THERE COMES A TIME WHEN SILENCE IS BETRAYAL

Martin Luther King : Silence is betrayal.

The Green Party's failure to speak out against the US-backed attempt to oust the democratically-elected Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro means it is lending its de facto support to the anti-democratic forces amassed against Maduro.

EVEN AS THE forces massed against the democratically-elected government of Venezuela edge closer to a military invasion, the New Zealand Green Party remains resolutely silent. Its usually outspoken spokesperson on foreign affairs and human rights, Golriz Ghahraman, even now, remains mute. She didn't even feel compelled to respond when Republican Senator Marco Rubio tweeted a picture of the slain body of Muammar Gadaffi and suggested that this might happen to Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.

At the very time when Venezuela needs political support internationally, the New Zealand Green Party refuses to speak out - seemingly intent on meekly following the 'see no evil, hear no evil' policy of the Labour-led government which blusters that it will not get 'involved' in Venezuela's domestic affairs. Although that hasn't stop Prime Minister Jacinda Arden from reserving all her critical comments for Maduro, however limited and guarded they might of been.

The United States Green Party though hasn't been reluctant to stand up and express its solidarity with the Venezuelan government. In a official statement released last month it said:

'The Green Party of the US. opposes the war making history of this country in the Americas, Middle East and all around the world; reject the defiling and plunder of the lands of the indigenous on the American continents, the mistreatment of Afro Americans and dropping bombs around the world; and Greens reject the current attempts to re-establish colonial-style resource states. As such, the Green Party of the US rejects the current action against Venezuela and its popularly elected government.'

Marama Davidson: Her anti-colonialism doesn't apply to Venezuela.

Despite the fact that Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson often expresses her forthright opposition to colonialism, it seems that her anti-colonialism doesn't apply to Venezuela.

On April 4 1974 Martin Luther King gave a famous and important speech, 'Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break The Silence'. 

 It was an unequivocal denunciation of America’s involvement in that Southeast Asian conflict. The Green Party in 2019 needs to reflect on  MLK's words that 'There comes a time when silence is betrayal'.

The Green Party, like the Labour-led government it docilely supports, is condemned by its silence on Venezuela. As long as it continues to say nothing, it effectively remains an accomplice of the anti-democratic forces that seek to oust the government of Nicolas Maduro and don't much care about what methods they use to do it.

MLK addressed the resistance of some to oppose the Vietnam War:

'Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one’s own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexing as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerised by uncertainty; but we must move on'

And it is time for the Green Party to move on. A time comes when silence is betrayal and, as far as Venezuela is concerned, that time has come now for the Green Party.