Lindsay Perigo
Lindsay Perigo

The Politically Incorrect Show - 24/07/2001

[Music - Die Fledermaus]

Good afternoon, Kaya Oraaa & welcome to the Politically Incorrect Show on the free speech network, Radio Pacific, for Tuesday July 24, proudly sponsored by Neanderton Nicotine Ltd., the show that says bugger the politicians & bureaucrats & all the other bossyboot busybodies who try to run our lives with our money; that stands tall for free enterprise, achievement, profit, & excellence, against the state-worshippers in our midst; that stands above all for the most sacred thing in the universe, the liberty of the human individual.

[Music up, music down!]

Things have come to a pretty pass when you can't oppose apartheid without being called a racist. That is the point we have reached. Long since, in fact. It has become commonplace for those promoting the apartheid gravy-train to label those opposed to it as racist, as a substitute for rational argument. An egregious example occurred in the Waikato Times on Friday, on the eve of Tim Wikiriwhi's anti-apartheid convention in Hamilton. The object of the convention was to highlight the tide of race-based separatism that is engulfing the country & to lay the groundwork for turning that tide around. It promoted the view that all New Zealand citizens, regardless of skin colour, should be equal before the law. Without bothering to find out anything about it or talk to any of its participants, the Waikato Times branded it & them as racist. Here's a letter that has since been sent to them for publication by one of the participants, Sally O'Brien:

"Sir,

"I refer to the front page article of The Waikato Times on Friday 20th of July about The End Apartheid Conference convened by Tim Wikiriwhi. The item had descriptions of the event as stirring up racial hatred and the guest speaker from South Africa, Jim Peron, was described as having articles posted on racist web sites. The journalist did not bother to give these convention participants a chance to answer such allegations in the article, nor were there any journalists at the conference. Here we have a conference that was considered significant enough to be reported on the front page yet you had no reporters covering the actual event to see what it was really about. Having attended the conference I can only conclude that the article was either very poor journalism or complicit in deliberate smear.

"I am no journalist but I am capable of a quick search of the internet where I quickly found items by and about Mr Peron that contradict the impression created by the Waikato Times article. Mr Peron is quoted in an interview on the Laissez-Faire City web site as saying, 'Libertarianism to me is a personal belief that each individual has the right to live their own life for their own sake provided they do not violate the life, liberty or property of another person. It means full equality of people. No masters and no slaves.' I read that Jim Peron is a well-known libertarian (classical liberal) publicist and the South African correspondent for newsletters such as the International Society for Individual Liberty's Freedom Network News. Your journalist apparently made no attempt to find out about what principles Mr Peron and other prominent libertarian thinkers hold. Instead once again we find the media simply repeating accusations of racism against anyone who calls for the repeal of legislation such as separate parliamentary seats based on race. Go figure!"

The Waikato Times is not run by the government. It is a privately-owned publication enjoying the right to free speech that still exists here, for all the erosion of that right that has gone on. As such, it is free to misreport, misrepresent, smear & malign as it has done here. That it chooses to do so, however, is an indictment of it. The very least it can do now is make an effort to set the record straight. Publishing Sally O'Brien's letter would be a useful start.


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