Very, very, very angry - NZ errorism not terrorism
As an activist, my personal position on this has not changed. Activists don't touch guns. Ever. Nelson Mandela always articulated my feelings best when he said 'the oppressor states the nature of the struggle'. If the NZ State was dragging people into the streets and shooting them while suspending elections, I'd pick up a gun and stand shoulder to shoulder, but in NZ the State 'oppresses' with proportional elections once every 3 years.
Hardly a call for armed revolution.
That said, let's be clear, Tame Iti and his merry militia are not terrorists. Fantasy role-players who were high on their own supply yes, terrorists no. Should the Police have investigated what was happening here, absolutely. If it was the National Front running around the hills with guns I would want them investigated as well, but the deplorable manner in which the Police over reacted using a TSA that was a farce, using spying techniques that broke laws and managed to terrorize Tuhoe in a police intervention that almost mirrored the original police intervention that caused Tuhoe all their grievance in the first place is criminal negligence on behalf of Howard Broad.
I also find it near impossible to believe that Helen Clark was not aware of this police action and didn't green light it. As head of the SIS it is simply not credible that she was not briefed on this.
The Police chased ghosts and ended up disgracing themselves with the resulting farce of a case that is weak at best and a joke at worst, with the millions spent on this investigation they had to show someone was a 'terrorist', which in the end turned out to be the Police themselves with their illegal spying tactics and brutal repression of the people of Tuhoe when they sent the ninja cops in.
What happened here was errorism, not terrorism. Twisted thinking of errors by all concerned. Ridiculously militant fantasies of armed revolution by a bunch of role playing activists who all should have known better and a Police force so spooked by the supposed monsters they believed they had uncovered that they themselves turned into the monsters is a legacy of idiocy for all concerned.
On the lighter side, if this actually represents the 'threat' of domestic terrorism then we can be rest assured that there is no threat.
Neither side walk away from this with much honour.
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posted by Bomber @ 7:47 am
4 comments
4 Comments:
I normally agree with you for the most part but this time I have a few issues. I'm opposed to all violence myself but I don't agree with your reasons for rejecting Tame Iti etc's actions.
I'm not sure if you're representing Mandela well with that quote, but another phrase I've heard in non-violence theory is that we should refuse to let the oppressor set the terms of the struggle.
But you're missing the point with what those terms are, anyway. Our democratic state (which you are suddenly praising so highly) IS backed up by violence - as shown clearly in the police response in this situation - and to suggest that the State is non-violent or less violent than the Tuhoe 'terrorists' is ridiculous, it's pure ideology and you should know better.
Armed rebellion IS letting the oppressor set the terms of the struggle; a non-violent yet disobedient solution (neither violence nor officially sanctioned [tame] democratic protest) would have been more creative and would have been a much better way of seizing the initiative. It also would have worked better in my opinion. But if they choose a strategy I oppose I'm not going to withdraw my support for them completely or ignore the fact that their violence is a natural consequence of the State's violence in occupying Tuhoe and annexing it as part of the New Zealand state when they didn't even sign the Treaty.
You may think our current political system, where we get some limited voting rights in a centralised state, is pretty good, but if Tuhoe don't want it, it IS oppression. And they clearly don't want it.
If it was the National Front running around the hills with guns, they'd be wanting to take over our country with their minority views.
Tuhoe have no hope or desire to take over our country, they only want what they've always wanted - freedom for their own nation. They have no forseeable hope of receiving that - even self-determination within a multi-nation state as with Nunavut in Canada - while part of the New Zealand state. "Proportional eletions once every 3 years" in the centralised state are not going to provide the Tuhoe nation with self-determination. In this situation, desperate measures are understandable and not simply overzealous activists over-reacting or role-playing.
(This goes for the people of Tuhoe fighting for their own independence - if any of the other activists raided on October 15 were also dabbling in armed revolution I'd be less understanding - they'd be more in the same boat as the National Front. Your failure to make a distinction is misleading and unfair on the people of Tuhoe).
You are a liberal and fyi his name is not "Tama Iti". :)
A phone call would have fixed it!
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2011/09/tama-iti-terrorist.html
Please note, Anonymous that my spelling is incorrect in my post title above but it isn't in my actual post, not sure why that is happening.
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