This article will be something of a one-off, I hope, because I’m going to be accused (with a modicum of justification) of playing the man rather than the ball. In this case, the massively popular prime minister John Key.
I’m one of, apparently, a minority of New Zealanders who do not fully trust him, and my trust level is falling rather quickly now as the pressure of elections mounts and a variety of tough issues need addressing. [This is not a Labour party promo – I’ve already written once before about my problems with Phil Goff’s presentation.]
Like many, I didn’t know much about Key before 2008. He seemed a typically busy chap trying, as all opposition politicians do, to defeat the then Labour government at the 2008 election. But I do remember one incident in that election campaign which for the first time made me very uneasy about him.
I don’t recall the precise detail, but he had been publicly denying meeting some international person of interest (I think it was a campaign funder or strategist) and then on TV camera he was confronted with evidence that he had in fact met that person. The look on Key’s face was disturbing: his eyes flickered away from the interviewer, the smile became forced, the skin went a little shiny (microscopic sweat), and there was a slight sneer as he floundered away doing whatever came to him at the moment to divert attention. It reminded me of certain children I know when caught telling fibs.
It was the first time I’d seen something in his face that didn’t fit with the constantly smiling politician with the self-deprecating “shucks” style that resonates with many Kiwis.
I’m writing this now because in recent times I’ve seen that other face a few times again but with a somewhat more sinister arrogance added. It happened in his reaction to Nicky Hager’s book on what our troops are up to in Afghanistan, again last week when caught out misleading parliament about Standard & Poors’ credit rating cut for NZ, and his reaction to Labour’s complaint about Key’s reaction to the chap threatening to jump from parliament’s gallery.
It’s a look which us oldies see and dislike in many young people. The rolling of the eyes, the slight sneer, the look that says “Whatever!” to dismiss the argument.
I recall that when challenged recently on something pretty indefensible (I think it was the Hager claims) and he’d run out of ways of fudging the facts, he dismissed further discussion by saying “So sue me!” or something to that effect. That’s the grown-up version of “Whatever”. The man thinks he’s so popular and charming now that he can dismiss arguments in such an off-hand, arrogant and wide-boyish manner and get away with it.
The thing which prompted me to write this was his manner in his televised press conference about the Standard & Poors issue. After managing to evade any candid and truthful response by bending words for a while, he finally gave in to persistent questions about what he actually said in parliament and how that didn’t tally with the truth, for a few seconds his face lost its self-assured smile and instead displayed the surly curled lip, the shiny skin, the avoidance of eye contact, and that teenage look that effectively told the media, “So what. The people love me so I can say what I want. Who cares. Whatever.”
This swipe is more than just that I don’t like the man’s manner when he’s made to feel uneasy. What does concern me is that his way of dealing with difficult moments when he’s caught out shows that underneath the affable exterior there is a person who has some contempt for the people who seek deeper answers and who challenge his confidence. I don’t like that in a leader.
Right, that’s off my chest. Now back to talking about issues.
[...] the saga does show is more about Key’s character. I wrote in an earlier blog article that I was becoming increasingly concerned at glimpses of another Key, one who gets nasty when he [...]