Watching Winston Peters give what is likely to be his farewell speech I was struck, hard by a thought: what a waste.
Peters is an excellent speaker. His speech touched on many of the highlights of his career and the causes he cares about; the elderly, corruption. Later, especially on Maori TV, voices were added in support of something he didn’t really mention; as the first Maori MP elected to hold a general roll seat, and the first post-War Maori MP to exist outside the Labour/Ratana alliance, he had a certain inspirational quality as a Maori footing it outside that environment.
If that had been the summary of his career I could feel a real sense of sadness at his passing out of public life.
Instead, I find it tragic. Because Peters, expert politician, pioneer, battler against corruption, and so on, had his fatal flaw: he couldn’t stop supping with racists. The years he spent calling to the anti-immigrant and anti-Asian sentiments that poison some parts of our society were despicable. They helped make the country a less welcoming place for many of my fellow citizens, and he helped legitimise the some of the basest elements of politics. It will forever tarnish his name, and rightly so; it could all have been so different, and that’s the tragedy of it.
I would like to miss Winston. But I cannot.