Kia Ora Te Whanau
I am Gayaal Iddamalgoda from the Migrant and Refugee Rights Campaign.
To be honest with you all, I have struggled to find words to share with you today.
Our Muslim friends and neighbours have been hurt so badly by this evil act of terrorism. I don't think I'm alone in trying to process our collective grief, I don't think I'm alone in trying to find every way to comfort our Muslim brothers, sisters and friends.
Today, before I came here, I resolved to try and tell you 'the truth' as I see it. There's so much emotion. Please bear with me as I really do feel that words are failing me. And, it is difficult to tell what is true and what is not when I feel so much anger and confusion and I am trying very hard to not let these feelings overwhelm me. I have so many questions. Hard questions that I really think need to be answered by all of us.
- Why was our secret service busy surveilling our innocent Muslim neighbours and not the extremists who sought to victimise them?
- Why have the police spent over $100,000 of taxpayers money to attack peace activists, protesting weapons conferences and arms dealers while letting racist terrorists acquire semi-automatic weapons?
- When will politicians, left and right own up to the fact that they have scapegoated and blamed migrants and refugees, for so long, for social and economic problems that they are not responsible for?
- And when will they admit that while they have been doing this, they have allowed unspeakable hatred to brew under their noses?
I want answers. I want accountability. I want something to change.
But right now, while I wait for these answers, I want to do something to cancel out the hateful, paranoid vision of the extremists and offer instead a vision of hope.
Today I call for two things:
- I call upon the New Zealand Government to immediately remove the previous Government's ban on Middle Eastern and African refugees, [that is still in place and based on bogus security concerns]and;
- I call for New Zealand to triple the refugee quota. I call for these things and hope to say in the single voice we have today; refugees are not blamed, they are not feared, they are not vulnerable when they are in our midst.
They are truly welcome here.
Please sign the 'triple the quota' petition that is being circulated today.
I gave some thought of what I would say to the victims of this tragedy and strangely for me, I thought of something I learned long ago from a holy book I studied when I was young
"Better than a thousand useless words is a single word that can give peace'
I'm sorry but I do not have such words for you today. I hope you can look at the people gathered here in love and unity and find some strength.
Finally, I have a brief but important message for those who committed this crime and their associates. It is the message that good people send whenever fascism dares to rear its ugly head
Never, never again
