Keith Melville

I expected an ear-bashing after my recent opinion piece opposing Māori wards and that is what I received when I read the reaction in the Beacon last Friday.

Among the letters I discovered I have a far-right tendency, I spread misinformation, I patronise Māori, and have a distorted view of history.

The far right comment came from Mawera Karetai who claimed that I was repeating "a far right catch cry" when I said my opposition to Māori wards was based on democratic ideals such as one-person-one-vote and fair representation for all.

The term one-person-one-vote, by the way, is more often associated with socialists and not the far right.

Far right regimes tend to shoot people who express democratic values.

Ms Karetai incorrectly interpreted my use of the term to mean I believe individual Māori have the ability to vote twice, once on the general roll and once on the Māori roll, and that I think is where she believes I am spreading misinformation.

I understand Māori are entitled to choose which roll they want to be on, but they cannot be on both.

She says Māori wards were created to give Māori greater incentive to vote and to overcome the traditionally low Māori voter turn-out.

That means if you forgot to vote or you couldn't be bothered, don't worry the council has another tool to make sure your non-vote carries weight - the Māori ward.

That is Orwellian double-speak and undermines the democratic values I talk about.

Ms Karetai blames colonisation for the historical lack of Māori engagement in politics. I have no doubt that is true but as she points out, that is fading with time and history.

And that is a key part of my argument - creating Māori wards to deal with grievances that are slowly healing, simply prolongs the pain.

An electoral system based on Māori grievances from past injustices, and on the Pakeha-Māori wards-support-side, on a guilty need for redemption, is hardly a healthy way forward.

As for Dave Stewart's claim that I have a patronising attitude towards Māori and then to suggest my letter was insincere, is unreasonable and subjective.

In another letter, Esther and John Malcolm said I memorialise the flawed history of the liberal-democratic tradition when I stated our democratic values were won mainly in 19th century England.

I am not saying the British perfected democracy, far from it. Their reforms were just part of the journey to where we are today.

I was referring to the great reforms of 1832 which gave the UK middle class the right to vote and further reforms in 1867 and 1884 which extended voting rights and protected democratic values.

Those reforms form the basis of our own democratic traditions including votes for women in 1893.

If you look into our fascinating history, you will find some Māori chiefs (not many) gained the right to vote in 1853. This was extended to other Māori males in 1867, well ahead of property-owning Pakeha males in 1887.