Chinese security overstepped the mark. Key grovelled in a way that was inappropriate for the head of government in a democratic nation.
But it wasn’t all black and white, right and wrong.
Thanks to the prickly woman for pointing me to the Trotter Donald obit. The contrast is telling.
My abiding memory of this remarkable man – my friend – Rod Donald, will be of him standing alone at the foot of the parliamentary steps, his face a mixture of sadness and defiance, holding up the forbidden Tibetan flag. It was a noble protest – and all the more effective for being conducted not by some raggle-taggle band of New Age anarchists, but by a senior Member of Parliament and party leader, dressed proudly and patriotically in his best, New Zealand-made, suit.
It wasn’t until the Greens were eventually elected that I ever felt my own concerns were ever voiced in Parliament. RIP Rod. Much loved, much missed.
Why should we apologise?
I feel dirty 
Rod Donald was the Green’s best politician, his death has hurt their cause no end…
Spud
Sure you haven’t got yet another one of those bloody emoticoms for feeling “dirty”?
While Russel was right in terms of saying he was not the one who started the debacle, he hardly did himself, us or the NZ government any favours by yelling out at the end. It would have been far better had he maintained some kind of dignified silence.
Great that the NZ Diplomatic Protection Squad stepped him to save him from the chinese muscle….a shame they were not protecting our government’s forecourt in the first place…
Clearly there needs to be more thought & more foresight demonstrated with these kinds of visits – the government should have anticipated that Russel was likely to protest in a similar way to Rod and prepared adequately for this.
Weird that no one warned the chinese of the fact that an MP would be protesting….
I haven’t heard John Key’s apology but from what I have heard it doesn’t appear to be all that clear as to what he was apologising for.
Murray McCully though – saying it is okay to exercise free speech as long as you don’t offend people? Did he really say that? If so what an egg. How ridiculous – free speech is bound to always offend someone at one time or another! My God that man falls short of the standard set by Don McKinnon and Phil Goff.
Perhaps this fiasco will generate clearer rules and expectations when such ‘dignitaries’ visit again.
Bit of a rock & hard place though isn’t it when we need China so desperately given that they are the source of a good proportion of all the things we buy….including canned tomatoes!
The age old saying ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ springs to mind….
Well, I can cover myself all over with slime
!
Deleted Trevor Seriously, Rebecca’s comments only seem to appear after I’ve hit submit on mine! Are you haunting this blog, Rebecca? Did Trevor finally kill you off?
Hmmmmmm I think that the security guys should’ve covered this angle off much earlier. If they were any good. And talked to each another, from both sides.
I mean, the Green MPs may even be listed on a Chinese threat list due to the previous protest. (Yeah, not a joke).
Did Mr Norman get the publicity and result he courted?
Spud – aaah such silliness.
Simon – yes he did but thanks to the chinese he actually got far more than he anticipated!
@Rebecca – did you read my comment before or after Trevor deleted some?
Thanks for the shout-out, Trevor.
I’ll have more to say on this issue in Friday’s Dominion Post.
Chris Trotter might remember Norm Kirk PM and Labour MPs and their protest against the French Atomic tests. The little old Kiwis made a gesture and were applauded. Probably annoyed the French somewhat – but apologise? Never!
@ Rebecca and Spud. Can you guys please stop your private conversations over a number of posts. This should also be taken as a gentle request to others. Lets focus on the issues not each other.
Sorry,
Trevor – no worries however, you will no doubt be aware that it is ‘your’ people who personalise the posts, not me. I merely respond to the rather ridiculous comments.
Rather than just moderating, can you please advise how it is that visiting dignitaries were not aware that an MP was likely to protest and how it was the chinese security that were controlling the forecourt rather than the NZ government.
In 2005 Rod Donald staged a similar protest – see http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10127631
Interesting how “Chinese security guards tried to have free-Tibet protester and Green Party co-leader Rod Donald removed from the view of National People’s Congress of China chairman Wu Bangguo as he arrived at Parliament today…..However, Mr Donald, carrying a Tibetan flag, was allowed to stay and the Chinese security officers were not allowed to block him from view.”
Did National fail to communicate properly? Or did Russell Norman fail to act properly?
Trevor – no worries. Can you please tell those – including your colleague Darien Fenton who should know better – who are saying that I am a NACT “plant” or am dubious (to quote Anne /Mac1) to pull their head in. This kind of garbage, while HIGHLY amusing and EXTREMELY flattering for a Kindy Mum hardly does much to give credibility to their statements and serves only to lower the tone of the debate……!
Give me a break, the same people who now laud Rod Donald as being the ’sensible’ face of the Greens now that he’s passed are the same people who slagged him off as an extremist nutcase when he was alive.
the comparison with Rod Donald is telling. You get the impression that Russel is more interested in getting himself in front of a camera than actually helping anyone in Tibet…
It’s not about Russell, it’s about free speech and Chinese abhorrence of it amongst other things.
Those who focus on Russell, and their like or dislike of him and/or his politics have completely missed the point.
John Key’s apology was ill conceived, and, I suspect, will misfire. There is a large band of voters sitting in the middle of NZ who lean slightly one way or the other.
China may be assisting our economy, we’ve been helping theirs for a long time (ask Mr Tindall et al). Sometimes as people we have to stop and ask ourselves a couple of things
Can I take my money with me?
Can I leave my principles behind?
