September 26, 2014
Opportunity Lost
Opportunity Lost
WILLIE JACKSON
It was doomed to fail said all the so called experts after the vote for Internet Mana and Hone Harawira collapsed on election night. Really? I thought doomed to fail? This was the same Internet Mana that was polling 4 percent just a month ago on the TVNZ Colmar Brunton poll, which is regarded as one of the most reliable polls going.
The same Internet Mana that was being lauded by the likes of the NZ Herald’s John Armstrong and Audrey Young. Who both thought they were heading for 5 percent. In fact Armstrong said Internet Mana had replaced the Greens as the anti-establishment party. And when Laila Harre was announced as the new Internet Party leader, the media went into a frenzy and called her selection a master stroke that was sure to pay dividends.
So what went wrong? Well it seems plenty in the last five weeks. In fact what we saw was the worst campaign in New Zealand political history. I have never seen a party throw it away how Internet Mana did. All that was needed over the last weeks of the campaign was cool heads, instead what did we get? Firstly, Southern Maori candidate Georgina Beyer bagged Kim Dotcom all over the media. Then Pam Corkery insulted reporters at the Internet Mana launch and her outburst led news bulletins everywhere.
Mana leader Hone Harawira then looked like he was having fights with the Internet Party over marijuana and finally in the week of the election we had the big moment of truth from Dotcom which turned out to be a big sham. Dotcom provided the icing on the cake with a pathetic attack on the media afterwards and when in the last days before the election John Key, David Cunliffe, Winston Peters and then the Maori Party conspired and asked Taitokerau to vote for Kelvin Davis to get rid of Harawira it was game, set and match for Internet Mana.
In between all the mistakes, Mana leader Harawira had his office shot at and nearly died when he drove down a bank. So maybe the signs were not good. In fact Hone is now saying that his ancestors could have been trying to warn him. He may well have been right and he has now paid the ultimate price.
His loss is huge for Maoridom but he should give himself an uppercut. Not for linking up with Dotcom, which in my opinion was always a good idea and the polls and positive reaction from the public before the disastrous last month is proof of that. But he should be furious with himself for not taking control of the situation for not managing an opportunity that would have changed the face of New Zealand politics and a great chance was missed.
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