(First published in the Nelson Mail and Manawatu Standard, October 23.)
As I write this, a lot of questions remain unanswered about
the controversy swirling around Auckland mayor Len Brown.
Why did his former lover, Bevan Chuang, decide to expose
him? She says she was pressured into doing so by another man with whom she
claimed to have an intimate relationship – Luigi Wewege, who happened to be
on the campaign team of Brown’s main rival for the mayoralty, John Palino.
As with so many of the claims made in this tawdry and
convoluted affair, that has been denied; but text messages exchanged between Ms
Chuang and Mr Wewege (who strikes me as one of those repellant people who hang
around the fringes of politics, attracted by the buzz of power)
suggested much more than mere friendship.
Was Mr Palino party to the conspiracy? He says he knew
nothing – not even that Mr Wewege was in a relationship with Ms Chuang. But regardless
of whether Mr Palino was in on it, some of the sleaze has rubbed off on him by
association.
Why did right-wing blogger Cameron Slater choose to expose
the affair when he did? One theory was that by waiting until after the election,
he increased the likelihood that the right-leaning Mr Palino – as the
second-highest polling candidate – would assume the mayoralty if Mr Brown (a
Labour man) stood down.
But Slater’s explanation is that he couldn’t reveal the
affair until he had persuaded Ms Chuang to swear an affidavit and hand over the
text messages she had exchanged with Mr Brown. That would give him a strong
defence in the event of a defamation action.
To make a complex picture even murkier, Slater’s father
John, a former National Party chairman, was head of Mr Palino’s campaign.
Conspiracy theorists wasted no time joining the dots and concluding Slater
senior was implicated, which he denies (as does his son).
Who sent threatening text messages to Slater, Ms Chuang and
Slater’s father? These were sent anonymously before Slater dropped his sleaze bomb. At that point he had merely
made a veiled reference in his blog to Mr Brown and “Asian beauties”.
If Slater is to be believed, those text messages were the
tipping point. It was then that Ms Chuang decided to hand over the evidence Slater
wanted – not the outcome the anonymous texter wanted. Meanwhile, after seeing
the reference to Asian beauties, Mr Brown evidently decided the game was up and
told his wife about the affair.
Should he have resigned immediately? That’s a hard one to
answer. As plenty of people have pointed out, the political ranks might look decidedly
thin if everyone who had committed a sexual indiscretion was excluded.
On the other hand, as a Radio New Zealand listener texted to
Morning Report, if the people closest
to Mr Brown – his wife and family – can’t trust him, why should the people of
Auckland? I have friends who voted for him, thinking him a solid family man and
churchgoer (an image he promoted at every opportunity), and who now feel betrayed.
One more question: are there any other skeletons in Mr
Brown’s closet? After all, philanderers are usually serial offenders. John
Campbell put the question to Mr Brown on TV3 but allowed him to get away with
what I thought was an equivocal answer.
By the time this column appears, some of the above questions
may have been answered. Mr Brown may even have stepped down, though that seems highly
unlikely.
He may not be the world’s most charismatic politician, but
he’s clearly reluctant to relinquish power, no matter what humiliation comes
his way (or the way of his hapless wife and daughters, who are the real victims
of this squalid saga).
Like John Banks, who was also in the news last week, Mr
Brown gives the impression of having developed a protective carapace – call it
ego, ambition, vanity, attachment to power or whatever – that enables him to put
his head down and push on when public contempt would have caused other men to
throw in the towel.
Now, one last question that may be easier to answer.
Has politics got dirtier? Undoubtedly – and not just in New
Zealand. The same is true in Britain, America and Australia.
It’s not only dirtier, but more intense. Scandal, smear and spin
are now staples of the political diet.
The explanation for this lies largely in the digital
revolution.
As recently as a few years ago, politicians and journalists
worked to a daily news cycle that revolved around the evening television news
bulletin and the deadlines of the morning and afternoon papers.
It was a pressured environment, but it usually allowed time
to pause, take a deep breath and react to political developments in a
considered way.
Not now. In the digital era, the news cycle operates 24
hours a day, seven days a week. The tempo has increased exponentially and a far
more aggressive media constantly hounds politicians, hungry for new
developments. It seems John Key can’t go anywhere without having microphones
thrust at him.
But an even more potent factor is the emergence of new digital
media – text messages, blogs, Facebook and Twitter – which provide a virulent
forum for rumour, gossip, lies, abuse, propaganda and character assassination.
It feeds on itself, each inflammatory item ratcheting up the intensity of the
political conversation.
Anyone can become a player in this new game, and they can do
it in the safety of anonymity. In other words, it’s not just the pace of
political journalism that has changed, but also the tone. Nothing is
off-limits; everyone is fair game.
Bloggers compete for attention, often making outrageous
claims that the mainstream media don’t bother to follow up. But the most
successful bloggers, such as Slater, break stories that the mainstream press
can’t ignore. They have made themselves part of the political landscape.
Slater is well informed and politically astute. Mr Brown is his
biggest scalp yet, but he won’t be the last.
Some argue that this new political environment is healthy.
It promotes transparency and has opened up the debate to new participants. But
we’re deluding ourselves if we think it doesn’t come at a cost, and that cost
may be that potential new entrants to politics might look at the sleaze that
has enveloped Mr Brown and decide it’s not just worth the anguish and stress.
