Stirring the Wasp's Nest
This post is the final in our mid-term report card series on New Zealand's current Prime Minister, John Key. His marks have ranged from A to D: in some things, Key does exceedingly well; in others, he has failed the country badly.
A general theme in our criticisms has been Key's superficiality: he appears not to understand what it at stake in so many issues. He is cheerily optimistic to the point of naivety. Another possibility is that these broader and deeper issues--particularly those involving constitutional matters--are just not that important to him. Yet, this begs the question: what, then, is important to our PM? Clearly personal ambition and protecting his own patch is not high on his agenda. He appears the most selfless political leader we have seen in a long time--possibly in our collective lifetime.
We suspect that the really important issues for John Key turn around wealth and material prosperity. He appears driven above all else by an ambition to see New Zealand realise its economic potential, grow the economy, and see living standards for all rise. This is Key's version of heaven. He would appear to want his own rags-to-riches redemption be the experience of the nation as a whole. Once again, his instincts as he approaches this challenge appear to be reasonably sound. He knows that the engines of economic prosperity rest not with the government. He does not believe in a command and control economy. He understands that business and labour making free decisions about the allocation of their own resources is the engine of economic growth. He is not stricken with the politics of guilt and pity. These are all positives.
But even here he appears singularly superficial---even simplistic. Take education, for example. Key announced that the single most important component of his "plan" to raise living standards in New Zealand was to revitalise the state education system in New Zealand. His salient initiative to achieve this was the introduction of national standards in reading, writing, and arithmetic ("math" to our American readers). He stated explicitly that this would be the single most important initiative of his administration.
Two years on this initiative lies mired in the mud of the Somme. Key has appeared oblivious to the power structures controlling the state education system. He has naively assumed that all that was required was the introduction of national testing standards, and, hey presto, all would be well. He has appeared both simplistic and naive, not understanding that education is inevitably grounded in religious beliefs and philosophical commitments that touch the fundaments of our culture and belief systems. For over one hundred years secular humanists have shaped, moulded, informed, conditioned, and sculpted the current state education system. Simply putting national standards over the top will not work--they will be spat out faster than a two-year old's pacifier.
Key has shown no apparent understanding of the need to break apart the power structures and the dominant ideologies within the current government education system. He appears ignorant of the need to wage the campaign on ideological grounds. He believes (ostensibly) in the power of the free market as the most efficient allocator of resources known to mankind, but for some reason puts education in a separate category and thinks that the state organs (government departments, education academics, and teacher unions) can allocate resources effectively. He has naively assumed that the state education edifice would deal effectively and efficiently with national standards. All he has succeeded in doing is putting a stick in the wasps' nest, making the little beasties in the government education complex very angry indeed.
Given that this was his self-professed most significant and important initiative to lift New Zealand's economic performance, on his own terms Key must be judged a failure. We expect the national standards "reform" will go the way of all such failed initiatives in the government education system. It will be rejected as soon as the next Labour government comes to power. In this matter, we believe Key has been breathtakingly naive.
We are told that John Key has repeatedly lectured his caucus colleagues about the danger of distraction. Focus on the real issues--which, are, rising living standards for New Zealanders, has been his counsel. If the government succeeds in achieving that then it will enjoy longevity. This materialistic reductionism is nauseating. Life is far more than an abundance of possessions. Seeing one's children make progress, become well educated, for example, normally gives parents a sense of fulfilment and wholeness well beyond the state of their bank balance.
On balance, we believe that John Key is shaping up to be a pretty pedestrian premier. His positive accomplishments will be few and limited. New Zealand will continue to smother itself in its soft-despotic blanket. Gummint will continue to be our big daddy and our cuddling mother. He will continue to predict that "things will come right"--which is rapidly becoming our own Kiwi variant of the cargo cult. His real contribution will be a negative one: that is, the quantum of new damage he will do will be limited. And that, we suppose, is a small accomplishment--but an accomplishment nonetheless--and for which we can be thankful.
For Christians and the churches the huge positive of John Key is that he will leave us alone, unlike his predecessor, Helen Clark whose Unbelief was militant and who aspired to remake the Church into her own socialist, soft-despotic image. When a church was ignorant enough to preach taxation-theft and redistribution, Clark bestowed her "kindness". When a church dared to criticise her statism, even indirectly, they were mocked and ridiculed and legislated against. Let's never forget her government's vitriol and heavy-handed machinations against a handful of Exclusive Brethren citizens.
In John Key and his government we have a very different regime. For that we lift our voices in thanksgiving to our gracious, all governing God. But, we have work to do in His Kingdom, so we had best be about it. Let us continue to look to God, not man for the coming of His Kingdom.
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