Shane Jones is refusing to back down, and unsurprisingly so, in his tirade against the Indian community, in the lead up to the 2020 general elections.
The push back that Mr Jones had received from some spirited Indian community leaders in the last few days is exactly the kind of attention that he has been so desperately yearning for, giving him and his party New Zealand First much needed political oxygen as we approach elections.
In the process, it has also shielded the Labour Party leadership from their perceived diffidence in dealing with the allegations of allowing a racist attack on the Indian community in broad daylight by their Coalition partner, led by a Cabinet Minister.
Clearly, there is a lot of politics going on in the lead up to the 2020 elections.
The current political scene around racist attacks against the Indian community is such that Mr Jones is refusing to back down, whereas their coalition partner and the major party in the government continues to criticise them vehemently, however stopping short of giving them a death-blow by calling it “racist.”
On the one hand, Mr Jones and his party are cementing their Trump-style attacks on immigrants, which overseas experience shows, wins elections, whereas the Labour Party under the astute leadership of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is refusing to take any responsibility of Mr Jones’s comments, thereby holding forte without inviting any public wrath.
This political position, if neatly translated into votes, can easily propel both the parties in the coalition government back in power after 2020 elections.
The latest One News-Colmar Brunton poll released on February 13, had come back with some interesting numbers about how our political parties were faring in this election year.
The polls had put National at 46 per cent, ahead of Labour at 41 per cent, with both major parties struggling for reliable partners who can enter into parliament on their own.
Similarly, the other Newshub-Reid Research poll had a week earlier (February 9) also suggested a close tie between National and Labour and their search for reliable partners in parliament, although they had put National at 43.3 and the Labour at 42.5 per cent.
However, both these polls had clearly shown that the New Zealand First Party was languishing around a paltry 3 per cent – a danger sign for both – the party and the current Coalition government.
Clearly, not only New Zealand First needed to shake the tree in a manner that they remain afloat, but also the Labour Party does not run out of a coalition partner after the 2020 elections.
It was against this backdrop that Shane Jones initiated another calculated tirade against the Indian community, emulating Trump-style immigrant-bashing politics, and hope for stirring few emotions and get more votes that can keep their party afloat.
After all, the fact that the NZ First Party has been the centre of immigrant-bashing views and voters is not altogether new. Hence Jones’ strategy in attacking the Indian community – an ethnic minority migrant community – is not an innovative strategy.
It seems that the Indian community is feeding into that strategy by falling prey to his premeditated and baseless assertions by itching to engage with him and educate him about the antiquity and the value of the Indian community to NZ public life.
At best it is the display of political naivety, and also a show of disrespect to Shane Jones himself – a Harvard educated capable politician who has endured a political career in the last two decades, across different parties and ideologies, despite some potentially career-ending common-sense defying escapades.
However, the community needs to understand that the bigger problem is not Shane Jones’ innuendo against the Kiwi-Indian community, but the casual trivialisation of racism at the highest level of New Zealand politics.
Also, the community will be well served by seeing the political ploy in the lead up to the next elections, where unfortunately the community is being reduced to a position of a doormat, upon which the political parties are hoping to enter into the parliament.
The community needs to do more than the wishful thinking of educating and sensitising an already super-educated sharp-minded politician about the value of diversity and multiculturalism.
By doing so, the community is merely supporting the status quo – and unfortunately, the status quo in this case - is in the soft trivialisation of racism at the topmost level of NZ government.
The other status-quo is the comfortable position where one party in the government can continue to attack the Indian community unabashedly, whereas the other party stop short of calling it a “racist” attack, and the partnership continues in a manner that both successfully manage to get enough numbers to form a government together after the next elections.
This status quo, and stalemate, needs to be eventually challenged, and unfortunately engaging with Shane Jones, does not disturb the status quo in any manner.
It rather perpetuates the status quo, more than anything.