Post by Kiwi Frontline on Apr 16, 2016 16:14:57 GMT 12
THE COST OF MAGNA CARTA AND THE SO-CALLED ‘MAORI MAGNA CARTA’
Now ~ in our own day, and in our own country, there is a mythologizing and a flagrant misinterpretation, as notable and as bizarre as any seventeenth century deification of Magna Carta, of a certain document.
That document is of course the Treaty of Waitangi, sometimes referred to as ‘the Maori Magna Carta’.
This brief general memorandum of understanding recorded ~ not just in the English translation but in the Maori original ~ an agreement that the Queen should be sovereign over New Zealand and that Maori should be her subjects, with the rights and privileges of British subjects ~ a position of equality before the law.
By some mysterious alchemy the document has come to be widely understood to mean the exact opposite ~ to establish some as yet undefined ‘Maori sovereignty’ or at the least a ‘partnership’ between the Crown and Maori, or between part-Maori New Zealanders and those not of Maori descent.
This process is at least as remarkable as anything that happened in the seventeenth century.
It is complete nonsense to describe the current misinterpretation of the Treaty as anything remotely like Magna Carta.
~ Magna Carta still recognised the sovereignty of the Crown under the law. The misinterpretation of the Treaty denies that sovereignty, either over some parts of the population and country, or completely.
~ Magna Carta gave us equality before the law; the Treaty misinterpretation gives us racial distinction ~ discrimination ~ and legal and constitutional privilege for ever to those of Maori descent.
~ Magna Carta gave us the Rule of Law. The Treaty misinterpretation provides ‘Treaty principles’ ~ which are never, and can never, be closely defined ~ which are inherently vague and liable to be twisted to suit any agenda or demand ~ as an eternal invitation to uncertainty and litigation. This situation will become much worse if any new written constitution were to be visited on our country, for such a constitution would inevitably contain some reference to the Treaty and its principles which would be seized on by politically activist judges.
~ Magna Carta promised us security of property. The Treaty misinterpretation is already a justification for interference with private property rights under the Resource Management Act 1991 and the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014 (the successor to the old Historic Places Act). Although at present there is no power in the Waitangi Tribunal to recommend the ‘return’ of private land to Maori claimants, such was not the case once, and it is not difficult to imagine that such might again be the case in future.
~ Magna Carta attempted to remedy social ills ~ the Treaty misinterpretation is being used as an excuse for the creation and enrichment of a new privileged elite of brown capitalists, while doing next to nothing to alleviate the misfortunes of many others of Maori descent.
~ Magna Carta promised impartial justice. Yet not only are there now regular calls for different sorts of trial and sentencing regimes, based on the colour of ones skin and cultural connexions, but judges have already actually taken racial ancestry into account in sentencing, giving lighter sentences, or none at all, to part-Maori poachers of native wildlife and to those of chiefly rank, whose mana would evidently be injured if they actually stood up like men to take the consequences of their actions. An investigative body, the Waitangi Tribunal ~ thankfully not yet a court of law able to make binding decisions, but whose recommendations are not without influence ~ is of course manned by the same crew who benefit from its recommendations. Has it ever found against claimants? Offhand, I cannot recall a single occasion when it has. If it has, it has not done so very often.
~ Magna Carta promises no taxation without representation ~ yet the Treaty misinterpretation justifies the continued privatisation of public resources and siphoning off of tax revenues to a small racially-defined minority in the teeth of popular opposition.
How are we to explain this mysterious transmutation of the Treaty into the opposite of what it actually was? A political scientist or a sociologist may be able to explain it, but not a humble lawyer. All we can do is observe, with Samuel Butler. That ‘fashion is like God. One cannot look into its Holy of Holies and live’.
Yet despite all these differences, there is one important similarity between Magna Carta and the current mythologised Treaty to observe ~and that is that, just as Magna Carta was a significant part of the rich dangerous mix in which brewed the English Civil War, so too the Treaty ~ no longer seen as a recipe for ‘one people’, but instead officially recognised as a prescription for two eternally-sundered disputing groups ~ is similarly a recipe for strife……
Read David Round's full interesting NZCPR guest commentary here > www.nzcpr.com/the-cost-of-magna-carta-and-the-so-called-maori-magna-carta/#more-18210
Now ~ in our own day, and in our own country, there is a mythologizing and a flagrant misinterpretation, as notable and as bizarre as any seventeenth century deification of Magna Carta, of a certain document.
