Election 2023: Shaneel Lal: The government’s role is to foster unity

The misinformation fostered resentment and anger towards the Government and it came to its head with Parliament grounds being burnt. Photo / Mark Mitchell

OPINION

I spent most of the election and campaign period just wanting the election to be over. The last few years have felt incredibly stressful, especially the months leading up to the election. Our country feels divided. It continues to become more polarised, and I find the political right tends to dog-whistle groups that cause division.

During this election, I often found politicians debating people’s identities and fundamental rights instead of proposing solutions to pressing challenges affecting New Zealanders, like poverty, homelessness and climate change. Instead, some politicians hyper-fixated themselves and their followers on the rights of Māori and transgender New Zealanders. It naturally increased the level of abuse faced by marginalised communities online, and, in some instances, it has seeped into the offline world.

The division between different groups of people has always existed to varying degrees. The division became greater and more visible when Covid 19 first arrived at our shores in 2020. It was not the only virus that arrived then. So did the virus of misinformation and the ideas of profiting from spreading lies. Some people made it their mission to prey on vulnerable people who were susceptible to misinformation and force them down rabbit holes. The thing about rabbit holes is that once someone goes down one, they keep digging.

The misinformation fostered resentment and anger towards the Government, particularly former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern, and it came to its head with a Parliament occupation that ended with Parliament grounds being burnt. It was violent, and what came out of it was relentless abuse of Ardern and a never-ending distrust of the Government. The threats made against her were extremely sexist and grim.

It felt like the turning point at which some New Zealanders decided it was acceptable to abuse politicians. I spent some time with politicians leading up to the elections and. many times, they expressed they were afraid for their safety or shared they had exit strategies should they get attacked or aggressively accosted on the campaign trail. It saddened me that people who are quite uncontroversial, who just wanted to get on with their campaign, had to consistently watch their back.

The end of the Covid-19 lockdowns and mandates did not put an end to the conspiracy theories. The conspiracy theorists changed their target to groups of people like Māori and queer people. My observation has been that many people who led the charge of spreading misinformation on Covid 9 led the charge of spreading lies about co-governance and transgender people. The Venn diagram of Covid 19 conspiracy theorists and anti-co-governance and anti-transgender conspiracy theorists looks like a circle.

Conspiracy theories about specific issues and people eventually stop, but proponents of conspiracy theories always find a new target, and a vast majority of their followers uncritically follow them. I fear these people do not have a community to belong to. The one thing that brings them together is their collective hatred for marginalised people. Allowing that to bubble uninterrupted is dangerous.

Conspiracy theories are inflammatory. They seek to demonise their target and create hostility towards them. Dangerous lies about Māori, progressive women in politics and queer people have been driving a wedge between us all, and it has to stop. The next government, whoever it is made of, has the critical but arduous task of uniting the country. It must combat conspiracy theories head-on and build trust among everyday New Zealanders towards the government.

Importantly, our leaders must omit actions that evoke resentment, anger and violence towards marginalised communities. Sometimes, politicians say and do things that embolden people to act on their negative attitude towards marginalised people.

Instead, our government will have to educate people to reduce and, hopefully, eliminate discrimination against marginalised people - only that will foster unity.

Shaneel Shavneel Lal (they/them) was instrumental in the bill to ban conversion therapy in New Zealand. They are a law and psychology student, model and influencer.