The thing about the whole Hone Harawira business is the double standard. If a European Member of Parliament had railed against Maori motherf*****s raping the country through the centuries, the reaction would have been volcanic, not only in the Maori community but across the Pakeha community as well. And any Pakeha member of any other political party would have been out on his ear within hours.

What was fascinating this week was the silence in the Maori community and the continued support Harawira seemed to maintain.

The Maori Party seemed unable to hear the country's demand for quick, determined action this week. The implication was that there is one standard for 120 MPs and another standard for Harawira. The party's dawdling made it seem incompetent.

The party let things fester. It lumbered hesitantly and groggily through the whole seismic few days, feeling its way, half blind, projecting a terrible indecision. Tariana Turia, who would have been immediate in her reaction to any Pakeha who uttered the infamous words in Harawira's emails, was singularly coy in her comments.

Pita Sharples, her co-leader, remained invisible for days. He was so silent that I assumed he must be overseas. He was not, of course. He simply laid low and said nothing. Why? Where was his leadership? When he reappeared on Wednesday to announce some policy or other, all the reporters wanted to talk to him about was Harawira. And that's telling. I haven't a clue what the policy was because, like anyone else this week, all I am noticing in relation to the Maori Party is Hone Harawira.

But by the end of the week it was clear the tide had turned in the upper echelons of the party against Harawira. It looks like he has a fortnight either to go himself or get pushed, expelled from the caucus. Turia said he acted like an independent MP already and more or less admitted he was uncontrollable. As Sharples said, the only way the Maori Party can do things for the Maori people is if they have credibility. No credible party can keep within itself an MP who describes white people as motherf*****s and rapists. Which is why the remarks by Sharples and Turia on Friday morning remained hopelessly inadequate. It was hopeless hand-wringing.

There is still no statement by the co-leadership of the Maori Party saying that what Harawira said was wrong, that the white people are not motherf*****s or rapists. None of the leadership has yet refuted Harawira's basic premise. Incredible.

Could it be, in fact, that they cannot refute what he says because they share his beliefs? That is what we all began to wonder as the party leadership drifted through the week without emphatic denunciation of what Harawira expressed. What was sad about the week is that we did not really find out.