If Key wanted to get down on his knees in private to the Chinese VP that’s his call I guess, but on behalf of me, and others? No, it’s not.
It really hasnt taken long for the old National to show through.
Isn’t the point of Chris’ blog that Rod Donald made a much stronger point by being dignified.
Russel Norman is a different person so of course he’s going to behave differently.
Trevor, Rod’s was one way to do it. The bottom line is he didnt have people to be undignified for him, as the Chinese VP does/did.
Rod’s dignity didnt change any of the behaviour of the Chinese government, nor it seems our own leaders…
Ah a sore lack of true statesmen.
Yes it is, but my point was to draw attention to how the Labour government handled the protest vs the current government’s obvious incompetence.
One question remains unanswered:
Did National fail to communicate properly? Or did Russell Norman fail to act properly by taking advantage of his position as an MP?
Phil Goff has said fault was on both sides.
Bill English has made it clear that the NZ government’s apology was for the fact that no visiting dignitary should have to fight for his personal space that he should be able to visit a government without someone getting in his face.
Norman’s account however, is that it was the chinese security that jostled him into the path of the Vice President.
Either way, clearly communication & proper security was lacking.
Actually I don’t think this is a brickbat for the current Govt (wow), I think its primarily a responsibility and failure of the respective heads of security.
Anytime a senior foreign dignitary turns up on our shores a thorough threat analysis is conducted (probably by both sides, independently and then jointly) which (almost certainly) includes a review of previous incidents. It would not (should not?) have been a surprise that a Green MP was once again on the steps of Parliament with a Tibetan flag.
It is extremely unlikely that chinese security “jostled him into the path of the Vice President”, that would go against every ounce of training that team had: “Oh look a protester, lets push him towards our principal”. No don’t think so, more likely he pushed in that direction himself.
What Mike said, absolutely.
Rod Donald MP: a dangerous crackpot subversive who had to be kept away from the levers of power at all coasts.
The late Rod Donald: a wonderful statesman, voice of reason, diplomat, all-round nice guy, etc.
Selective amnesia strikes us all, after they’ve gone. Rod was vilified in his time just as Russel is today.
Bear in mind that the Greens seem to be viewed as being more mainstream an alternative at the moment with 8/9/10% in the polls, the way Rod Donald is being remembered is probably benefitting from a bit of that too.
I’m actually really proud of Russel Norman and his bold protest. He will never be Rod Donald and it’s not fair for anyone to expect him to be a clone of a deadman!
Norman has his own strengths, fiestyness, courage, speaking his mind.
He did nothing wrong and it sickens me that anyone would buy the National party’s cowardly spin that he was at fault.
He hehe- Am watching Norman in the house, perhaps he could’ve dressed up as a creepy mime?
“Mr English this morning said the Government was not trying to suppress MPs freedom of speech and that Dr Norman had misused his privileges to get closer to the vice president than a member of the public could”
Who does “Double Dipton” think he is lecturing people about MPs privileges. If a foreign representative is on our home turf they can take us foibles and all, that is what democracy is about.
Norman made a goose of himself, might be that squawking Australian accent, and the Chinese push and shove. Having said that the Chinese were on our Parliament grounds and Norman is an elected representative.
Norman has the absolute right to wave any flag at who ever he likes; especially on Parliament grounds.
Do NZers support all China stands for? No; so why let them pretend otherwise.
I have finally managed to find the full coverage of the incident – seems to me Russell Norman didn’t do anything wrong. Was just standing there holding the flat stating “freedom for Tibet” and kept trying to get away from the chinese security that were trying to block him and then cover him with the umbrella. I think he deserves an apology.
One thing is clear, the complacency of the NZ government where chinese human rights is concerned, is not a new thing.
According to a TVNZ report at the time of Rod Donald’s protest in 2005 (where they again tried to take the flag off him & bypassed the official welcome), our former PM “refused to comment on camera about the incident, but her spokesman said the decision to bypass the official welcome was made because the Tibetan flag would grossly offend Wu.”
There’s no Nat spin on this, in fact I heard a short interview with Goff this morning on the radio where he thinks Mr Norman could have gone about it differently and will have learned a lesson from his actions.
What interview is that if you can remember? I want to hunt it down.
Not an interview per se, more asking for Goff’s comments on the matter.
Oh okay
Simon…don’t tell me Goff is changing his mind?!
On Sunday he completely defended Norman – see the article in the Herald:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10652853&pnum=2
Not sure Dr Normans core constituency care what Goff says.
Many will be singing his praises around the tofu fondu pot.
They will be anticipating Norman shaking hands with the Dali Lama on his next visit, almost a yearly occurrence.
This is where the Greens payoff might be; plenty of middle class wanna be Tibetan Buddhists floating around the burbs.
It was poor form all round.
“visiting dignitary should have to fight for his personal space”
He had all the personal space he wanted/needed. In fact we will never know how much dignity Russell would have shown because he was jostled and, yes, assaulted.
No NZer, MP or otherwise should have to fight to retain their peaceful, quiet protest because others venture toward them to thwart them.
Mrs Shipley’s behaviour in this regard was appalling, it appears Blinglish has decided a decade on to take a leaf from her book.
I really hope some swing voters are watching carefully to see the leopard ha snot changed its spots.
Hey Tracey, you’re back
Yes, the swinging voters do need to know about this 
Rebecca, I don’t think it was the motive, more the means.