Editorial: Out-of-step Tamihere should resign

Opinion

The Prime Minister's response to a second helping of John Tamihere's unedited views might strike the public as more surprising than her reaction to the first course. Last week, when Mr Tamihere unburdened himself of candid opinions on his colleagues, he was asked for an apology. Now that his interviewer has published two more of his remarks, Helen Clark has told him to stay away from the caucus and his career in Labour could be at an end. "He has made statements which are deeply offensive to New Zealanders," she said. "The statements are also offensive and utterly unacceptable to the Labour Party."

She devoted most of her response yesterday to a comment he made on the Jewish Holocaust, although it might be suspected she was more concerned at a vile term he used for women. Certainly his Holocaust comment, when considered in full, hardly seems exceptional. In full, the MP said this: "I am sick and tired of hearing how many Jews got gassed, not because I am not revolted by it - I am - or I am not violated by it - I am - but because I already know that. How many times do I have to be told to make me feel guilty." He said he is revolted, even "violated", by the Holocaust but he does not need to hear the story again. Is that really an "unacceptable" view?

Many New Zealanders echo the sentiment on the subject of Maori land grievances and breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi. Indeed, it was in an answer to a question about how a society can be focused on injustices of the past that Mr Tamihere made the analogy with the Jewish history.

Interestingly, the tone of the reaction of the Jewish Council yesterday was notably more mild than the Prime Minister's response. Stephen Goodman, president-designate of the New Zealand Jewish Council, said in a letter to the Herald: "It is worrying to see the comments by John Tamihere trivialising the Holocaust and its effects on all of us as New Zealanders. While not attempting to glorify the Holocaust, if we do not learn from history we are doomed to repeat it. Unfortunately we have recent examples of racial genocide in Bosnia, Rwanda and the Sudan to prove that point. This is not just a Jewish issue and many other groups were also targeted in the Holocaust - gays, Gypsies and those with disabilities. Together with other genocides perpetrated, it is a reflection on all mankind for which we must all bear some guilt."

Must we indeed all bear some guilt for atrocities perpetrated anywhere in the world or at any time in history? And if we must, does it serve any good purpose to keep browbeating ourselves on such an atrocity? The Jewish Council and many others believe it does serve a good purpose; Mr Tamihere and just as many others find it counter-productive at a certain point. A good case can be made by both sides. Even in the Labour Party, surely, there must be more than one "acceptable" view on a question such as this.

No, if Mr Tamihere has burned his boat with the Labour Party it is almost certainly for his strange, silly reference to women, a remark that has the ring of misogyny. It is a term that the interviewer chose not to repeat in his report and has made it known only to strike back at Mr Tamihere for the effort the MP has made to back up his claim that he did not know their lunch conversation was being recorded. If the word really reflects Mr Tamihere's attitude, rather than being merely the most stupid comment in a string of them, then he is more deeply out of tune with the Labour Party than probably anybody inside the party had suspected.

Either way, it is hard to see him surviving in the party now. It is a pity for his self-respect that he did not leave last week rather than issue an apology of sorts. He is plainly aggrieved at his treatment since surviving a Serious Fraud Office investigation into the Waipareira Trust. He has reason to be aggrieved, but the right response is to resign. He should do so now.