A matter of faith — and politics

TWO SHOTS: Clive Bibby is trying for a seat on Gisborne District Council, and Hauora Tairawhiti.

Opinion

I have just watched John Kasich’s speech as he announced his withdrawal from the US Republican race for the presidential nomination. It was, for me, at the same time one of the most inspiring, gracious and yet sad experiences of recent times.

Here was a man who had been trailing way behind the front-runners ever since he had thrown his hat into the ring but had remained committed to offering himself as an alternative candidate to the awful options from both parties who now provide the only choices.

How deeply worrying is it that somebody like him has been effectively ignored by the voters?

We are about to see the most powerful nation in the world, and the one most able to defend our freedoms, led by either a “crackpot” or a lady who can’t decide which side of the bed to get out of in the morning.

Some say we get the politicians we deserve but I believe that is too simplistic, particularly for this country and this community.

The attractive thing about John Kasich’s candidacy was its humility.

In offering to be a president for all, he didn’t feel the need to reject his own beliefs or to dilute them to a point that they ceased to have meaning in order to gain the support of various factions.

Instead, he established his own credentials in the minds of his adversaries that enabled him to negotiate from a position of compassionate strength. But it was a strength established on his terms. Surely this is the type of person the world needs, so why has his campaign ended in such dramatic failure?

Unfortunately, this type of Christian faith-based resume seems to be way out of favour in our modern society and it’s hard to understand why. It appears that we are ignoring the qualities that characterised our past leaders who successfully negotiated a way forward — at least in this country.

During those early beginnings when our lawmakers took those tentative first steps, we understood that the establishment of mutual trust would be the most important ingredient leading to success. That, in my humble opinion, is the main reason we have succeeded where others have failed.

However, we have to dig deeper to understand the basis for that trust.

This nation has been built on Christian ethics that have stood the test of time. Those founding principles have enabled us to recognise the moral obligation we have to settling past grievances long-held by Maori but, more importantly, to do so in a way that has been accepted by most as being fair and reasonable, and as a consequence have the best chance of enduring.

No other nation on earth has achieved anything like as much during the restitution process. Most disaffected minorities use the gun or other forms of violence as a means of trying to regain what they think is rightfully theirs.

As probably the world’s worst example of those who claim an allegiance to the Christian faith, I’m not the best person to be suggesting the populace changes its criteria for selecting our political leaders in October. But I would like to encourage everyone to have a long, hard think about the qualities of the candidates on offer.

Those who demonstrate an ability to forge relationships with their colleagues based on trust would be a sound choice and a good place to start ticking boxes.