We continue to survive the new normal life. One in which a virus is on the loose. We are ducking for cover within our homes. In between this hide and seek, politicians have stood out as the people who impact our lives the most. It was a fact yesterday. It is today. And will remain the same tomorrow. That is because politicians make decisions. Decisions that have direct impact on your and my life. Decisions such as when the country moves to Level 4. Decisions about who gets how much from the state benefit. And so on.
Here is a reflection and my opinionated view on the two main leaders of the New Zealand parliament, and the two largest parties' approach since this pandemic hit the fan in New Zealand.
Every time I see her on TV or Facebook live, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern makes me feel safe. She makes me feel like she is taking care of me, my family, and all of New Zealand. The PM makes me feel like she and her government is doing their best to get us out of this pandemic. The PM and her science advisors make me feel like they are working with an intention of eradicating the virus. I trust on their capability to stamp it out. The PM and her cabinet makes me feel like they are working around the clock to best manage the impact on our economy and lifestyle.
When I watch her during the daily press meets, Jacinda sounds like a concerned mother telling her baby, “it’s going to be OK. I got you. I’m going to take care of you”. She asks me to be kind. Amidst all this plethora of mountains of decision making, Jacinda Ardern is leading the country while taking actions to ensure that we get back on track, without having to “yo-yoing between levels”*. I have never seen leadership like this. During this once in a lifetime event, I have seen the best ever leader of my lifetime.
Simon Bridges. Where do I start? He makes me cringe, literally every time he says something. I have followed him since he became the leader of the opposition. I have watched videos of him speaking at the parliament where he starts with his question to the government from the (in)famous line, “does she believe in every action of her government?”.
The largest economic reform New Zealand has even seen took place during the tenure of the fourth Labour government. This was so radical that it has a dedicated nomenclature of “rogernomics”. Any curious soul may want to google that word. I’m not judging the reform or analysing it’s impact. That would be way out of scope of my ability. I’m just pointing to the fact that Labour also does neoliberal market-led economic reforms, in case you didn’t realise.
Similarly, National is portrayed or it gives impression of itself to be this awesome infrastructure building woo haa party. But from what I saw during the three terms of the Key government, there is a difference between handing out contracts to your mates and strategically planning and building sustainable infrastructures of a nation. If you did not know, the Waterview tunnel connection to the airport in Auckland was Helen Clark government’s decision. Do you remember the SkyCity Convention Centre saga of 2015 that rattled the Key government? On the other hand, you might recall the 12 billion infrastructure “splurge” announced by Grant Robertson in January this year. One commentator called Grant Robertson's investment “epic, massive, whopping, ridiculous amount”.
Another beautiful propaganda is this - Labour over-subscribes to social reform. It is the people’s party. At least in principle. The international labor movement was born out of trade unionism during the 19th century to protect the common interest of workers. In New Zealand, according to the NZ Labour party’s website, the party’s “roots lie in activism for workers’ rights and democratic reform, which can be traced back to at least 1840”. The international labor movement and the labour unionism here at home has evolved significantly since the 19th century. It has had its day - good and bad. Yes, the New Zealand Labour party is a socialist party, in my view. However, socialist means many things to many people - from the communists to the lefties, and what not in between. NZ Labour’s values may be compared with the social democrat parties around the world such as those in the Scandinavia. It is beyond me what is wrong with having the following as values and guiding principles of a political party?
Here is an interesting fact related to the social reform propaganda. During the three terms of the Key government, there were massive, if not the greatest, reforms in the social sector. You will recall the Maori Party forming a coalition government with the National Party. Sadly, by the end of the three terms, the Maori Party vanished off the face from this planet. That is an interesting topic until next time. National portrays it as tough on immigration, similar to the tough on crime bogus. But during the Key era, New Zealand’s borders were so relaxed that even the Left complained that we were letting in far too many immigrants. Have you noticed how the immigration policies are gradually getting tighter since the current Labour government came to power? Some speculate that the Key government’s relaxed immigration policies were linked to having to feed the housing market frenzy. This again is out of my capacity and a topic, maybe, for another day.
Who did what aside. Looking at the political cycle, one thing is clear about the two largest parties of New Zealand. They are so central in the political spectrum, that it is crowded there at the middle ground. That is the nature of the Kiwi society. We are not an extreme bunch. That's an absolute nah nah for us, instead of our universally favourite yeah nah. Politicians merely mimic our society. Hence, the parties seem to fight each other to gain the middle ground to attract the centrist electorate, who are the majority. In electioneering terms, you can call this group the swing voters. In persuading the swing voters, the parties keep fishing for each others’ ideas and agendas. Apparently, to remain stable in the middle. The fascinating part of this agenda hijacking is that they go for the jugular. National fishing off Labour's agenda of social reform. Labour paying back with fishing off infrastructure spending. As if to devoid the other party of any political oxygen.
