Maori Party and Fiji

Audrey Young blogs on Fiji, and you have to agree with her it has not been handled well by the Government. Discussions have been occuring through the media, not directly to each other.

It looks like the Maori Party will still send a delegation – probably led by Hone Harawira. That is their right of course.

I’m a bit puzzled by the Maori Party stance on Fiji. The original Fiji coups were about preventing the majority Indians from forming a Government. It was about protecting what they saw as the right of indigenous Fijians, and that stance had the support of some Maori activists in NZ.

But the Commodore’s coup is (officially anyway) about the opposite. He is saying he wants to remove any special rights from indigenous Fijians, and replace the constitution which has race based seats.

Somewhat strange bedfellows for the Maori Party I would have said whose entire party is about how there should be special rights for indigenous people.