Keeping
Opinion
Keeping everyone happy
Last month, an Indo-Fijian took up what has to be one of the toughest jobs in New Zealand, that of Race Relations Conciliator.
Rajen Prasad, bom in Fiji 49 years ago, but living in New Zealand for the last 32 years, was appointed to one of the coun try’s most important public positions at a time when relations between the races are, to put it mildly, in a delicate state.
Maori and pakeha watch each other warily as militant Maori step up demands for some form of sovereignty. The Pacific Island community sits uneasily on the sidelines and a growing Asian population is expanding cultural differences and fanning the latent racial discrimination that always exists in a segment of the popu lation.
On top of this, the Race Relations Office has itself been driven by dissension and dispute for the last couple of years, undermin ing its credibility and leading to a loss of confidence in the com
munity at large.
It’s a job of vital importance to the well-being of a multi-racial nation and one in which Prasad, whose main task is to rule on complaints of discrimination, will find it virtually impossible to keep everyone happy.
He was putting on a very brave face when his appointment was announced in February - as he needs to, having accepted the job for the next five years, a period likely to be critical to the country’s harmonious racial development.
Given the tensions between pakeha and Maori over the last few years, Prasad has impeccable credentials for the post. As he put it: “I have an Indian heritage and my birth and upbringing has been Pacific.
“I’m a Kiwi. My children are second-generation New Zealanders. I live in New Zealand and I participate in New
Zealand society.”
It’s no accident that the government decided not to appoint another Maori to succeed the previous controversial conciliator, lohn Clarke.
After an inquiry into the office last year, a select committee told parliament the public perception was that the conciliator gave priority to Maori complaints. Other ethnic groups were seen to be ignored by the office, which put what the committee chairman called “an over-emphasis on issues relating to Maori”.
Welcoming Prasad’s appointment, committee chairman Alec Neill said he hoped it would introduce “a new era in New Zealand multicuturalism”. Prasad himself said while recognition of Maori
as tangata whenua must take priority the concerns of people from other groups would be addressed at the same time.
He said the ethnic background of the conciliator was not as important as the qualities of commitment and understanding.
Prasad, who was director and associate professor of social pol icy and social work at Massey University’s Albany campus in Auckland, has an extensive background in sociology and human rights which should serve him well in the post.
His first job was to move the Race Relations Office back to Auckland from Wellington where Clarke transferred it in one of his most controversial decisions.
As the biggest Polynesian city in the world and favoured home for the majority of New Zealand’s Pacific Island and Asian immi grants, Auckland is the logical place for the office.
Prasad also had to move quickly to restore the confidence of his staff who had been in turmoil for the last couple of years, with a high turnover of employees upset by Clarke’s aggressive man
agement style.
Although he tries to avoid talking about it, the new conciliator has first-hand knowledge of the kind of racial discrimination cases he will have to judge.
“Yes,” he admitted reluctantly, “of course I experienced preju dice.”
He had a taste of this when looking for accommodation with his new wife in Auckland in the 1960’s and he said his family in Fiji had also been affected by racism.
But he said he had also experienced the positive side of rela tions between the races - of New Zealanders who “have been interested in my difference and celebrated it with me”.
Despite his duty to rule on complaints of racism, Prasad made it clear he wants his office to be proactive.
“We need to think more deliberately about our race relations, about what we want to achieve, about celebrating differences, about letting people be,” he said.
One of the problems is that apart from sporadic cases of racism that attract a lot of publicity little is really known of New Zealanders’ attitudes towards ethnic groups.
To get a measure of the task ahead of him, Prasad plans to develop some kind of audit system that will measure the state of race relations in the country and monitor changes.
It is, he said, not just his problem.
“I take the view that race relations is the business of every per son who is a New Zealander.” ■