The Webs We Weave

Conditioned to Rebellion

At present there is a brouhaha bubbling more strongly than a Rotorua mudpool over a Maori youth discharged without conviction.  The man in question just happens to be the younger son of the Maori king.  The fact that there is a Maori king will no doubt come as a surprise to many of our international readers.  It's a long story.  Suffice it to say that the "king" is an honorary figure belonging essentially to one tribe--the Tainui.  Maori remain tribal to this day in a way that the Scots, the Welsh and the English are not, but in a way that the French and the Germans are.  Which is to say tribal divisions still matter.

In any event, the swirling controversy involves the allegation that the son of the current Tainui/Maori King was released without conviction for theft because of who he is and because it may hurt his future prospects of succeeding to the throne.  The tribal under current to the controversy was neatly summarised by one Dover Samuels, a former MP:

While his drink-driving was moderately serious, Judge Cunningham said, the direct and indirect   consequences of a conviction were "out of all proportion" to the offence.

Mr Samuels, a former Labour MP, criticised that logic as that of someone under "cultural hypnosis".  "You tell that to the younger generation that are in Her Majesty's Marae. The guy got off because one day he may become king.  Well, that may be relevant to a few people in Tainui, but it's certainly not relevant at all to our young people in Ngapuhi." [NZ Herald]

What caught our eye, however, was the following startling statement in the Herald.

But a source close to the family said Mr Paki [the youth in question] had always been a mischievous child and had never been expected to take over from his father.  The source said King Tuheitia's eldest son, Whatumoana Paki, had been groomed from a very young age to one day rule.

"Whatu was brought up to be the successor to his father and was also raised by a lot of old people in Tainui. Whereas Korotangi was the spare — and he was never expected to do anything. I think Whatu would be an ideal successor because he is a . . .  nice kid."

Being raised "as the spare", never expected to do anything, and disregarded by the tribe seems to us to be an excellent, effective recipe for producing a sociopathic adolescent delinquent.  What about the father's expectations of the son to be a decent, honest, respectful, hard-working, trustworthy man?  Nah, he's just the spare. 

Who knows whether the "source close to the family" is telling the truth?  But if so, it's a shocking indictment upon the parents, the whanau and community.  Give me a child for the first seven years of his life, said the Jesuit, and I will present you the man.  It appears that the adolescent in question might well have been conditioned to rebel.