Why I voted Labour and why 2017 will be different

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As a 3nd and 5th generation Kiwi-Indian (depending on which side of the family we have to go with), my relationship with New Zealand is a special one. Like other New Zealanders who are not of the Caucasian variety, the greatest struggle is finding your place in a country where your customs are not easily understood, leading to you having to dismiss the ‘strange’ part of your identity in order to fit in. This struggle is particularly hard when you have a disability. It wasn’t until my last couple of years of high school when I decided that I hate sandwiches and would actually rather take last night’s curry in a Tupperware container to school instead. Yea, people will give me funny looks, but I was determined to own that shit, and I did.

Without divulging into the ins-and-outs of my family history, as interesting as it may be, the bottom line that this is where we ended up. My ancestors and grandparents came to New Zealand where their grandchildren and decedents can have a fair shot no matter what their background is, where honest and hardworking parents can put food on the table and be their own landlord, where everyone can have equal access to healthcare and education and where the government is honest, has the people’s best interest and doesn’t allow its self to become puppets of a manipulative superpower.

I love the Indian culture because of the emphasis on forming meaningful relationships with your elders. One thing all 4 of my grandparents have taught me is that no matter where we end up, never forget where we started and definitely do not pull the ladder out from under you. Personally, I have no idea what its like to watch my parents struggle to keep a roof over the heads of my sisters and I, but this is because my grandparents and parents had the opportunity offered to them to build something for themselves here, which was meant to pave the path for those to come. Unfortunately, the current neo-liberalistic climate is making it impossible for young people to leave anything behind for their children, even after working themselves to the bone.

With all of this in mind and in honour of the past and future generations, I gave my party vote to Labour.

I am eternally grateful to the Labour Party. After all, it was Labour’s immigration reform that allowed my family to migrate to New Zealand after the 1987 Fiji coup in the first place. It was because of this that I, a Gujarati Muslim woman in a wheelchair could gain a tertiary education without any major trauma or hindrances. It really had nothing to do with me. So much of that is accredited to a society culture that believes in helping each other out. Of course there was still discrimination and marginalization at the best of times, but in the past 6 years we’ve only gone backwards.

From the results this weekend, I’m wondering just how bad things have to get before New Zealand finally wakes up. I do believe however, that by 2017 we will. It’s regretful that things have to get worse before it can get better but the important thing is to always keep fighting. The future generations are depending on it.

13 COMMENTS

  1. Heartbreak!
    How can NZ have so many twisted minds, and cold hearts.
    Obviously the corruption is well-seated in NZ.

    I am so sad, that the votes went for the evil money-takers, ahead of the vulnerable and poor and goodness.

    This is how it makes me feel!

    http://youtu.be/MiZaLpd9BBo

    Opinion.

  2. 73.8 per cent voted.

    48.9% of those who voted, voted for National.

    National’s landslide was 36.09% of NZ’s total eligible voters.

    The 26.2% who did not vote should be ashamed of that landslide.

    • We have people in absolute poverty and many of those people never get around to voting since they live lives of existential anxiety. To say they should be ashamed only adds insult to injury. Furthermore, who can say who the missing voters were this time? Many could have been National voters who were so put off by John Key’s blatant lies that they stayed at home. We really do not know. Blaming non-voters for the fact that we face another three years of this miserable government is futile and will not put a progressive coalition into power in 2017.

    • That 26.2 % made a decision not to vote. That is their right and just because you don’t like the outcome of the election should not make them ashamed.

      • Gosman,
        By definition a decision is “a conclusion or resolution reached after consideration”, I’m betting for some non-voters the thought of voting never even crossed their minds.

  3. Thanks, Latifa, I’ve been feeling gutted since Saturday night, and reading your words has given my sagging morale a needed boost. Just 48 hours ago I felt like giving up the fight but now I’m ready to take the rats on again. 😉

  4. Thank you Latifa, a time to focus on how to get back to the NZ you describe, be kind to each other and to realise that a combination of
    fear and wounded misguided loyalty to Key have briefly bounced back Nationals support. Key has been stripped somewhat, but the next 18 months will continue the corrosive affects on his reputation. Time for the left to unify, be pragmatic and regroup to take advantage of the rage that will await the traitor’s final unveiling. Don’t despair too long, the economy is waning, dirty politics has another scalp, Jason Ede is gone, Slater is disgraced and hard right reforms will hit home to the core of the soft party voters who split and opted for Labour candidates.
    All is not lost

  5. Economic history shows that when people have had enough of financial messes they call on the left to clean it up. Things to watch for should include will Key try and hock off the rest of the electricity companies and what their legislation will do to workers rights. Also watch for putting Landcorp up for sale to the highest bidder. This would be a disaster. I know he claims he wants to be fair, but the question here is to whom? His rich mates or the rest of ordinary NZ. Many who didn’t vote or voted for him may well come to rue the day.

  6. Add to that Dorothy the schools and hospitals plus Kiwibank.In the process of giving Dotcom the fingers those who gave their Party Vote
    to the most corrupt regime since Muldoon has given them the mandate to do whatever they like.Key has no intention of being centrist.The useless
    media might swallow that shit but us on the left won’t.Intersting to about the online polls which is MSM mischief making on who should be the next Labour Party leader.The root of the problem is the ABCs we all
    know that and so does Cunliffe

  7. Decisive alliances need to be formed now between all opposition parties now.

    Otherwise divided we fall, again, & again, and again.

    Time to stop the blunders & ruin of this country by a corrupted sell out Government.

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