Like some gunslinger in a western, the slicked-back man-in-black Brian Tamaki is in town again. Along with his henchmen and henchwomen, he seems determined to stir up more trouble.
For the second time in as many weeks, Mr Tamaki was at the head of a protest in Auckland on Saturday attended by other members of the so-called Freedom and Rights Coalition. This time they were unable to cause chaos for many thousands of Aucklanders by blocking a motorway, but instead walked through inner-city streets and gathered at the Auckland Domain.
The protest group met counter-protesters in the domain and, while it was mostly a peaceful affair with no arrests, there were some verbal altercations which encouraged police to step in.
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff is among those who have had a gutsful of the coalition and its actions. While he believes everyone has the right to protest, he says Aucklanders have had enough of their weekend plans being disrupted by a few of the disenchanted.
“Aucklanders are fed up with a small group of people who call themselves the Freedom and Rights Coalition but seem to ignore the freedom and rights of other people in the community to go about their day-to-day lives,” he told RNZ.
Mr Goff is absolutely right to point out the hypocrisy of these people who obviously think the definition of freedom is “freedom for us to do whatever we want” and to believe in whatever wacky conspiracy theories they choose.
Whoever thought FARC would be a catchy shortened name for the group was either dense or has desires of being a fifth columnist.
While the acronym itself sounds unfortunate when spoken – and is a “gimme” for counter-protesters with signs suggesting in no uncertain terms FARC should quickly move off elsewhere — it is also the name of a Colombian Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group and people’s army.
That certainly appears a little Left-leaning to fit comfortably with the politics of Mr Tamaki and his ilk, who think the Government is trying to turn New Zealand into a communist state. But then, with this group, logic does not appear to be a strength.
Neither does learning from others or from previous mistakes. Mr Tamaki — who has been nicknamed the "eft-postle" — used his platform to promote another march on Wellington to protest at various perceived slights. He says convoys will soon be leaving from both ends of New Zealand to meet in the middle at Parliament, the site of a 24-day occupation which ended in violence and recriminations on March 2.
The intention of this latest foray is to gain support from opposition political parties for a vote of no-confidence in the Government. This is something any self-respecting party which does not want to end up tarred with the FARC brush would do well to stay a safe distance from.
After the protest a fortnight ago, Mr Goff said it was obvious Mr Tamaki was acting more like a politician than a church leader. On Saturday, Mr Tamaki admitted the coalition was now working with several other, unnamed, parties to form an umbrella group to contest next year’s election.
Mr Tamaki claims he is not interested in standing for office himself, but is motivated instead by a desire to see the “political establishment cleaned out”. He seems as unimpressed with the National Opposition as with Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Government, despite saying the next Wellington protest needs to get the opposition on side to kick her lot out. The Destiny Church leader needs to learn what most of the rest of us know, that umbrellas fare badly in the gales of Wellington.
