the tour.

     By saying he doesn’t remember, John Key side steps this moral double dilemma altogether.

     But I digress.

     Frank you posted more than just the negative example of John Key.

     In my disgust at Key’s sick behaviour* I had looked right past the positive example of Norman Kirk, that you had also put in your post.

     “Once upon a time, in a little nation of a few million people, we elected great leaders who strode the world, setting an example that we could live a better way…”
     Frank Macskasy “Once Were Leaders”

     Indeed…

     Norman Kirk was a principled leader completely unlike John Key.

     (So much so, it feels like a crime to put the two men’s names in the same sentence.)

     Norman Kirk’s brave anti-nuclear stance, was matched by his deep personal hatred of racism.

     Unlike John Key, Norman Kirk had no problem knowing what he thought of apartheid. He loathed it.

     In 1972 Norman Kirk Leader of the Labour opposition, was facing up against the National Party incumbent Prime Minister, Jack Marshall.

     In the lead up to the election, Prime Minister, Jack Marshall, in a cynical ploy to garner the redneck rugby loving vote, released a press statement to the media:

     This government;
     “does not intend to prohibit sports teams from South Africa coming to New Zealand, or New Zealand sports teams going to South Africa.”
     Prime Minister Marshall March 7, 1972

     In a line used repeatedly by Robert Muldoon in 1981. Jack Marshall said; “It is better to build bridges between nations not walls”

     According to Kirk’s secretary and biographer, Margaret Hayward, Kirk was passionately opposed to Marshall’s statement and would have none of it.

     He wanted to release a statement in reply, saying, “New Zealand should sever all sporting contact ties with South Africa”.

     Margaret Hayward in her biography of Kirk, wrote it was strange to hear Kirk, who had always argued the virtues of leaving room for tactical manoeuvre, arguing for such a hardline statement.

     However inside the shadow cabinet, Bill Rowling argued against Kirk, claiming such a statement, “would finish us.”

     Senior Labour MPs, Hugh Watt, Warren Freer, sided with Rowling, against Kirk. They proposed a lesser response. “that unless guarantees are given the team will be selected on merit, regardless of colour, it should not be invited to New Zealand.”

     After a heated debate in the shadow cabinet, Kirk released a lesser statement, which wryly read; “There will be great responsibility on Mr Marshall to show that his bridge building does not turn out be merely building of one way bridges……”[i]

     As Prime Minister, Norman Kirk eventually had the pleasure of the honour, of personally cancelling the 1973 Springbok tour.

     “Kirk’s eventual decision to stop the whites-only team was always coming”, Hayward

     Postscript:

     [i] Haywood wrote that it had been Norman Kirk’s plan to enlarge on this statement.

     In an echo of the jamming of Uncle Scrim in 1934[a] and the modern shady dealings of the GCSB.[b]

     On the release of his initial statement, communications to Kirk’s home were mysteriously cut off.

     All day radio, TV and newspaper reporters had been phoning the Kirk home to get a statement from him either withdrawing or enlarging on his press release.

     In the days before internet and cellphones when the landline was the main avenue of electronic communication, Norman Kirk waited all day by the phone for the expected call from the media.

     The NZBC rang Kirk all afternoon, before having to give up.

     Hayward records that she herself rang Kirk between 5 and 5.30pm just before the news hour, to get a follow up statement, also with no response.

     Kirk who had been waiting on the call, complained to the post office.
     Technicians came around and said they could find nothing wrong with the phone. One technician used the neighbours phone to ring and got an engaged signal. The technicians said it was impossible, but it had happened, and they didn’t know what had caused it.

     [i](a) http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/35742/uncle-scrim-colin-scrimgeour
     “On 24 November 1935, the last Sunday before the upcoming election, engineers employed by the Post and Telegraph Department deliberately jammed the broadcast. It was discovered that the jamming was carried out on the orders of the director general of broadcasting”

     [i](b) http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120924/06222020500/nz-prime-minister-admits-that-government-illegally-wiretapped-megaupload-employees.shtml

     *“There was only one ‘The Tour’. It divided families, friends, sports clubs, and even political parties. The 56-day, 15 match, three test, Springbok tour from 19 July to 12 September 1981, brought together the potent symbols of rugby and apartheid with a dormant social consciousness. The resulting explosion of violence and confrontation jolted thousands of New Zealanders onto the streets in a debate that divided the nation. It was, to use the caustic humour of the day, ‘black or white’. Each New Zealander had to decide, ultimately, whether they were for or against the tour. There was no sitting on the fence.”

     Peter Utting

     • Thanks for that, Jenny. I’ve got Margaret’s “Diary of the Kirk Years” and it is a fascinating insight into a critical part of our history. The bits you’ve re-posted are illuminating and instructive.

       For a brief moment, a small, insignificant country at the bottom of the world, was the conscience of the human race…

       Key embodies everything that is the polar opposite and represents the most self-centered aspect of our nature.

       Kirk. Key.

       I know which one many of us look to for inspiration…

       Again, thanks, Jenny. I enjoyed very much reading your comments.

     • A thumbs up from me Jenny. I hadn’t heard about Big Norm’s phone before. A mysterious fault for the Post & Telegraph service who were right up there with current technology at that stage.

       I do recall as a 23 yr old that there was a sense of paranoia amongst us when it came to the spooks who worked in the secret departments.

       Life goes on but some things never seem to change.

3. Shows the total arrogance of the man to be honest, one of many examples of his arrogance that has manifested itself over the past two years. Strangely enough he didn’t seem to be recognised at Mandela’s memorial. I do not accept that for one moment he did not have a stand one way or the other on the 1981 Springbok tour and the issue of apartheid – an educated man attending University in NZ (hotbed of activism, student meetings etc on the issue) and we are led to believe that he can”t recall what stand he took – come on now

   • +1 Wayne.

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