Gurbrinder Aulakh – 
By passing those remarks at fellow Member of Parliament Melissa Lee, Ron Mark has forced every right thinking person in New Zealand to ponder the underlying issue.
He asked Ms Lee to “go back to Korea.”
If a Member of Parliament can be subjected to such remarks inside the House, imagine the plight of lay immigrants who endure such remarks so often.
But the restraint and grace with which Ms Lee responded showed that she is aware of the position and privilege that MPs hold and the decorum that they should live up to.
Saddening incident
It appears Mr Mark was in a hurry or may have been waiting for such an opportunity from a long time. We can understand his desperation to step up by the time his leader decides to retire or to put in the words of (ACT Leader) David Seymour, “to be the brightest bulb on the tree.”
But this incident is saddening. Sad not because these unfortunate remarks were made in a place where the Bill of Rights Act and Human Rights Act have been debated and passed, but because this debate will now do exactly what Mr Mark and his Party thrive upon.
That is the politics of polarisation.
The more they hammer immigrants, in line with their agenda of divide and rule, the stronger their vote bank gets each time. More such bashing and more members of Parliament their party is able to take into the house.
However, Mr Mark forgets that if a majority of the productive immigrant work force were to follow the suggestion made by him to Ms Lee, ‘to back,’ then who will serve the ageing vote bank that his party champions to represent?
Changing New Zealand
There was nothing wrong in Ms Lee’s statement about the short trading hours in New Zealand, due to closure of shops so early, when compared to most of the overseas markets. Irony is the hypocrisy with which Mr Mark responded.
Has New Zealand, as other countries around the world, not changed from riding on horseback and carts to motor cars and buses? Are we not using computers in place of type writers, emails in place of sending messages through pigeons, using power and gas rather than stones to light fire and the list goes on. So what offended him to respond in the way that he did, is beyond comprehension.
With globalisation, the world is changing. To progress would require us in New Zealand to adapt to those changes, be they of the make-up of our population or the variety of its ideas.
In the late 1990s while watching the Miss Universe beauty contest on the TV, an answer by a ravishing damsel caught my attention, alongside her beauty. These contests are generally looking for a beauty with brains.
The question was” If you were to choose between constant and change, what will you choose and why”?
Her short and impressive answer led her into winning one of the top positons.
She answered “The only thing that is constant in this world is change, therefore, I will choose change”.
I rest my case.
Gurbrinder Aulakh is a lawyer practicing at Auckland and on the Immigration and Refugee law committee of the Auckland District Law Society. The views expressed are his individual. Email: aulakh@aucklandcitylawyers.co.nz; www.aucklandcitylawyers.co.nz
