Alan Duff: New Zealand is in a good head space

Hone Harawira is wrong to hang on in the hope special votes will alter the outcome. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

Election result shows voters will not tolerate arrogance — something Key’s MPs must heed.

It was good to see the minor parties in the election did not get to play an inordinate role in governing our country. And great that a certain minor party got its beans, proof that electors are not fools, and don't want to be lorded over by crackpots.

Radicals and leftwing ideologists have never done anything to help the poor, the downtrodden, whom they claim to be valiant defenders of. Politics, like life, is not a movie where one can act out one's hero fantasies. Which is how the voted-out leader of this party sees himself: a heroic figure defending the poor. He is no such thing.

Politics is like a big extended family constantly at odds which has to be kept together - somehow. Angry rhetoric and tough-guy talk does not solve social or employment problems or put roofs over people's heads. Leftwing idealists promising to create 100,000 jobs? Have socialists ever done this anywhere in history? Leave jobs to business people.

The intimidating talk did nothing for disenfranchised (whatever that silly term means) Maori in the far north or come up with a single visionary idea.

Now the leader hangs on to the hope of special votes changing the outcome in refusing to concede defeat, claiming he's never done that in his life.

Even the All Blacks get beaten, and conceding with grace is their first task. The next is to look in the mirror. No, not at the sneering, defiant selfie image who refuses to admit his faults. But at the person who lost and the reasons why. Even his German paymaster took responsibility for the loss.

We all saw the television images of the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi looking at blood from his bleeding head in confused astonishment. A monumentally arrogant man whose three-plus decades of rule had shed so much blood of innocents.

When it the leader's turn he could not believe it. We can be glad these people will have no say whatsoever on the future of our wonderful little country. Goodbye and good riddance.

John Key giving a warning to his MPs not to be arrogant is music to the ears. The problem: will his politicians listen?

I knew someone who unexpectedly became a government minister. It changed him. He became superior, then pompous, then up himself. From a nice guy, a slightly better than Mister Ordinary of some talent, to a man who loved the sound of his own voice.

There is one person in John Key's Cabinet who needs to remember his humble, school-teacher origins, by not thinking he's so important he can avoid an airport security check. By learning to take criticism as an opportunity to improve himself. He's not being blamed for an earthquake happening. It is how he has handled the aftermath.

Ask any writer of novels if his or her editor gives a stuff about preserving our egos in trying to wring the very best finished product from our outpouring of words. When they're not killing us with a thousand cuts, they're executing our beloved literary babies. And remember, our reader taskmasters are but a tiny fraction of a government minister's taxpaying citizens. Stonewall, strut, posture and get abusive, pay the price.

From a closely watched distance, this election result looks like New Zealand is in a good head space. I think that's a reflection of the pretty good job National and its alliance partners have done and the modest Prime Minister we have. I can say he is one of only a few politicians I've met who actually listen to what the other person has to say.

We can trust John Key never to get too carried away by himself, his position of power. The same cannot be said of his MPs, many of whom would turn into little dictators if given a portfolio. These people need to be reminded that the media and the public will crucify arrogant behaviour.

I once told a Cabinet minister at a breakfast to shut his mouth, he was so self-absorbed. I've known, or know, five knights of the realm. Three served on our board of trustees. Another is a good friend. One is full of talk and empty promises. One Sir was surprisingly pompous about his title when otherwise a thoroughly decent bloke. One was vain and another quiet and modest.

In other words, they were ordinary people reflecting the human condition. Our politicians do that too, except like our All Blacks, they must live under a microscope. The price you pay for wanting power or wearing that silver fern. There is plenty of upside when you do it right.

Alan Duff - award-winning author of Once Were Warriors and new monthly columnist.