Yellow Peril by Tze Ming Mok

Although he's been pilloried by seemingly everyone over the distracting absurdities of Maori nonexistence, the most dangerous claim in Brash's latest oeuvre is that the health inequalities Maori face (despite not existing) are their own choice, and the state has no duty to address those inequalities.

An 'Asian' public health doctor friend of mine (and fellow AENer) was struck with the nagging feeling that seeking the advice of ex-Reserve Bank governors on the determinants of inequality in Maori health outcomes, and whether they had any relevance to the Treaty of Waitangi, was a poor substitute for maybe asking a doctor or two instead. Medical ones. So here's what he and his other (medical) doctor friend thought, in their Herald article today.

Not only do they believe, like good lefty doctors, that historical Treaty violations have an ongoing effect on Maori wellbeing, they also point out that Article Three of the Treaty guarantees equal treatment for Maori but that Maori are not receiving it. This is not because they are getting a better 'special deal' from the medical system - in fact hard evidence is accumulating to show that Maori are receiving a worse level of treatment and access. "This constitutes a modern, continuing violation of Article Three," say the docs, and Article Three's guarantee of 'equal rights and privileges' is "[o]ne of the few aspects of the Treaty that all New Zealanders seem to agree on."

We agree with Dr Brash that health services should be provided to all New Zealanders according to need. There is clear evidence that the greatest health needs in this country are for Maori and it seems unlikely to us that Treaty violations have made no contribution to the unequal state of Maori health. According to need, there would be a case for prioritisation of Maori health needs whether or not the Treaty existed.

If we want to organise our health institutions according to need, and aim to respect the guarantees made in the Treaty, we have to prioritise Maori health and allow that this might require "special" treatment for Maori communities - to enable them to enjoy an equal level of health to most other New Zealanders.

If we keep our heads in the sand about ethnic inequalities in health, we are saying that it is okay for Maori to have worse health than other New Zealanders. And that is just plain unfair.

It's good to see someone taking the 'one law for all' jargon back into the realm of substantive equality.

In Brash's original op-ed draft to the Herald reported on here, after his discourse on choice and smoking, Brash avoided that whole 'dying' problem, and skipped to a far more important indicator of equality:

"Nobody would suggest that because there are relatively few European New Zealanders in the All Blacks, there has been a breach of the Treaty.

You know, if Pakeha began dying ten years earlier than everyone else in the country, you can sure as hell bet they'd complain about a breach of *something*. I mean, once Pakeha started getting squeezed out of medical school by the 'Asians' last decade, they changed the entry requirements quick enough.

Not that it made much of a difference of course. It is telling through, that probably the biggest health system inequality that white people might face, is that once they're in Medical school, they're surrounded by 'Asians', and this might make them feel like they're in a mulitcultural country.

It's predictable that a neoliberal like Brash would stick by the 'individual choice' line to absolve the state of responsibility for producing equal outcomes for all citizens; but it's surprising that he would so casually dismiss Maori health with a freaking All Blacks comparison. Maori health stats probably carry the most disturbing examples you'll find of that accumulated history of injustice. However one wants to explain it (whether through neoliberal 'choice'; or blood-quantum's relevance to colonial treaty making...) saying the government has no responsibility for trying to stop Maori from dying nine years before everyone else just makes you sound like an asshole - and one who should never be tasked with the responsibility of caring for his mum, let alone the whole country.

Sample 'seemingly everyone' Brash-pillorying roll-call on nonexistence of Maori
To Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples, add also:
Winston Peters
John Roughan
Matt McCarten
Tapu Misa
A Full Blooded Maori

Apparently, this whole 'blood-quantum' rehash hoo-ha has been a 'total misunderstanding', on the part of the Maori Party, who are far more confused about race and ethnicity (particularly their own) than Don Brash, because he is married to a Han Chinese who are racially pure compared to everyone else.

Let's iron out these misunderstandings. According to Brash, the Treaty partnership is basically irrelevant because the Maori populations in 1840 were a (racially) distinct group from Pakeha. Now Maori are no longer racially pure, and so therefore aren't a distinct indigenous group that anyone can have obligations to.

