KEY POINTS:
Three cheers this week for ....
1. Hone Harawira (and Syd Jackson)
Harawira devoted his speech in yesterday's general debate in Parliament to his hero Syd Jackson who died last week.
His was the most recent among an outpouring of grief and tributes to
him within Maoridom. The most intense was that of his nephew Willie Jackson on his Eye to Eye show on TV One last Saturday.
Willie lambasted the mainstream media for having virtually ignored the passing of his uncle and the importance of his influence in the modern Maori renaissance. Willie was right.
That was reinforced by the hour-long Marae special on Syd that followed his show, hosted by Shane Taurima (is TVNZ really mad enough to axe his excellent weekly interviews?) and featuring an insightful and sensitive interview with the dying Syd by his nephew Potaka Maipi.
I never knew Syd Jackson but he was such a given in the Maori political landscape that it is impossible not feel a sense a loss. I know many people who worked with him in the former Clerical Workers Union and who adored him.
"Gentle but staunch," is how he is described. Hone Harawira's tribute yesterday and the Marae special demonstrated how he influenced the lives of many Maori radicals in the 70s and 80s who in turn completely shifted the centre of gravity in Maori expectations, actions and achievements. A man with a real legacy.
2. Sir Geoffrey Palmer
Law Commission President and former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey and two other constitutional experts, Alison Quentin-Baxter and Helen Aikman, this week issued a press statement to say what load of drivel the latest opinion from Fiji's Human Rights Commissioner Shaista Shameem is.
Shameem told the UN High Commission for Human Rights in a report last month that the December military coup was perfectly legal because it was sanctioned by presidential prerogative.
It expands on a report in January by the same Shaista - who is understood to be a close friend of self-appointed Prime Minister Commander Bainimarama.
Palmer and associates politely say they are concerned the report may be taken seriously in some quarters.
"It does not deserve to be. Not only is the reasoning flawed, but the opinion is is conflict with the Constitution of Fiji..."
I prefer the language of a former newspaper colleague and now a leading Suva lawyer Richard Naidu who said after her January report: "Somewhere in her academic career, Ms Shaista apparently picked up a law degree. Her latest effort illustrates the dangers of allowing academic sociology types to study serious subjects like law."
The so-called Human Rights Commission did not have much to day when Naidu was interrogated by the military shortly after calling the military regime illegal.
Shortly before martial law was reinstated in Fiji last week, the last remaining judges on the Court of Appeal resigned led by New Zealand's former chief justice Sir Thomas Eichelbaum, due to apparent neglect from their boss.
