DIRTY POLITICS IN NATIONAL: A LEGACY FROM (SIR) JOHN KEY ERA

DIRTY POLITICS IN NATIONAL: A LEGACY FROM (SIR) JOHN KEY ERA

Thakur Ranjit Singh

Nicky Hager's tell all book, DIRTY POLITICS based on emails hacked from Cameron Slater's Gmail account and on Facebook chats.,was published on 13 August, 2014. This was almost forgotten for the last six years till the forthcoming election in 2020, when claims of dirty politics again raised its dirty head. This was in the aftermath of the leadership challenge and the change in National Party after Simon Bridges was rolled by a newcomer, Todd Muller. This new leader is well-known, at times, for unsubstantiated criticism of the Labour Coalition government with his often-repeated cathwords of "shambolic, shabby and shambles."

Things came to a head on 6 July, 2020 when it was revealed to the National leader that one of his electorate MPs, Hamish Walker had leaked confidential e-mails on positive Covid 19 patients, leaked to him by a former National Party president, Michelle Boag.

Both the National leader and their health spokesman Michael Woodhouse used that leaked e-mails to criticise the government and accuse them of being shambolic and in shambles. Once it was revealed that National had scored an own-goal, with leaks that happened in-house, people were once again reminded of the 2014 election which was marred by claims of Dirty Politics.

Hager had claimed that dirty politics in the National Party was nurtured by the then PM and leader, John Key, who reportedly used others to do his "dirty jobs" while keeping a very clean and smiling profile.

Hence, I am dusting off my five-part analysis of Nicky Hager's Dirty Politics, and republishing it for benefits of those who may have forgotten how the National Party fostered, encouraged and gave oxygen to negative campaigning. This is a prelude to the five-part analysis. As these articles were published in September, 2014, details are current at that time.

A NZ Herald columnist, after publication of DIRTY POLITICS, in 2014 stated, and so do I: 

How much the Prime Minister (John Key) knew of all these machinations is open to question, but he was captain of the ship that had so badly lost its way and if he was just trustingly negligent, does he thus escape any blame? 

Can Key shoot the messenger, refuse to read the book and put his head in the sand in Ostrich Syndrome? Did the smiling nice guy have wild dogs and hounds on the side to do his dirty jobs?

 

The OSTRICH SYNDROME, where John Key and National supporters are merely passing on DIRTY POLITICS as a "left -wing conspiracy" and rantings of a mad man, without reading the book. This is a way to wish the issue to go away, and assume it does not exist.

When I started reading Nicky Hager’s “Dirty Politics” in 2014, after the first two chapters, I felt myself at home, in a Third World Fiji, or got a feeling it was happening in a corrupt India under the Congress Party rule, or a military regime in Africa. But then I pinched myself, I was sitting in a Party Bus that I drive. 

That is what happens with a Pacific Islander journalist, with no big-brother, old-school-boys club or cronies, who cannot find a job in the mainstream New Zealand media. Yes, I was not in Fiji, India or Somalia - this was about happenings in the First World “clean” New Zealand.

NICKY HAGER'S DIRTY POLITICS that ruffled many feathers, and revealed a smiling assassin who rejected this as rantings of a left-winger. But the culture of muck that Hager raked six years ago in 2014, STILL thrives in the National Party, with e-mail leaks of Hamish Walker and Michelle Boag on 6 July, 2020. 

John Key and the right wingers are trying to pass the book as a “left-wing conspiracy.” It is so easy to shoot the messenger, without embracing the message. I have the appreciation of this, as I have been a victim of the so-called Indian mafia in Auckland which castigated and ostracized me for saying some unsavory truths about their mother India. But that is a different story. 

I do realise and appreciate that the first strategy of a scoundrel is to shoot the messenger, pass the message as a conspiracy, and indulge in Ostrich Syndrome. 

Ostrich Syndrome is a peculiar condition marked by the person making absolutely nonsensical statements, displaying pure stupidity and a lack of common sense akin to an ostrich with the head in the ground. The person displays a tendency not only to put his foot in the mouth but to never take it out either. By sticking its head in the sand, the person, like the proverbial ostrich, thinks he cannot be seen by others, and wish the danger would go away. But that is far from the case. Judith Collins came to realize this at her peril, and you will hear about it the series of articles on this book.

OSTRICH SYNDROME: When somebody, like John Key and the National Party and its supporters, go in this mode-and bury their heads. The dirt within the National Government is dug by hired hounds and attack dogs, while the leader is shown as a clean smiling person.

After going through the first few Chapters, I was engrossed with the very well-referenced writing which are not the rantings of a mad-man or a ‘nutter”, but well written accounts of those who are hit with their own weapons and ammunition - hacks and stolen materials. 

This is KARMA,where those indulging in defaming others through illegally-obtained e-mails are victims of their own arsenal. This is the philosophy of “what you sow, so you shall reap”. 

OSTRICH SYNDROME: when you bury the head in sand, and you expose the other anatomy, that we call "butts"(apart from other things.)

Postings on KIWI PUNDIT (now FIJI PUNDIT) with reference to Dirty Politics book will carry a synopsis, interpretations and quotations directly from the book, especially for those who do not get to read it.

Indeed, politicians want politics to be left to them, but I believe otherwise as politics should not be left to the politicians, otherwise they will indulge in dirty politics, as they have been doing in New Zealand.

In the preface to Dirty Politics, Nicky Hager writes:

Understanding what is wrong means things do not have to remain that way. Exposing dirty politics is an essential step in allowing reasonable people to understand and to choose other approaches. There is no need to follow those who are least principled down into the pit.

British statesman Edmund Burke said:

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. 

In the same principle, I take it upon myself as a good and ethical blogger, to tell the inside story of this book that the mainstream media failed to undertake. 

This is a prelude to an analysis of  a five-part series on DIRTY POLITICS. Await further post-mortem postings of politics gone dirty in a clean country.

[About the Author: Thakur Ranjit Singh was trained at AUT, and supposed to add colour to New Zealand's newsroom. But he drives a bus, is involved with community wellbeing, runs his blog, and occassionally ruffles a few feathers]