This stumbling, offensive and patronising wielding of 'race' being somehow legally superior to ethnic identity is pretty funny of course. Check some transcribing below from the bFM interview this morning as he and Noelle McCarthy discuss Tariana Turia:

DB:"I don't mind if she wants to think of herself as Maori. Everyone knows her father was American."

NM:"but do you think of her as Maori?"

DB: "...I want the state, the government to treat Tariana Turia in exactly the same way as they treat any other New Zealander."

NM: "...Are you saying you have reservations about her Maoriness?"

DB: "No! I don't care if she's Maori! I'm more than happy to let her be Maori. If someone wants to identify as Maori, if they have no Maori blood I don't care. It's a matter of total indifference to me."

I'm sure Tariana will be pleased that Don is going to 'let her' be Maori, even if 'everyone knows her father is American', poor misguided woman.

Unbelieving laughter aside, the core of the matter is that 'race' obviously does matter a lot to Brash, because his desire to nullify the contemporary application of the Treaty of Waitangi is now openly resting on two arguments.

The first, 'one law for all', has been the one that at least makes some kind of theoretically fundamentalist liberal sense, even though it displays (or exploits) a total ignorance of how law and equality work.

The other idea he seems to be now using more overtly, has been lurking in his various stray ignorant and patronising comments about Maori culture - savages jumping up and down half naked but actually quite pale etc - for rather a long time. He does actually think that the 'disappearance' of 'real', racially-pure Maori actually nullifies any legal protections that Maori have under either the Treaty or customary law protecting native title. What this actually means is that he thinks 'race' rather than ethnicity, customary group ownership, or historical relationships negotiated through legal process, is the foundation of claiming group rights and protection under the law - which totally contradicts his first principle.

He's not going to understand this, is he. Well, this is why you do not call in Reserve Bankers to make pronouncements on law, social justice, and ethnicity.

Shooting more of Brash's legal-philosphical solecisms flopping around ineffectually in the discursive barrel, here's No Right Turn on what Justice Baragwanath's paper was actually saying:

Justice Baragwanath does not suggest any "special rights" for Maori. Rather, he proposes amending the Foreshore and Seabed Act so that it conforms to those settled conventions, by (at minimum) allowing compensation to be awarded where ownership can be proven. We accept this principle with regards to Pakeha property, and we should do the same for Maori.

Tired of reiterating that you don’t care about politician’s sex lives? How about deconstructing whether or not you should care about how ‘your’ team is doing on Survivor: Race War? Here’s the liveblogged second episode on the endlessly sarcastic reappropriate, and Jeff Yang’s admission of guilty addiction on racialicious (formerly Mixed Media Watch).

Jen from reappropriate may hate this show, but she never misses an episode. Thank god, or I wouldn’t be able to get my fix!

I can’t believe I’m saying this.

So how is your team doing? Your ethnic group may not fit into any of the four American ‘races’, but the stereotypes constructed in editing so far are:

- The White team are privileged, whiny cheats, who are so entitled and busy making out that they never do any actual work.
- The Black team are acutely race-conscious, have no non-urban survival skills, were hampered by their arrogant male ‘leader’, but have been doing better since the women took over.
- The Latino team work really hard and will do great, now they have jettisoned the lazy guy.
- The Asian team work really hard and do great, are really good at solving puzzles, and have no lazy guy.

Judging from these well-constructed tropes, the Asians and Latinos are the strongest at this point. The Asian team is the odds-on favourite, due to their tremendous work-ethic, braininess, traditional healing arts, ability to shut down inappropriate humour, and team bonding without the distractions of bawdy exhibitionist cavorting.

Again, I can’t believe I’m saying this.

It’s all varying degrees of tragic for all implicated, but who do you think is coming off looking the worst out of this? I think the White team. Or is it just my innate prejudice? You be the judge.

Meanwhile (yes, more coup, I can’t resist), here's an excellent editorial from The Nation about how the military cannot take the coup’s 'popularity' for granted by repressing free speech. At the same time, it notes that the broadcast media as a whole now feels actually more freely able to cover the rampant corruption and human rights abuses they were muzzled on for the past four years.

And it looks the the military junta is now competing with the Security Council P-5 over Supachai, currently Secretary General of UNCTAD. The Thai army wants him to be interim PM, meanwhile the Security Council P-5 wants Supachai for UN Secretary General. Word is, Supachai is leaning towards Thailand; and who knows, with scheduling maybe he could fit in both jobs...

