Politicians who made the headlines in 2017
This is the time of the year when commentators have to analyse and comment on what they think has made the headlines in the past year.
This is something that readers also look forward to as it gives them the opportunity to revisit their memory lanes on what made the headlines in the year.
In search of novelty, in this special year-end issue, The Indian Weekender has chosen to comment on some politicians and not the politician of the year instead of political events that our editorial team believes made the headlines in 2017.
Anyway, in most of the cases, it is the political ingenuity of our politicians, or not, and their choices of actions that add significance to any event.
For example, it was Andrew Little who demonstrated political dexterity and courage to act in a manner earlier this year that transformed an otherwise seemingly trivial event -- a political poll showing Labour Party trailing poorly -- which otherwise could have possibly escaped public attention, or at worst, certain miscalculated choices would have altogether different outcomes.
Indeed, politicians play an important role in determining our collective destiny and deserve a ritualistic year-end guard of honour, if that’s appropriate to phrase it like that.
One major challenge in this ritualistic year-end commentary is the line of analysis to follow.
Sometimes choices are between politicians who have made the most noise, provided the most entertainment, or be the greatest media favourite, or some of the more ardent politics watchers would argue between politicians who have made a real and constructive contribution to improving governance or enhancing the conduct of public affairs.
In most cases, it is a mix of everything above.
Following this cue, The Indian Weekender has come up with its list of politicians, which it sincerely believes were able to make the headlines in 2017 and are illustrated in no particular order.
Jacinda Ardern
Undoubtedly, no list of politicians making headlines in 2017 would be complete without a mention of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
In fact, there would be an inherent temptation to declare Ms Ardern as ‘the politician of the year’ purely because of her meteoritic rise in NZ politics, popular support among New Zealanders, and the adulating media attention received throughout the year.
However, The Indian Weekender will resist this temptation purely to out of respect for its readers.
To repeat the hugely transformational journey of Ms Ardern from being an obscure List MP of the Labour Party at the beginning of the year to become the youngest ever Prime Minister of NZ here, would be mundane and therefore boring.
Andrew Little
Andrew Little was indeed another politician who made the headlines this year.
Firstly for making a Trump-like provocative statement that the Labour Party would be cutting immigration numbers in the range of 20-30,000 sending shock waves -- a stand that has since been either watered down or carefully reworded and repackaged by the party in a manner to appear less spine-chilling.
Secondly, for his gut-wrenching call of abdicating party leadership in favour of Jacinda Ardern in the wake of abysmal ratings in the polls – a decision that indeed changed the course of NZ politics and brought the Labour Party back in power after nine years of oblivion.
The Indian Weekender was privileged to be the first media outlet of any kind, ethnic or mainstream, where Mr Little shared details of those gut-wrenching moments just before offering to resign as the Party Leader.
“This is not the interview I have given to anyone before.
"So you might be the first," Mr Little told The Indian Weekender in an exclusive interview on September 13, ten days before the election.
“We got the information about low polls.
“At that time I had to think very carefully as we were only two months away from the election and my first and foremost priority was to ensure that the party was successful.
“I had an event to do in North Shore on Monday night. I went there and spoke with few colleagues and staffs, and on Tuesday morning I made the decision that Jacinda would have a better chance to boost the Party’s rating and to get us over the line.
“On Tuesday morning I made the announcement, and as they say, the rest is history,” Mr Little had told The Indian Weekender.
Bill English
Former Prime Minister Bill English led the National Party to what could be convincingly described as a stellar electoral performance for a party seeking a fourth successive term in parliament.
The party returned to a record 46 per cent votes on the election night and emerged as the largest party in the parliament.
It was only when the results from special votes were included in that the party’s share was downsized, though the party remained the single largest party in the parliament.
Then came the change of the government courtesy Winston Peters’ last-minute choice of Labour Party over them after a protracted coalition negotiation.
The Party was eventually thrown into the opposition after three successive terms but was surely in much better shape than any other party previously dethroned from the government.
There were no leadership coups, clashes of egos, or the fragmentation of ideas shaping the direction of the party in the new parliament as one would normally expect from a party deprived of political power recently.
The transition from the government to the opposition was smooth and flawless, albeit it remains to be seen for how long this will be the case.
This is no mean achievement in itself, especially for a politician who had a go at the party leadership a decade ago, leading the party than to one of its worst electoral drubbing, resulting in an unceremonious exit from the position.
History has been both kind and tough on Bill English.
Very seldom does someone gets a shot at party leadership and therefore at Prime Minister-ship twice in one life.
In that respect, indeed life has been kind and generous on Mr English.
However, the stroke of luck does not take away the credit from Mr English for displaying resilience of the highest order and delivering when given an opportunity again.
Mr English had delivered one of the powerful one-liner statements in one of the live leaders' debates before the elections when he roared, “I rose up again,” (after the drubbing of 2002 as the then National leader), for which he deserves a chance to be included in this prestigious list.
Winston Peters
Winston Peters' inclusion in this list which The Indian Weekender is choosing to refer as illustrious, is purely because of his style-quotient in handling the immense political power handed over to him by the MMP system based electoral process.
When the opportunity came for being at the centre of media attention, the man did not disappoint anyone.
The manner in which he made everyone from who’s who of national politics, to media broadcasters and journalists to the common citizenry of the country wait for him and his call on coalition forming has indeed an element of swagger in it.
You can have your opinions on the manner Mr Peters exercised disproportionate power just after elections, but you cannot disagree on the swagger and the style of this politician.
He certainly lived up to his reputation of being a kingmaker and deserves a place in any list of politicians making the headline in 2017.
In fact, he was solely the maker of one of the biggest headlines of the year.
This is the time of the year when commentators have to analyse and comment on what they think has made the headlines in the past year.
