The Right is DEAD!

BY RAJITHA RATWATTE

Fromoutsidethepearl.co.nz

The long awaited once postponed General Election is finally over in NZ. Jacinda Ardern (pronounced aarrdoon) and her labour party have won the biggest victory in 50 years! Now we all knew she would win, but she postponed the election once to give it more fairness and credibility due to Covid outbreaks. This we thought would give the opposition a chance. It didn’t, in fact the opposite may have happened when the educated voter realised that this was playing fair and voted even more overwhelmingly in her favour.

Labour now has 64 seats and can govern on their own, impossible they said under the prevailing MMP system of Aotearoa. The main opposition party has 35 seats and have lost some of their strongholds, especially among the farmer communities which hitherto were strong conservative (read as white dominated) seats.

The showmen and those who act on TV always get a following in these days of media dominance and ACT party who has a leader who jumps out of airplanes and takes part in public dancing contests has got in with 10 MP’s. This worthy named David Seymour and with a countenance that reminds one of the rarer types of Apes in this world, didn’t even know the names of the 10 people who would go into parliament with him, when first asked!

The tree huggers have a strong following in Aotearoa and they now hold 10 seats in parliament. This includes the highly populated Auckland Central seat that has been won by an extremely young, brash, woman whose pure aggression and confidence seems to have appealed to the denizens of the inner city. Labour and the Green party have been traditional allies and it is expected that, though Labour does not need partners and have a big enough parliamentary majority, they will form a coalition with the Green party and govern. This will give them 74 seats in parliament and an unassailable majority. However, pandering to the often-ridiculous demands of a party with more penchant for theory than the actual practice of same, may prove more trouble than it is worth. It may also slow down the rapid progress in certain areas of the economy already hampered by the massive debt brought about by Covid-9.

That decision is up to our fearless leader and her caucus and may sanity prevail! The parliamentary right is decimated, the left now dominates in Aotearoa.

The Maori party who were annihilated in the last election, with no parliamentary representation, are struggling (at this point with final counting incomplete) to win one seat. If they do get in, they may be offered a portfolio in the Government coalition as token acknowledgement of the minorities is essential.

The old fox of NZ politics, Winston Peters, a man of Maori Origin but heading his own party, dubbed New Zealand First, looks like he is finally out of parliament. After 35 years, unable to secure enough party votes to breach the MMP threshold, last times QUEENMAKER; it was the NZ first MPs’ who after they joined Labour gave the labour, green, first coalition a majority to rule at the last election, seems to be out in the wilderness. The last Government’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister has not been classed in the same category as his boss and totally discarded by the vote base. A couple of neatly timed insinuations of financial wrong doings, combined with his uncompromising stance on reducing immigrants, may have been the deciding factor in the minds of, dare I say it, what looks like a “brownwash”, when one looks at the mindset demographic of this elections voter. Personally, sad to see “Winnie” go, his knowledge and realistic uncompromising outlook towards the shenanigans, theatrics and Bull Shit that forms most of what goes on in Parliament will give the exponents and perpetrators of same, a free licence!

As far as the conduct of the election goes; it was possible to vote for up to 2 weeks before the final election date. There were polling booth in every neighbourhood and a person could vote when out for his constitutional or if he arrived early at a child’s school at pick up time. As a result, almost 2 million voters had already cast their vote by election day. Convenience, combined with the voters having already decided which way to vote, may have been reasons but this meant that counting of these early votes started on the morning of the 17th. Polling closed at 7pm on Saturday the 17th of October and the Jacinda landslide was already a fact within the hour!

We don’t know even if we have an election commissioner in Aotearoa and no press coverage was even given to where the votes were counted! Thugs and violence, before after and during the electio totally unheard of!

Will we ever reach such standards in the Pearl? Hesitate, before you lose heart O citizens. When I last drove down the Southern Highway and was able to travel from Kadawatha to Galle without even changing a gear let alone breaking, horning and screaming at private bus drivers, I never thought that would be possible either!

We have BIG expectations of Jacinda Ardern and her new government. There are pressing problems. Unemployment, lack of housing in the main cities, child poverty, a moribund bureaucracy unable to react and make decisions in keeping with the first world standards that are claimed as Aotearoa’s’ right, just a few. Expectations such as these in an economy crippled by Covid-19 are not possible for anyone but a magician. A Magician who is dealt a HUGE slice of luck. The slice of luck may be the huge parliamentary majority, but magic has to be harnessed in the form of recruiting from the huge base of retired immigrants with the type of experience in dealing with problems and numbers of people that this tiny country of five million people can never relate to!

Use your idle assets Jacinda, after all your best asset is your people!