From a friend working for a rights watchdog body in Thailand in downtown Bangkok:

It is so difficult for any textbook or theory to explain Thai politics. It's very unusal coup, where people came out to give flowers, water, food and sweets to soldiers to show appreciation for ousting corrupted politicians from election!!! Some take their children and family to take photograph with soldiers, and tanks with roses on top as background.

Meanwhile, a Thai Human Rights Commissioner has said that the coup should not be framed within a progression/regression of democracy discourse, but is about "problem solving." Okay. Right. Maybe he thought that, since the Constitution in which his job is defined was ripped up, that he didn't have to fulfil the obligations of his job and could just say what he thought instead of actually defend some human rights. I'm sure the rest of his staff are cringing at the PR disaster, while falling behind on their website updates.

Bans on political protest in the city have been met with a promise of political protest in the city. Rock on. These are likely to be anti-Thaksin but anti-coup organisers who are doing it for the principle of the thing - how the military and police react will be a good testing point.

Community radio and SMS polling has now been subjected to the media clampdown - via warning announcements anway - but the net is still running freely and openly running political content critical of the coup. However, I suspect this is not so much a situation where the media control is token and the military is turning a blind eye, as an understanding that the urban web-surfing population is anti-Thaksin and if not pro-coup then optimistic about what could happen as a result of it. It is the rural Thaksin heartland of the Isan northeast that relies on community radio. Not good.

At the end of the day, if the army extends then abuses its control over the media or political activity, it will be met with resistance: at first the kind that tests the waters, then by increasingly organised opposition. For all the talk of Thailand 'not being ready' for democracy and a nation of non-confrontational softies, the people still know how to put up a good show on the streets and in the country towns. The military know this, and I believe, are smart enough to know how to avoid it.

One good sign of what we could hope is the pattern set for things to come, is that the military's preferred candidate for appointed interim Prime Minister is Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary General of UNCTAD, formerly joint chief of the WTO with Mike Moore. Supachai is totally clean, a fair player, no egotist, and no military patsy. He's one of those guys who everyone in the country actually wanted to be Prime Minister back when he was in politics, but he was never corrupt or vilely ambitious enough to get into the crazy business of trying to get elected. Whether he accepts the job however, is another matter.

The greatest unacknowledged population in this 'popular' coup, are the dirt-poor rural populations of Isan in the northeast. These are die-hard Thaksin supporters. Is it because Thaksin is a populist visionary dedicated to sustainable development, poverty alleviation, and agricultural revolution? I've never been able to figure it out. But I do know that his party bribes that huge province of voters substantially - with cash - before each election, and when made a regular practise of trucking in provincial supporters to clash with anti-Thaksin demonstrators in Bangkok, when interviewed, the rural demonstrators never knew what they were demonstrating about.

My friends in Thailand described the election voting booths for me. Well actually, there are no 'booths' and it's not even a secret ballot - CCTV cameras can clearly see who you vote for out in the open, to guarantee the return on the party investment in buying your vote. I'm all for income redistribution, but this is just ridiculous. If this is the democratic system that was just destroyed, you can ultimately see why the guardians of human rights and democracy in Thailand are a little confused about what to say.

If anything, lessons learnt from this particular democratic failure in Thailand have got to include a commitment to substantial poverty alleviation and rural development in the northeast - otherwise any replacement democratic process will always be ready to be bought, corrupted, and taken down.

That's enough coup for a while... to come: more relaxation with Survivor: Race War!

_________________

22 September 2006

Coup update 2: same same but different

More from Yang at the end of the 'National Holiday' yesterday:

as I saw on a T shirt today....Same same (on the front) but different (on the back).

The Democratic Council as the coup leaders call themselves declared today [Wednesday] a holiday so I met a few friends at Starbucks and there were plenty of people there sipping expensive coffee and enjoying the day off. Its probably a good shopping day in Bangkok with little traffic. The back of the T shirt is that we have tanks at certain key roads and bridges, and no CNN, BBC or foreign news stations because they want to block the embattled PM (who was in NY at the UN general assembly) from broadcasting into Thailand from abroad. And of course they have control of the local TV and radio stations.