That document is of course the Treaty of Waitangi, sometimes referred to as ‘the Maori Magna Carta’.
This brief general memorandum of understanding recorded ~ not just in the English translation but in the Maori original ~ an agreement that the Queen should be sovereign over New Zealand and that Maori should be her subjects, with the rights and privileges of British subjects ~ a position of equality before the law.
By some mysterious alchemy the document has come to be widely understood to mean the exact opposite ~ to establish some as yet undefined ‘Maori sovereignty’ or at the least a ‘partnership’ between the Crown and Maori, or between part-Maori New Zealanders and those not of Maori descent.
This process is at least as remarkable as anything that happened in the seventeenth century.
It is complete nonsense to describe the current misinterpretation of the Treaty as anything remotely like Magna Carta.
~ Magna Carta still recognised the sovereignty of the Crown under the law. The misinterpretation of the Treaty denies that sovereignty, either over some parts of the population and country, or completely.
~ Magna Carta gave us equality before the law; the Treaty misinterpretation gives us racial distinction ~ discrimination ~ and legal and constitutional privilege for ever to those of Maori descent.
~ Magna Carta gave us the Rule of Law. The Treaty misinterpretation provides ‘Treaty principles’ ~ which are never, and can never, be closely defined ~ which are inherently vague and liable to be twisted to suit any agenda or demand ~ as an eternal invitation to uncertainty and litigation. This situation will become much worse if any new written constitution were to be visited on our country, for such a constitution would inevitably contain some reference to the Treaty and its principles which would be seized on by politically activist judges.
~ Magna Carta promised us security of property. The Treaty misinterpretation is already a justification for interference with private property rights under the Resource Management Act 1991 and the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014 (the successor to the old Historic Places Act). Although at present there is no power in the Waitangi Tribunal to recommend the ‘return’ of private land to Maori claimants, such was not the case once, and it is not difficult to imagine that such might again be the case in future.
~ Magna Carta attempted to remedy social ills ~ the Treaty misinterpretation is being used as an excuse for the creation and enrichment of a new privileged elite of brown capitalists, while doing next to nothing to alleviate the misfortunes of many others of Maori descent.
~ Magna Carta promised impartial justice. Yet not only are there now regular calls for different sorts of trial and sentencing regimes, based on the colour of ones skin and cultural connexions, but judges have already actually taken racial ancestry into account in sentencing, giving lighter sentences, or none at all, to part-Maori poachers of native wildlife and to those of chiefly rank, whose mana would evidently be injured if they actually stood up like men to take the consequences of their actions. An investigative body, the Waitangi Tribunal ~ thankfully not yet a court of law able to make binding decisions, but whose recommendations are not without influence ~ is of course manned by the same crew who benefit from its recommendations. Has it ever found against claimants? Offhand, I cannot recall a single occasion when it has. If it has, it has not done so very often.
~ Magna Carta promises no taxation without representation ~ yet the Treaty misinterpretation justifies the continued privatisation of public resources and siphoning off of tax revenues to a small racially-defined minority in the teeth of popular opposition.
How are we to explain this mysterious transmutation of the Treaty into the opposite of what it actually was? A political scientist or a sociologist may be able to explain it, but not a humble lawyer. All we can do is observe, with Samuel Butler. That ‘fashion is like God. One cannot look into its Holy of Holies and live’.
Yet despite all these differences, there is one important similarity between Magna Carta and the current mythologised Treaty to observe ~and that is that, just as Magna Carta was a significant part of the rich dangerous mix in which brewed the English Civil War, so too the Treaty ~ no longer seen as a recipe for ‘one people’, but instead officially recognised as a prescription for two eternally-sundered disputing groups ~ is similarly a recipe for strife……
Read David Round's full interesting NZCPR guest commentary here > www.nzcpr.com/the-cost-of-magna-carta-and-the-so-called-maori-magna-carta/#more-18210