Braunias on Harawira

We don't always enjoy Steve Braunias' blend of humour, satire and sarcasm, but a reader sent us a link to a recent piece from the Southland Times. We had a read, and the chuckles soon turned into belly-laughs. Entitled Secret diary of Hone Harawira, it begins:

As the leader of New Zealand's newest political party, the Mana Party, I want to make a few things clear, and the advice I'm getting is that can only be achieved if I speak at enormous and quite unnecessary length.

I want to spell out exactly what it is I stand for.

And I say that it is this. He tangata. He tangata. He tangata.

But not all of the tangata. Just a select few of the tangata. Most of the tangata are time-wasters, and I don't have a moment to lose.

Time is of the essence. I'm not here to repeat the mistakes of the past. I'm here to repeat myself.

Oh dear; you quickly get the idea that this piece might not be particularly flattering towards the about-to-be-former Te Tai Tokerau MP. That impression is confirmed in the next few paragraphs - read on:

As the leader of New Zealand's newest political party, the Mana Party, I want to spell out exactly what it is I stand for.

I stand for Maori. I stand for the oppressed. And, as of five minutes ago, I also stand for workers.

I had a really interesting chat with the Mana Party chairman, Matt McCarten, five minutes ago.

He totally blew my mind when he told me that workers were people who worked for a living.

I said to Matt, "I've no idea what that means."

He was very patient. He explained what workers do.

He said they toil in fields. They clean offices with mops and suchlike. They work what are known as "shifts" in buildings called "factories" owned by "white corporate bastards".

He was speaking my language.

Oh dear; oh dear. But Braunias is right on the mark; Harawira inhabits a strange old world where things that most of us take for granted (like working for a living) are alien concepts.

We won't spoil any more of Steve Braunias' fun; there's a link above, and it's well worth the investment of a few minutes of your day to go and have a read. But in his unique way, Braunias has managed to illustrate just how disconnected Hone Harawira is to the real world, which he seeks to represent as the leader of the Mana Party.