The examples above are not that distant in the past. For an inquisitive person, factual information is readily available on your fingertips. Some of you have lived through the times when the above occurred. You have seen and you know what happened. It is impossible to compare every bit about the two parties but there are many examples where they have clearly stepped out of their perceived or projected normal patch. And I personally think that is not a bad thing. Just as a rational voter tends to vote for either party based on the merit of their agenda, it is refreshing to see the parties doing some experiment out of their core agendas. A bit of healthy competition is not a bad thing.
Our sense of the long-term vision has been obscured by the blue hue of our screens that constantly bombard us with sensationalising news, click baits, targeted advertisements and bots. We have become so narcissistic that while we continue to flash our selfies and open up our personal lives over the social media, we have failed to realise the social media corporations are making us write free content every time we post something. That includes this writing too. I am also one of them. Just like you and him and her who may be reading this.
Add our deliberate and unconscious bias to our short attention span, you get the most potent cocktail that sets your mind into a hysteria. Our personal bias prevents us from seeing the good in the Ardern government’s merits. At the same time, our personal bias propels us to buy into Bridge’s attack of the government. It seems fair to observe that we have been tempted and misled by our biases. We let our myopic short-sightedness and selfishness conveniently seduce our thinking. This addiction to this kind of seduction is dangerous. This erodes our objectivity. It devoids us from our ability to differentiate the right from the wrong. It clouds our common sense and peripheral vision. If we continue to give up to our virtues for the sake of bias or convenience, there is a greater danger that looms ahead. We are likely to see more and more false positives or false negatives of our understanding and our judgment, if any of these survive at all.
Now, coming back to the present, the Ardern government has clearly and repeatedly informed and warned at the same time by saying this (not exact words) - We want to manage the impact of COVID-19 by going hard and acting fast. We are on track to stamp out coronavirus. Our aim is to have the least impact on our economy and jobs from this pandemic. If we let the virus out, it will have a much greater impact on our economy. In the latter case, our road of economic recovery will be longer. There will be greater the damage to our industries and society if we suffer a rampage like the one we saw in Italy or in the US.
What is there not to understand in the above message and approach of the government? As far as I’m concerned, this government is approaching the current pandemic with a long-term vision for our economy and society. The government’s COVID-19 response seems well thought, balanced, scientifically based and pragmatic. It is doing the best it can to soften the blow on the economy now by announcing a very generous economic package. In the long run, Grant Robertson has informed us he and the Treasury are on the job of economic recovery and stimulus. You might have noticed about the "shovel-ready" projects announced on 1st of April by the Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones**.
Subscribing to the Maya Angelou quote about how people will never forget how you make them feel, how Jacinda Ardern and Simon Bridges make the people feel today is going to seal the fate of the Labour Party and the National Party for at least a foreseeable political future of New Zealand electoral cycle. Other than the hardcore supporters of the red and the blue, the voters are noticing. They must.
Let’s watch the space ...We shall see.
-------
* "yo-yo" - a phrase used by Jacinda Ardern during her speech delivered on 20 April, 2020. Full text of the speech available at https://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/prime-minister%E2%80%99s-remarks-covid-19-alert-level-decision-%E2%80%93-april-20
** Beehive link to the announcement https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-seeks-infrastructure-projects
This article came into life as an extension of my ongoing parley with my good friends Sunil Dhakal and Bhawesh Singh. Thanks guys, for the motivation. I didn't realise until early this morning that I was going to write something out of our conversation.
Here is a reflection and my opinionated view on the two main leaders of the New Zealand parliament, and the two largest parties' approach since this pandemic hit the fan in New Zealand.
Jacinda v Simon / Labour v National
Maya Angelou said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.Every time I see her on TV or Facebook live, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern makes me feel safe. She makes me feel like she is taking care of me, my family, and all of New Zealand. The PM makes me feel like she and her government is doing their best to get us out of this pandemic. The PM and her science advisors make me feel like they are working with an intention of eradicating the virus. I trust on their capability to stamp it out. The PM and her cabinet makes me feel like they are working around the clock to best manage the impact on our economy and lifestyle.
When I watch her during the daily press meets, Jacinda sounds like a concerned mother telling her baby, “it’s going to be OK. I got you. I’m going to take care of you”. She asks me to be kind. Amidst all this plethora of mountains of decision making, Jacinda Ardern is leading the country while taking actions to ensure that we get back on track, without having to “yo-yoing between levels”*. I have never seen leadership like this. During this once in a lifetime event, I have seen the best ever leader of my lifetime.
Simon Bridges. Where do I start? He makes me cringe, literally every time he says something. I have followed him since he became the leader of the opposition. I have watched videos of him speaking at the parliament where he starts with his question to the government from the (in)famous line, “does she believe in every action of her government?”.