This is something that readers also look forward to as it gives them the opportunity to revisit their memory lanes on what made the headlines in the year.
In search...
This is the time of the year when commentators have to analyse and comment on what they think has made the headlines in the past year.
This is something that readers also look forward to as it gives them the opportunity to revisit their memory lanes on what made the headlines in the year.
In search of novelty, in this special year-end issue, The Indian Weekender has chosen to comment on some politicians and not the politician of the year instead of political events that our editorial team believes made the headlines in 2017.
Anyway, in most of the cases, it is the political ingenuity of our politicians, or not, and their choices of actions that add significance to any event.
For example, it was Andrew Little who demonstrated political dexterity and courage to act in a manner earlier this year that transformed an otherwise seemingly trivial event -- a political poll showing Labour Party trailing poorly -- which otherwise could have possibly escaped public attention, or at worst, certain miscalculated choices would have altogether different outcomes.
Indeed, politicians play an important role in determining our collective destiny and deserve a ritualistic year-end guard of honour, if that’s appropriate to phrase it like that.
One major challenge in this ritualistic year-end commentary is the line of analysis to follow.
Sometimes choices are between politicians who have made the most noise, provided the most entertainment, or be the greatest media favourite, or some of the more ardent politics watchers would argue between politicians who have made a real and constructive contribution to improving governance or enhancing the conduct of public affairs.
In most cases, it is a mix of everything above.
Following this cue, The Indian Weekender has come up with its list of politicians, which it sincerely believes were able to make the headlines in 2017 and are illustrated in no particular order.
Jacinda Ardern
Undoubtedly, no list of politicians making headlines in 2017 would be complete without a mention of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
In fact, there would be an inherent temptation to declare Ms Ardern as ‘the politician of the year’ purely because of her meteoritic rise in NZ politics, popular support among New Zealanders, and the adulating media attention received throughout the year.
However, The Indian Weekender will resist this temptation purely to out of respect for its readers.
To repeat the hugely transformational journey of Ms Ardern from being an obscure List MP of the Labour Party at the beginning of the year to become the youngest ever Prime Minister of NZ here, would be mundane and therefore boring.
Andrew Little
Andrew Little was indeed another politician who made the headlines this year.
Firstly for making a Trump-like provocative statement that the Labour Party would be cutting immigration numbers in the range of 20-30,000 sending shock waves -- a stand that has since been either watered down or carefully reworded and repackaged by the party in a manner to appear less spine-chilling.
Secondly, for his gut-wrenching call of abdicating party leadership in favour of Jacinda Ardern in the wake of abysmal ratings in the polls – a decision that indeed changed the course of NZ politics and brought the Labour Party back in power after nine years of oblivion.
The Indian Weekender was privileged to be the first media outlet of any kind, ethnic or mainstream, where Mr Little shared details of those gut-wrenching moments just before offering to resign as the Party Leader.
“This is not the interview I have given to anyone before.
"So you might be the first," Mr Little told The Indian Weekender in an exclusive interview on September 13, ten days before the election.
“We got the information about low polls.
“At that time I had to think very carefully as we were only two months away from the election and my first and foremost priority was to ensure that the party was successful.
“I had an event to do in North Shore on Monday night. I went there and spoke with few colleagues and staffs, and on Tuesday morning I made the decision that Jacinda would have a better chance to boost the Party’s rating and to get us over the line.
“On Tuesday morning I made the announcement, and as they say, the rest is history,” Mr Little had told The Indian Weekender.
Bill English
Former Prime Minister Bill English led the National Party to what could be convincingly described as a stellar electoral performance for a party seeking a fourth successive term in parliament.
The party returned to a record 46 per cent votes on the election night and emerged as the largest party in the parliament.
It was only when the results from special votes were included in that the party’s share was downsized, though the party remained the single largest party in the parliament.
Then came the change of the government courtesy Winston Peters’ last-minute choice of Labour Party over them after a protracted coalition negotiation.
The Party was eventually thrown into the opposition after three successive terms but was surely in much better shape than any other party previously dethroned from the government.
There were no leadership coups, clashes of egos, or the fragmentation of ideas shaping the direction of the party in the new parliament as one would normally expect from a party deprived of political power recently.
The transition from the government to the opposition was smooth and flawless, albeit it remains to be seen for how long this will be the case.
This is no mean achievement in itself, especially for a politician who had a go at the party leadership a decade ago, leading the party than to one of its worst electoral drubbing, resulting in an unceremonious exit from the position.
History has been both kind and tough on Bill English.
Very seldom does someone gets a shot at party leadership and therefore at Prime Minister-ship twice in one life.
In that respect, indeed life has been kind and generous on Mr English.
However, the stroke of luck does not take away the credit from Mr English for displaying resilience of the highest order and delivering when given an opportunity again.
Mr English had delivered one of the powerful one-liner statements in one of the live leaders' debates before the elections when he roared, “I rose up again,” (after the drubbing of 2002 as the then National leader), for which he deserves a chance to be included in this prestigious list.
Winston Peters
Winston Peters' inclusion in this list which The Indian Weekender is choosing to refer as illustrious, is purely because of his style-quotient in handling the immense political power handed over to him by the MMP system based electoral process.
When the opportunity came for being at the centre of media attention, the man did not disappoint anyone.
The manner in which he made everyone from who’s who of national politics, to media broadcasters and journalists to the common citizenry of the country wait for him and his call on coalition forming has indeed an element of swagger in it.
You can have your opinions on the manner Mr Peters exercised disproportionate power just after elections, but you cannot disagree on the swagger and the style of this politician.
He certainly lived up to his reputation of being a kingmaker and deserves a place in any list of politicians making the headline in 2017.
In fact, he was solely the maker of one of the biggest headlines of the year.
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