Ward Churchill Solidarity Network

“I Will Not Sit Quietly By While State Forces Terrorise My People.”

On November 8, 2007, Hone Harawira, Mâori Minister of Parliament, denounced recent attacks by the New Zealand “security” forces on Indigenous activists, revealing the systemic nature of the silencing of dissent around the world:

I will not sit quietly by, while State forces terrorize my people. . . . .

So let’s look at what this whole Terrorism thing means. What exactly is terrorism and who are we talking about when we call people terrorists? . . . .

Mr Speaker, when a member of this House characterizes terrorism as the importation of deadly diseases, the murder of innocent civilians, and the wholesale theft of a people’s lands and territories, is he referring to the terrorism of the colonial invasion of Aotearoa, because you’d have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to see those very terrorist activities in our own history? . . . .

The Mâori Party is no apologist for the regimes of either the Taliban or Saddam Hussein Mr Speaker, but neither are we so blind as to vote for a Bill clearly designed to punish those who would challenge injustice in Aotearoa. . . . .

This country is faced by the terror of silence; those who would silence the voice of radical protest, of vocal dissent and of genuine opposition; those who would tell us “wait, just wait, the police know what they’re doing.”. . .

Do you really think it’s acceptable behaviour for the state to use armed and masked gunmen to blockade communities, smash into people’s homes, hold innocent people at gun point, frighten children with guns, arrest and hold people without bail, and suppress all information on those cases? . . . .

We are not dumb; we are not blind; we are not deaf; and we will not be silenced. . . . .

The Mâori Party will oppose terrorism in all its forms, be it international terrorism or state terrorism, and we will stand alongside our people whenever our lands, our communities, and our people are threatened.

Click here to read entire statement.