With his aggressive and negative approach, the leader of the opposition has single handedly managed to undermine the role of the institution of not only the leader of the opposition but also that of the opposition party. He has redefined opposition party as someone who is always on your back being negative on everything and anything. There is hardly any constructive criticism. His attacks, at most instances, if not always looks like a personal vendetta against Jacinda Ardern. They are often not backed by any data or evidence. That makes it looks really odd, lame and lazy. He is capable of more than he is doing. It is astounding why is he continually under performing at this low level? To his credit, there was one instance after the announcement of lockdown when Bridges sounded positive. He for once looked like not a bad candidate for a future PM. But the problem is that was a one off. Rest of the time he seems to be just spitting venom. Simon Bridges continues to do this. And it looks like he is not going to change his style.
Criticising for the sake of criticising and holding the government to account are two completely different kettle of fish. National and Simon Bridges are headed high speed on a one way lane straight on the path of ruthless criticism. Sort of Trumpism. At this rate, an impact is imminent. This is suicidal to the party. When that accident occurs, forget Simon Bridges, the largest party in the parliament (by number of PMs in the sitting NZ parliament) will suffer hugely. The damage would have been done. Heads will roll. They must. And Mr Bridges would be the first to go. The question for National and its constituents is - who is the next leader?
The Politics of Propaganda
It is not only during this pandemic but this has been the case since this political dichotomy came into practice. The right is forever blaming the left that they are poor in economic management. And the constituents buy into this propaganda. Let us look at a few facts.The largest economic reform New Zealand has even seen took place during the tenure of the fourth Labour government. This was so radical that it has a dedicated nomenclature of “rogernomics”. Any curious soul may want to google that word. I’m not judging the reform or analysing it’s impact. That would be way out of scope of my ability. I’m just pointing to the fact that Labour also does neoliberal market-led economic reforms, in case you didn’t realise.
Similarly, National is portrayed or it gives impression of itself to be this awesome infrastructure building woo haa party. But from what I saw during the three terms of the Key government, there is a difference between handing out contracts to your mates and strategically planning and building sustainable infrastructures of a nation. If you did not know, the Waterview tunnel connection to the airport in Auckland was Helen Clark government’s decision. Do you remember the SkyCity Convention Centre saga of 2015 that rattled the Key government? On the other hand, you might recall the 12 billion infrastructure “splurge” announced by Grant Robertson in January this year. One commentator called Grant Robertson's investment “epic, massive, whopping, ridiculous amount”.
Another beautiful propaganda is this - Labour over-subscribes to social reform. It is the people’s party. At least in principle. The international labor movement was born out of trade unionism during the 19th century to protect the common interest of workers. In New Zealand, according to the NZ Labour party’s website, the party’s “roots lie in activism for workers’ rights and democratic reform, which can be traced back to at least 1840”. The international labor movement and the labour unionism here at home has evolved significantly since the 19th century. It has had its day - good and bad. Yes, the New Zealand Labour party is a socialist party, in my view. However, socialist means many things to many people - from the communists to the lefties, and what not in between. NZ Labour’s values may be compared with the social democrat parties around the world such as those in the Scandinavia. It is beyond me what is wrong with having the following as values and guiding principles of a political party?
- All people should have equal access to all social, economic, cultural, political and legal spheres, regardless of wealth or social position, and continuing participation in the democratic process.
- Co-operation, rather than competition, should be the main governing factor in economic relations, in order that a greater amount and a just distribution of wealth can be ensured.
- All people are entitled to dignity, self-respect and the opportunity to work.
- All people, either individually or in groups, may own wealth or property for their own use, but in any conflict of interest people are always more important than property and the state must ensure a just distribution of wealth.
Here is an interesting fact related to the social reform propaganda. During the three terms of the Key government, there were massive, if not the greatest, reforms in the social sector. You will recall the Maori Party forming a coalition government with the National Party. Sadly, by the end of the three terms, the Maori Party vanished off the face from this planet. That is an interesting topic until next time. National portrays it as tough on immigration, similar to the tough on crime bogus. But during the Key era, New Zealand’s borders were so relaxed that even the Left complained that we were letting in far too many immigrants. Have you noticed how the immigration policies are gradually getting tighter since the current Labour government came to power? Some speculate that the Key government’s relaxed immigration policies were linked to having to feed the housing market frenzy. This again is out of my capacity and a topic, maybe, for another day.
