Gregory Fortuin
Wellington, February 19, 2022
Individual Rights are important but public good is paramount
Many of us who have survived Police states and police brutality are in awe of the New Zealand Police and their handling of the volatile explosion of emotions that have descended on Parliament.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster and his team are surgically navigating a political minefield as they balance the right to protest within the boundaries of law and order.
Staying true to the mantra of policing with consent as one Deputy leads negotiations and the other ensure operational effectiveness.
We are blessed to live in Aotearoa with its Freedoms and respect for Human Rights.
Of course, we can always and must do better, but after travelling the globe there is no place like my home in Porirua.
Dehumanising apartheid
We have an absolute right to peaceful protest and to demand better.
However, we don’t have a right to arrogantly trample on the rights of others for our own selfish pursuits. Having survived one of the most dehumanising systems in the world called apartheid, I resent the ignorant abuse of the word to describe the consequences of one’s own choices.
Apartheid was not the result of a choice. It was based on skin colour. Thousands were killed, maimed, imprisoned, forcefully resettled and brutalized because they weren’t born “white.”
All “non-whites” were excluded, daily suffering the humiliation and degradation of being classified “a lesser human being” based on skin colour, not a choice.
Glibly using terms like Apartheid or even worse “the evils of the Nazis during the persecution of the Jews” to exaggerate the consequences of one’s own choices is repugnant. If this were Apartheid, South African protesters would have been teargassed, water-cannoned, battened and even shot with the remainder being carted off to 90-day detention without trial.
On the contrary, New Zealand Police have acknowledged the right to lawful process.
Minimum laws for safety
Any ordered society has laws to optimise its quality of life. To drive on our public roads, you need a licence and the car need a warrant. You can’t just drive on the side of your choice.
You wear restraints and obey the rules – or the new buzzword “mandates.”
If you don’t wish to get a licence or a warrant of fitness or obey the rules, that’s your choice and the consequences are, you are not allowed on the road. Do what you wish in your own space; but in a common community space, you do what is respectful of the whole community.
If you don’t like the rules, then peacefully protest and democratically vote out the rule-makers. Of course, this is not a guarantee who you vote for will give you what you want – that is called democracy.
World in Covid-19 grip
The world has been in the grip of a deadly global pandemic for the past two years.
We have been spared many of the international horrors of death and hospitals being overrun.
And yes, that is not the only measure, but I have sat through too many live-streaming of about forty funerals in my country of birth due to Covid-19. They were not blessed with the access to vaccines that we have. Yes, we all had to adjust – we have all been grumpy, frustrated and even angry at times. We are all Covid-Fatigued.
Non-Covid-19 related health issues have been seriously neglected. The economic carnage, not to mention the emotional and mental consequences are massive.
The painful effect of the paralysis of the supply chain is going to be disastrous. Worse of all is the individual pain of losing a job or a business and not being able to feed your family or be able to visit a dying loved one. The price has been extremely high, and we have all been affected – vaccinated or non-vaccinated alike.
The inadequacies of 2021
No one asked for this horrible mutating virus terrorising the globe. No one has a monopoly on the solutions either, but there is a leadership responsibility. After leading the world in 2020 our clarity of strategic goals and execution over the last 12 months have been found wanting.
A lack of genuine community dialogue has been a major source of frustration and anger. Twice the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency (WOCA) went to court to try and get data from the Ministry of Health to try and expedite a better rollout for Māori – and the bureaucrats dogmatically kept obstructing them.
We have all made our choices both personally and mostly for the greater good.
We all have a right not to be vaccinated and be treated respectfully.
No one should be denied access to essential services based on vaccination status. Essential services should have included the right to a job that of course didn’t infringe on the safety of the vaccinated. Children should not have been excluded from anything.
Paying the price
However, we are all responsible for the consequences of our choices. If I choose not to be vaccinated, I should not arrogantly demand the same access as the vaccinated. And I certainly shouldn’t be trampling on the rights of others. Have the courage of your convictions.
Maybe take a leaf out of the words of Novak Djokovic responding to a question if he was willing to forfeit playing in Wimbledon or the French open and being denied the opportunity to statistically be the greatest “Yes, that’s a price that I’m willing to pay.”
Gregory Fortuin is a former Race Relations Conciliator of New Zealand. His compassion and work among the people of the neglected and minority communities have earned him respect throughout the country. He was the Honorary Counsel of South Africa. He is connected with several organisations including the Salvation Army.