I used to play a board game called junta. There are some interesting parallels. Thaksin has apparently still got heaps of cash/assets he has not been been able to get abroad. So he may be negotiating with the coup leaders. He still has a sizeable faction in the army on his side but because he was overseas they could not get mobilised quickly and the other lot now control things and are strengthening their positions around the capital. So no violence for now.

Here's Thai newspaper The Nation's talkboard on the topic "Do you support this coup?"

It's an English language paper and website generally read by the middle and upper English-speaking classes, and yes, by all you Kiwi expats - and rather a lot of the answers are 'yes'.

The Nation and The Bangkok Post are good places for more running updates. It's a good sign that although the television stations were frozen out yesterday, the print media was operating online without any apparent restriction (reporting a massive surge in webhits as a result of the TV clampdown), and that pro-Thaksin demonstrators did not seem to be mistreated in Bangkok.

Main developments: after the King's endorsement yesterday, the military has promised two weeks until civilian government and a start on redrafting the constitution, calling on constitutional experts for their input. Constitutional experts are saying: 'um, can we copy it off the old one you just ripped up? We put a lot of work into it at the time. Seems a bit of a waste. Or we could just, like, tape it back together.'

____________

21 September 2006

Coup update: Military finds innovative solution to Bangkok traffic congestion

Update from Stephen 12:30pm NZ time, 7:30am Thai time:

"Morning, Gil Scott Heron, was right - the revolution will not be televised. We lost local TV at 10 pm last night & the big boys, BBC, CNN & CNBC at midnight. My friends tell me everything will be back to normal tomorrow (I don't know what Thai normal is however).

The streets are pretty quiet (my cab ride took 15 mins - on a normal day it would take 1hr 15 mins) & you wouldn't know a coup was being staged - saw a few soldiers standing on a couple of major intersections and that was it. Think people here are surprised that a coup did eventuate (though there had been rumours since last week). Many thought the days of martial law etc was history etc

We're trying to get hold of [my wife's] uncle, he's well into the anti-Thaksin thing to see what he knows. Banks & schools are closed today With no TV you guys know more about what's happening than we do..."

Yang checked in a few hours later, also saying he didn't know what was going on, due to the media blackout:

CNN and BBC and foreign news shut down but internet may be OK. They obviously control all radio and Thai TV stations.

The faction in control is loyal to a military commander who constantly criticised Thaksin and was about to be demoted.

You missed it! Probably for the best as you would be on the bridge confronting the tanks!

____

(earlier...)

My friends in Bangkok are probably still tossing in their sleep after a tank-filled evening, but hopefully we'll have some of their comment soon about the military coup. I imagine they might have mixed feelings - dismay and cyncism at the collapse of the democratic process, perhaps relief at the end of the stalemate... or even secret glee. Maybe even open glee, I guess we'll see.

In terms of your usual democratisation factions, Thailand is the mad exception. It's a place where, to plenty of political analysts, the unelected, hereditary, revered-as-a-god monarch is the country's most principled guardian of democratic institutions, whereas the (sort of vaguely kinda) elected government is considered the force most committed to undermining those institutions.

That leaves the army and the privy council. The army are 'loyal to the King', hate Thaksin, and have been power-struggling with him forever over nepotistic appointments, his hollowing out of judicial independence, and his mishandling of the Southern insurgency.

Bangkok is not Thailand, but it is the urban, professional class, sick of corruption and fighting for their democratic institutions, who in the months since the election, have been backing the King, his councillors, and even the Army against Thaksin. General Sonthi, who led the coup, was appointed as head of the armed forces at the urging of the King against Thaksin's preferred appointment. Sonthi is a Southerner - read: ethnic Malay Muslim - whose appointment was seen as a conciliatory and progressive move. He was about to be taken down by Thaksin. Woah, no-one tell Bush that Thailand just got taken over by a Muslim.

Thaksin may have been playing a stupid game of brinksmanship, but a coup is a coup, and "terminating" - not even 'suspending' - the constitution is hardly a blow for democracy, especially with new elections only a couple of months down the track. No amount of speculation about the democratic intentions of the army will change that - it may be a genuine attempt to press the 'reset' button, but there are no guarantees. I also can't imagine the King is too happy that they've launched a miiltary coup in his name again.

