The man who ran away

What do you call a brave man…a hero maybe?

I suppose it might depend upon what he or she is being heroic about,

What would you call a person who runs and hides when the going gets tough…a coward maybe?

Yes but only if he or she was likely to be killed or face some such deadly menace.

Well on Thursday a person faced possible intimidation, the threat of being exposed as possibly a liar and he chose the easy route, to run rather than face the music. There were no guns involved, not even water-pistols, no weapons of mass destruction, no terrorists but just a bunch of expensively suited men and boringly but expensively dressed women.

The place was our own Parliament, the place where the people’s [so-called] representatives meet to debate under the ever watchful eye of the reluctant speaker who enforces the rules [sometimes]. It certainly is not a place of physical danger where ones body is under any severe danger. [Other than a sore backside from sitting for an extended period]

Yet this man ran away and hid,

Yet it was this mans opportunity to introduce and debate for the first time; a bill in his name. He had the chance to rise up and defend with words alone, his strong belief in the bill he introduced under urgency and was seeking to pass along the legal pathway and finally into law.

But he ran away.

It was his chance to prove the weight of his argument, the power of his intellect, the strength of his perception and to demonstrate both his wisdom and leadership, face to face with those either supporting or opposing his bill.

But he ran away, for the emotional strain appeared to great to overcome his fear of criticism by his peers.

Thousands if not hundreds of thousands were waiting to hear him deliver a powerful and forceful explanation of his reasons for seeking to change the present laws relating to peace and harmony in relation to state security in this fair land we call New Zealand – Aotearoa.

But alas there were no eloquent words of wisdom; no words to quell the rising tide of concern that swept our cities only a few short days ago why? Was he ill, was he tending to a sick member of his family? Will we ever know the truth…No, we will not;

Because he ran away, that’s why.

Those leaders of the Human Rights Commission, our Civil Liberties leadership, The Legal and Justice Upholders; All were left to stew in their own balanced arguments, why because like a small boy who has been caught with his fingers in the cookie jar…he had no desire to be punished, so he reverted to his normal and well practiced behaviour and;

He ran away, yet again,

For you see he runs away every Thursday, well almost every Thursday. Sometimes on these Thursdays he flies off to Hawaii for quick period or R & R so as to recharge his weary body, mouth and brain. But this Thursday was different he didn’t head off to his mansion in Hawaii, he went instead to his local talk back radio station, the morning show, and revealed a few state secrets about New Zealand’s sole member of the Bin Laden fan club.

A secret kept deeply entombed in the archives, that to most, even those faceless few working with those decades old files couldn’t remember. This secret was so deeply embedded that if you or I had revealed it, the GCSB would have been onto us in a flash and into our emails and telephone calls, and that information flashed into cyber space and on to the US whom instantly  then would have dispatched a rocket armed drone to wipe out the whistle blower, along with their families, from the face of this earth, now that’s terrorism, sorry, but I really mean justice US style…

Meanwhile back in Parliament members, both government and opposition recognised his usual nonappearance, but couldn’t say anything about that nonattendance because the rules won’t allow it. So the much awaited debate was kicked off by one of the three underlings that organised the raid on Kim Dotcom’s home by the FBI, GCSB, SIS and Police. He is a bit player, but an important one never-the-less, not because of his knowledge or super intellectual ability and he was first to speak in place of his hiding leader because of his absolutely pomposity, loud voice and sarcastic presentation his name Chris Finlayson  

And so the second reading of GCSB amendment bill was discussed and passed by two votes and New Zealand took one further step in the process of passing American produced and driven law on to its statute books, in the name of John Key, who just happens to be the man who ‘Ran Away’…