House negroes defend masters from uppity field negro

Whenever Hone Harawira trends on Twitter it is because of something he said (rather than something he may have actually done). So today I see him up there and wonder what has he said now to rark up the masses?
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Stuff:
Mana Party leader Hone Harawira has lashed out at Maori Party MPs for suggesting they won't attend the national water rights hui, calling them Prime Minister John Key's "little house niggers". The Maori King, King Tuheitia, called the hui for next week after the Government rejected recommendations from the Waitangi Tribunal to hold a Maori summit on the issue.
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Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples yesterday told media he was unsure whether any MPs, including those from his party, should go and that iwi leaders, claimant groups and the Maori Council - which took the claim to the Tribunal - should "work it out themselves".  His comments angered Harawira, who took to Facebook.
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Love how you can act like one, talk like one and be like one, but you are never allowed to call them one.  If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck in New Zealand they would call it Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos or whatever - but not a duck.

It's regarded as more offensive in NZ - certainly with Pakeha - to call a Maori a "house nigger" than it is to behave like a "house nigger" in the first place.  Many - probably most - Maori see past the hard edges of Hone's blunt language of baiting and insults and to the essential truth that underlines it. But facebook goes out to a wider audience and Hone has slipped up. He's used the excellent Malcolm X explanation of the field and house slave dichotomy before and if he just restricted himself to the term he uses - "house negro" then it never would have erupted.

The problem for Hone, and through him the fledgling Mana movement, is to establish confidence amongst their own people and wider supporters (on the Left) that Hone is ministerial material, will be fit to hold a Crown warrant, and will assume the conventional aspects of executive behaviour. Hone is certainly a leader, but throwing out verbal grenades like the n-bomb, marks him back a rung or two from that threshold. If the aim of being an MP and party leader is to participate in executive government then it does mean adhering to conventional standards.

However, for the haters to maintain the line they push that Hone is unreliable and cannot be trusted as a politician is very weak. Hone can be trusted to tell the unvarnished facts as he sees it - that's 100% reliability. Hone actually supported the Nats when he was in the Maori Party in the first two years, which proved he has an abundance of toleration and the ability to compromise and co-operate and he only split on an issue where his party leaders had sold out their manifesto/kaupapa.  He has quite a good record in government considering the obvious contradictions and difficulties of pairing with a right wing Tory party.

The question is how can Hone walk the fine line of keeping it real for his voters and toning it down to have a realistic chance of entering government.
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Stuff:
Later he suggested Sharples and fellow Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia would be forced to attend or send their third MP, Te Ururoa Flavell. "What's the bet that Tari and Pete cop so much flak from Maori for saying that they're not going to the hui on water - that they find some reason to change their mind and say they're gonna go now (or send Te Ururoa). Knowing how the Maori Party works, they'll have to clear it with John Key first though."
Flavell today dismissed the comments as "a normal Hone-ism". "That's how Hone operates. We are used to it and people will judge him on those sorts of comments."
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And people will judge Flavell on his words and deeds too - that's why his majority in Waiariki was slashed to just under 1900 votes by Mana president Annette Sykes when she stood against him at the last election.

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The hui will be held at the Turangawaewae Marae at Ngaruawahia next week and spokesman Tuku Morgan today said King Tuheitia never intended to invite the Government.
"This was always going to be our time. The Government have their own agenda. They have decided to be selective about who they talk to. The issue of water impacts on Maori across this country and it is not the sole prerogative of small cluster of iwi."
A number of Maori MPs from various parties had rung and indicated they would like to attend and the hui would welcome them, he said.
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