The Indian Weekender 26 August 2022

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“We must fight any creeping attempt to normalize relations with [Russian President
Vladimir] Putin... We also know that this is not the time to advance some flimsy plan
for negotiation with someone who is simply not interested. You can’t negotiate with a
bear while it’s eating your leg, and you can’t negotiate with a street robber who has
pinned you to the floor,” - Outgoing UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson
Editorial
IN FOCUS : Picture of the week
Bullying pushed
backstage in
NZ politics
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern can draw comfort from the fact that
due process was served and her troublesome MP from Hamilton
West was balloted out of the caucus on August 23.
But the question, and it is one the Labour Party leader will struggle to
answer, is whether expelled MP Gaurav Sharma has been silenced.
As an independent MP, marooned in Parliament by his party caucus,
Sharma is no longer gagged by party discipline.
This was borne out when Parliament was in session to elect the new
Speaker, Adrian Rurawhe, on August 24. Sharma used his parliamentary
privilege to level accusations against outgoing Speaker Trevor Mallard.
In his post-expulsion musings to the media, Sharma has hinted at an
unfinished personal agenda and the lack of proper closure to the issue of
workplace bullying at the party caucus meeting that did not go into “the
specifics.”
Despite, or perhaps because of, his change of status within Parliament,
Sharma continues to push for an independent investigation, whose terms
of reference would include himself.
Sharma is invoking the right of the first mover, saying he was the one
who “raised concerns regarding my staff, not the other way around.”
According to him, “that’s when the bullying from the whips started.”
In hindsight, it was perhaps disingenuous and politically naïve for the
beleaguered MP to imagine that the party leadership would spring to
action and be prompted to launch an independent inquiry into bullying
claims raised by its MP via the media.
Sharma argues in his own defence that when that didn’t happen and the
“prime minister said there wasn’t any bullying, I had to then release the
screenshots.”
That exposed him to the charge of choosing media over mediation,
which amounted to breach of trust.
Sharma’s by-line on the Op-ed piece published in a local daily on August
11 was akin to a calling card left at the crime scene.
But though the feisty MP has claimed the tacit support of fellow MPs who
he says are groaning under the whiplash of chief whip Kieran McAnulty,
who the prime minister has stoutly defended, it is patently clear that
what has played out in the public domain is a proxy war between Sharma
and Ardern.
Ardern’s statement in the wake of the MP’s expulsion was a deadpan
articulation of House rules.
But it carried the gravitas of a royal decree from the party monarch,
banishing an errant subject from the realm.
Sharma would no longer receive support from the party, or have access
to the caucus in any way. He would have the right to attend select
committees, but would not be a member of one, Ardern ruled.
But Ardern is clearly anxious to close the file on the matter and move
on, saying “our focus remains on the significant issues New Zealanders
are grappling with and our responsibility to serve them -- not the interests
of an individual MP.”
When pared down to its simplest elements, the storm in the debating
chamber is a semantic quibble that revolves around the definition of
“bullying.”
New Zealand’s parliamentary lexicon sheds no light on the matter, it
would appear.
As long as bullying is not strictly defined under Parliament’s code
of conduct rules, it would be difficult to establish a violation and any
independent investigation would likely be inconclusive.
Both accuser and accused are two sides of the same coin.
Indian External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar, who is on his
first ever visit to South America, met Paulo Guedes, Minister
of Economy of Brazil in Brazil recently. He discussed the
strengthening of India’s economic cooperation to meet
contemporary global challenges.
This week in New Zealand’s history
27 August 1904
Foundation stone for Victoria University’s first building laid
Victoria College (now Victoria University of Wellington) was founded in 1897 to
mark Queen Victoria’s 60th jubilee.
29 August 1914
New Zealand force captures German Samoa
Colonel Robert Logan led a 1400-strong expeditionary force to capture German
Samoa in New Zealand’s first military action of the First World War.
30 August 1926
Kawarau Falls dam becomes operational
Hundreds attended the opening ceremony for a dam above the Kawarau Falls
which was to temporarily block the outlet from Lake Wakatipu and hopefully
expose gold-bearing rock to prospectors.
02 September 1945
Air Vice-Marshal Isitt accepts Japanese surrender
Air Vice-Marshal Leonard Isitt added New Zealand’s signature to the Instrument of
Surrender between the Allied powers and Japan.
02 September 1972
New Zealand’s rowing eight wins gold
In 2008 the well-known sports writer Joseph Romanos chose the victory of the
1972 rowing eight as the best team performance by New Zealanders at an Olympic
Games.
03 September 1958
First open-heart surgery in New Zealand
Pioneering heart surgeon Brian Barratt-Boyes performed the surgery using a heartlung
bypass machine. The procedure, at Green Lane Hospital in Auckland, was
carried out on an 11-year-old girl with a hole in her heart.
Indian Weekender : Volume 14 Issue 23
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