The Indian Weekender, 01 July 2022

4
NEW ZEALAND
Friday, July 01, 2022
Read online www.iwk.co.nz
Former refugee eyes seat in Parliament
VENU MENON IN WELLINGTON
Orphee Mickalad arrived in New
Zealand from the Democratic
Republic of Congo 15 years ago.
Currently, as a councillor for Palmerston
North, he is the first former refugee
to be elected to a local body in NZ. He
spoke to Indian Weekender of the trials
he faced along the way. Extracts:
Q. Have the racial slurs you faced deterred
you from running for a second
term as councillor?
A. Not at all. If anything, it has made
me stronger. Being the first former
refugee to be elected to the local body
has given inspiration to many migrants
and former refugees who look up to
me as a role model. I encourage them
to stand up and not be deterred by the
racism and challenges they face, because
it’s only a minority in our communities
that are racist.
To be honest, I was a bit disheartened
when I saw my billboards being defaced.
People were drawing monkey signs and
swastikas on my billboards, and telling
me to go back to my own country. My
strategy around that was to not focus
on those negativities because that
would only discourage me from getting
to my goal.
The only thing I needed to do was focus
on issues that impact the community
such as housing, infrastructure and
so on. Whenever my billboards were
defaced, I just replaced them with new
ones and moved on.
It’s only small pockets of people in
NZ who are not tolerant of people who
look different from them, and are not
comfortable with people who look like
me running for public office and actually
winning and being able to serve as a city
councillor.
Q. It’s all very well to say racists are
a minority. But they are a vocal, toxic
minority. What is the best remedy to
neutralise their effect in public life?
A. I think you’re right in saying that. In
previous interviews I’ve always said that
it’s a minority. But you’re right, it’s a
very loud and toxic minority, to the point
that you probably think there are many
of them. But actually, they are only a
few. I’ve never believed in violence.
I endorse the Martin Luther King and
Mahatma Gandhi type of non-violent
approach and having people come to
the debating table and wanting to have
an open conversation about it and try to
understand why those persons think the
way they think.
Education is the most important thing
we can do to combat racism. The more
we censor those voices, the louder they
become and the more people join them,
as we have seen in the United States
under Donald Trump, for example. The
more you try to silence them, the more
you infuriate people and inflame the
problem.
Q. What are your strategies to combat
racism?
A. I’ve proposed that the council has
an action plan that involves including
more brown faces, not just Pakeha faces,
in marketing campaigns and billboards to
normalise the fact that we are becoming
more diverse.
And also by educating the public
through booklets, posters and dropping
leaflets as well as having public sessions
around cultural diversity and awareness.
Of course, there’s no silver bullet to
solve the problem.
We all face different forms of racism.
The racism I may face today is different
from what a Jew or an Indian or Māori or
Pasifika person may experience.
I think education is the most potent
of options that we have available. The
older generation (who are now in their
70s and 80s) went to school with
people that only looked like them, all
white. But now we have a generation
of young people who go to school –
Indians, Māoris, Pasifikas - these children
are colour blind. The new generation we
are raising at the moment are the hope
and the future because they don’t look
at colour any more
Q. Do you plan to run for Parliament?
A. God willing, yes. That is definitely
one of my goals. I’ve always believed
that public policy is the most effective
way of enacting change in society.
I’ve seen petitions submitted to
Parliament and those petitions have gone
nowhere because the MP is not willing
to push them. It is important to be able
to influence policy and decision making
to improve outcomes for migrants and
refugees, which is my focus area.
Diaspora leaders agree ‘Unity in Diversity’
mantra is best way forward
IWK BUREAU
The Indian Diaspora Group,
an informal grouping
comprising leaders
of more than 40 different
Kiwi-Indian organisations
representing communities
from different Indian states,
languages and other interest
groups met for the first time
after a two-year hiatus.
The meeting was held
ahead of the felicitation and
farewell event for outgoing
High Commissioner Shri
Muktesh Pardeshi on Sunday
at the Mahatma Gandhi
Centre under the aegis of the
Auckland Indian Association.
New Zealand Indian Central
Association President Narendra
Bhana welcomed the leaders
and said that the objective
of meetings like these was to
come together to share ideas
and learn from each other’s
experiences in their diverse
diaspora groups.
Honorary Consul of India Bhav
Dhillon, whose brainchild the
group has been, gave a brief
background of how the group
was started in 2017.
“It was started as a
voluntary group with no
Orphee Mickalad interacting with public
chairman, president, secretary
or any officials. There was
no compulsion to join or
not to join.
"Now I am very pleased to say
that in five years we have some
40 organisations that have
become part of this. And in this
time, we have not come across
any issues major or minor.”
The Honorary Consul said
that having a grouping like
this one did not go against the
individual identities of each of
the constituent groups.
“India is made of 30 states,
each with their individual
identities, but when they come
together, they form the identity
of India.”
This grouping of diaspora
leaders presents that unified
face of India, he said.
He thanked the leaders for
working so seamlessly toward
projecting this identity. Before
this grouping was formed,
several of the individual groups
tended to celebrate common
national days separately
projecting a rather disjointed,
fragmented image of the Kiwi-
Indian diaspora.
“Many Kiwi leaders were
confused why so many different
groups wanted to celebrate the
same national day separately,”
Dhillon said.
“Now it is good to see
that national days are now
celebrated under one roof.”
Narendra Bhana reiterated
that the community as a whole
needed to come together to
I’ve never believed in
violence. I endorse the
Martin Luther King and
Mahatma Gandhi type
of non-violent approach
and having people come
to the debating table
and wanting to have an
open conversation about
it and try to understand
why those persons think
the way they think.
India is made
of 30 states,
each with their
individual identities,
but when they come
together, they form
the identity of India.”
This grouping of
diaspora leaders
presents that unified
face of India."
celebrate at least three national
days – Independence Day,
Republic Day and International
Yoga Day.
“One of the objectives of
this meeting is to encourage
diaspora leaders and their
communities to participate in
each other’s events as well.”
Individual groups tended to
operate and celebrate events in
silos. There needs to be more
interaction between groups,
the leaders said.
Over recent years, however,
there were increased instances
of groups participating in
one another’s events and
celebrations, some of the
leaders who spoke after the
main speeches said.
Everyone agreed that this
trend needs to be carried
forward so that there is a
conscious effort to forge a
unified identity of India, which
indeed is ‘Unity in Diversity’.
The Honorary Consul said
that groups needed to come
together and support one
another not just culturally but
also on other day-to-day issue
that affect all Kiwi-Indians
– be that law and order or
immigration issues.
It was imported to forge a
united front on these matters
and that is where a grouping
like the Diaspora Leaders could
play a pivotal role.
It is important to project unity
and a sense of purpose when it
comes to how the mainstream
political establishment views
the Indian community.
He said that efforts to
create splinter groups like
regional groups or clusters
of states works at crosspurposes
and further causes
needless confusion.
As long as the individuality
of each of the group is
preserved and when all these
groups unite to create a united
identity of India, creating
clusters was superfluous and
counterproductive.