Who did what aside. Looking at the political cycle, one thing is clear about the two largest parties of New Zealand. They are so central in the political spectrum, that it is crowded there at the middle ground. That is the nature of the Kiwi society. We are not an extreme bunch. That's an absolute nah nah for us, instead of our universally favourite yeah nah. Politicians merely mimic our society. Hence, the parties seem to fight each other to gain the middle ground to attract the centrist electorate, who are the majority. In electioneering terms, you can call this group the swing voters. In persuading the swing voters, the parties keep fishing for each others’ ideas and agendas. Apparently, to remain stable in the middle. The fascinating part of this agenda hijacking is that they go for the jugular. National fishing off Labour's agenda of social reform. Labour paying back with fishing off infrastructure spending. As if to devoid the other party of any political oxygen.
The examples above are not that distant in the past. For an inquisitive person, factual information is readily available on your fingertips. Some of you have lived through the times when the above occurred. You have seen and you know what happened. It is impossible to compare every bit about the two parties but there are many examples where they have clearly stepped out of their perceived or projected normal patch. And I personally think that is not a bad thing. Just as a rational voter tends to vote for either party based on the merit of their agenda, it is refreshing to see the parties doing some experiment out of their core agendas. A bit of healthy competition is not a bad thing.
The Citizen’s Role
In this day and age of instant noodles, instant text message, take away latte, 3-second attention span timeline scrolling syndrome and perpetual “look at me! look at me!!”, we have lost the big picture view of the actions of our politicians and the political ideologies. The AI and the algorithms of our devices have programmed us to think and see only right here and right now. There is a saying in Nepali, तात्तै खाउँ, जली मरुँ. Which loosely translates to, “I’m going to devour this hot right now, don’t care even if I die”. This was never so true than in our contemporary times.Our sense of the long-term vision has been obscured by the blue hue of our screens that constantly bombard us with sensationalising news, click baits, targeted advertisements and bots. We have become so narcissistic that while we continue to flash our selfies and open up our personal lives over the social media, we have failed to realise the social media corporations are making us write free content every time we post something. That includes this writing too. I am also one of them. Just like you and him and her who may be reading this.
Add our deliberate and unconscious bias to our short attention span, you get the most potent cocktail that sets your mind into a hysteria. Our personal bias prevents us from seeing the good in the Ardern government’s merits. At the same time, our personal bias propels us to buy into Bridge’s attack of the government. It seems fair to observe that we have been tempted and misled by our biases. We let our myopic short-sightedness and selfishness conveniently seduce our thinking. This addiction to this kind of seduction is dangerous. This erodes our objectivity. It devoids us from our ability to differentiate the right from the wrong. It clouds our common sense and peripheral vision. If we continue to give up to our virtues for the sake of bias or convenience, there is a greater danger that looms ahead. We are likely to see more and more false positives or false negatives of our understanding and our judgment, if any of these survive at all.
Now, coming back to the present, the Ardern government has clearly and repeatedly informed and warned at the same time by saying this (not exact words) - We want to manage the impact of COVID-19 by going hard and acting fast. We are on track to stamp out coronavirus. Our aim is to have the least impact on our economy and jobs from this pandemic. If we let the virus out, it will have a much greater impact on our economy. In the latter case, our road of economic recovery will be longer. There will be greater the damage to our industries and society if we suffer a rampage like the one we saw in Italy or in the US.
What is there not to understand in the above message and approach of the government? As far as I’m concerned, this government is approaching the current pandemic with a long-term vision for our economy and society. The government’s COVID-19 response seems well thought, balanced, scientifically based and pragmatic. It is doing the best it can to soften the blow on the economy now by announcing a very generous economic package. In the long run, Grant Robertson has informed us he and the Treasury are on the job of economic recovery and stimulus. You might have noticed about the "shovel-ready" projects announced on 1st of April by the Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones**.
And finally ...
Just because you voted for National, doesn’t mean you have to blindly hate the good work of this government. Similarly, just because you adore Jacinda Ardern doesn’t mean you must ignore the opposition. Sadly, from what we can see, Simon Bridges in his role continues to undermine the mana of the important role note only of the leader of the opposition but also that of the opposition party.Subscribing to the Maya Angelou quote about how people will never forget how you make them feel, how Jacinda Ardern and Simon Bridges make the people feel today is going to seal the fate of the Labour Party and the National Party for at least a foreseeable political future of New Zealand electoral cycle. Other than the hardcore supporters of the red and the blue, the voters are noticing. They must.
Let’s watch the space ...We shall see.
-------
* "yo-yo" - a phrase used by Jacinda Ardern during her speech delivered on 20 April, 2020. Full text of the speech available at https://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/prime-minister%E2%80%99s-remarks-covid-19-alert-level-decision-%E2%80%93-april-20
** Beehive link to the announcement https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-seeks-infrastructure-projects
This article came into life as an extension of my ongoing parley with my good friends Sunil Dhakal and Bhawesh Singh. Thanks guys, for the motivation. I didn't realise until early this morning that I was going to write something out of our conversation.
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