Before all this excitement broke out, I considered boring you with an unending parse of Martin Amis' unendingly problematic 9/11 5-year anniversary essay The Age of Horrorism, but turned instead to reading the verdicts on 'Survivor: Race War!' - which, let's face it, you're all far more interested in.

In times of political crisis, there's nothing like metaphorical clashes of civilisation within the framework of trite reality TV.

As every good ethnicity-geek would have heard by now, season 13 of Survivor is not only taking place in our neighbourly Cook Islands, but the four competing teams have been segregated by 'race', with the intended outcome of this cut-throat race war to be a melting-pot 'merging of the tribes' - before they end up back-stabbing each other to the end as usual. There's a White team, a Black team, a Latino team, and an Asian team. Black contestants with Latin American ancestry default to black; Latino contestants with white ancestry default to Latino; Asian contestants with Polynesian ancestry default American-style to Asian (because there is no Polynesian tribe). There are no South Asian, Chinese or Japanese contestants on the Asian team; but there is a white chick called - unbelievably - Parvati Shallow. She doesn't default to Asian. There is no Arab-American or Native American team.

How are Asian-American pop-cultural critics reconciling gob-smacked lefty sensibilities with wanting to see what happens to 'our' team? Here's Jeff Yang's Asianpop column, in which he gathers a team of hyper-ironic Asian-American pop-cultural critics for the season premier, as well as a carefully balanced selection of quadro-ethnic food: 'The Tribe Has Spoken' (highly recommended), and also his mailing-list breakdown on Instant Yang

From 'The Tribe Has Spoken':

"Did you see that? That white guy just grabbed the Asian guy's chicken," says Anna Liza.

"Don't worry, the chickens are going to come home to roost," I crack.

...

"I can tell already that this show is going to be successful," says John. "Next season should just go ahead and do white supremacists versus Black Panthers."

"I think next season should be 'Survivor: LGBT,'" I say. "They've got to top this somehow. You know everyone's going to bet on the lesbian tribe."

"Yeah, but will there be a tribe for 'Curious'?" asks Suyin.

...

The [immunity] challenge involves putting together a "puzzle boat," rowing it out to a floating brazier and bringing fire back to an altar, which can only be ascended after another puzzle is completed.

"Gotta go with the Asians on this one," says Ursula.

"Asians, come on! Why else are you playing all that Minesweeper on your Blackberries?" says Suyin. "They might as well just make the immunity challenge a set of SAT questions."

I don't have much to add to the flurry of quipping - except for highlighting the oddity of the 'Asian tribe' being called 'Pukapuka'. Sure, it's the name of an island, and I guess Cook Island Maori is not New Zealand Maori... but it does immediately call to my mind an homage to the Asian love of hanging out in libraries.

So, my first day back in the country, and top news story on Nightline? Don Brash’s sex life. I only have two words for the media on this one:

Please stop. Pleeeeeeeeeaase stop.

No-one wants to be forced to think about Don Brash’s sex life; it does not go well with late-night noodles.

After returning from the involuntary retching, I discovered that ...some girl on YouTube is not who she says she is! Next story: There are a lot of unwanted fish in a river! In America!

When the fish started jumping, probably because I've been away for a while, my flatmate started laughing with that desperate air of embarrassment that New Zealanders have when overseas visitors happen to catch their news broadcasts. You know the laugh. You've done it.

At the point where the killer movie sheep appeared, I muted the TV and told my flatmate about the toxic mud flooding East Java. We also discussed wages and living conditions for immigrant Poles in the UK. Then I turned off the television and went to read some real news. You know, the kind on the internet.

Going overseas really does ruin you for watching the news in New Zealand.

New Zealand journalists do admittedly make heroic efforts to fill our news day with stuff, in a country where not much happens. But you wonder whether it's worth the effort most of the time. Full of earthy Rotorua wisdom, my flatmate opined: ‘why don’t they just have less news? Why do they have to have it so many times a day? Nothing happens in this country! Or why don’t they just have international news?’

I pointed out that the fish story was from America.

[UPDATE]

>
> The following message was received from PublicAddress.net:
>
> Name: Tim
>
> Message:
> You missed the story on the guy from Nelson searching for a stuffed Alsatian.
>
>

That's right! I knew there was something else I blanked from my consciousness...