Raf Manji, leader of the Opportunities Party, argues New Zealand needs stronger civic literacy and service for young people and new citizens. He proposes a digital app called a teal card with civic-service modules, drawing on lessons from the Student Volunteer Army. Manji warns that climate-driven migration will test the country's ability to build cohesion across indigenous, long-term, and recent residents.
Chapters
Right.
Now, when you think about New Zealand, first of all, what does it mean to be a New Zealander? And then secondly, what do we need to be conscious of as New Zealanders? Where are we headed and what kind of leadership is needed to help us get there?
Wow. I mean, that's a good question. And prior to taking this role as leader of the Opportunities Party, I was sketching out a PhD proposal and the working title was what does it mean to be a citizen in the 21st century? Because this is kind of where I'm at, you know, the Student Volunteer army response, you know, that civic response to a major disaster and how, you know, a centralized government function comes in over the top of everyone, sets the rules, tells you what you can do, what you can't do, whereas actually the community is already doing stuff for itself and it's so self organizing and people know each other and there's a lot of friction there. You can see that also happening up in, in the Hawke's Bay again, even though everything we learned here, and I think coming out of that, you know, so even as I was sitting there as a counselor, I was constantly thinking about this issue. It's like, okay, what does it actually mean to be a citizen now when you become a citizen in New Zealand, which we've both been through, so you fill out tons of forms and pay tons of money and have your X rays and all that kind of stuff, and then you get, you know, you get your certificate. Hey, you become a citizen and then you troop off to the town hall to be presented your certificate by the mayor. So off you go and you go up and you shake hands and you get your certificate and you get your pot plant or a book or something, and that's kind of it. And I kind of thought, hmm, well, that's a bit weird. It's like, you know, there's got to.
Be more to it than monumental moment.
In your life, right? It is, but it sort of almost doesn't get treated with the gravitas. And I'm sure for some people it is really exciting because, you know, you're a citizen, you get a passport, there's a sense of security. But what's on the other side of the fence? What, what, what kind of duties you have? So you have lots of rights as a citizen, but what kind of duties do you have? So I'm very kind of focused on this from a philosophical point of view, an academic point of view, but also a practical point of view. So my work with the Student Volunteer army and the Aftermath of that and trying to work out what legacy do we have from this or is it a sort of one time thing? We shut it down and we kind of kept the thing going and we built some small steps without really knowing where it would go, but trying to sort of keep that ethos of service, particularly for young people and a sense of purpose. And now it's kind of, it's got legs again. So Covid came along, SVA stepped up.
The flooding in Auckland and the cyclone, SVA stepped up, you know, so we've kept that going for over 10 years, which I think is a great achievement because often it's quite difficult to keep things like that going. But I think it's got a lot further to go. So I mean one of the policies that we've got at the Opportunities party is this is what we call the teal card, which is essentially a digital app for under 30s. And part of it is a new civic service program. And I'm kind of a bit obsessed about this, but I think I want all our kids and potentially new citizens to go through a sort of a, you know, not heavy duty like annual or national military service and one year, but to do these, these small courses in civic literacy, financial literacy, community service, conservation, maybe a sort of a five day camp together where you're in, in the New Zealand outdoors to get a sense of what does it mean to be a Kiwi? So if you ask me as a, a, let's say an immigrant to New Zealand, what does it mean to be a Kiwi? And what's New Zealand about? It's, you know, the outdoors. You know, it's the outdoors, it's nature, but it's people and it's community and it's that, that sense that people will rally together. And what we're missing up here is what's that social cohesion bit? You know, we haven't defined it and of course, you know, we have the treaty sitting here and we have this sort of slight struggle over our identity. You know, we had the flag referendum, you know, so I think what is it? And that's not a question for me to answer, it's a question for us to discuss. You know, you look at the citizens assemblies in Ireland at the moment, they're doing great work and they're doing a big one around drug reform at the moment. And maybe that's what we sit down and we discuss those issues because we need to bring in the 30% of people who are not born in New Zealand and then their descendants. You have Obviously, Tangata, Whenua. And then you have others who have been here for a decent amount of time. And so if you think what, you know, if you ask people from outside, well, what do you think of when you think of New Zealand? You think of 100% pure. So you think of nature, you think of kind of the All Blacks. You might think about the Hakka, you might think, oh, it's just a cool place. People are really nice and friendly and it's like a sort of, it's a package there. Now, when I think ahead to the future and.
A very challenging future in terms of climate change and potentially, and it might be in 30 years time, might be in 50 years time, billion people having to move because it's too hot to live where they are. So that's that big swathe of Middle Earth, north and south, north and south. How are we going to deal with that? What can New Zealand offer in the way of living together? We're a small population in a big landmass. You know, you compare our landmass to, say, Japan or to the United Kingdom or to bits of Europe. How do we prepare? So for me, I think until we get some, just even start the journey of what it means to be a citizen, what does civic duty look like? And of course, a lot of people, oh, why should I do that? Or I can do my own thing. And it's like, yes, you can. But when you have a disaster, you can't contract out, you know, unless you've got pots of money and you can just get on a plane and fly out if you want to stay where you are, you're reliant on the people around you, you're reliant on your community, then you're relying on your, you know, government structures and your disaster recovery. And I just think we have to start preparing our population.
In a different way and not always. And I think that's what we did in Christchurch. And for me, you know, sometimes Christchurch Canterbury epitomizes a bit of all aspects in New Zealand because we've got urban and we got rural and we've got a lot of resources. We've got water, we've got mountains, we've got food.
And I think there's a lot of lessons to be learned from what's happened here in the last 10 years. But I'm also excited when I, when I think about working with younger people in the next generation. It's all there. I mean, I think we can achieve these things. And I think cycling back to the word purpose is like what is our purpose on earth? And everyone will have their own particular why. And that's cool. But how do we live together as communities? And how do, I mean the nation states, the made up thing, let's face it. But how do we create that sense of citizenship? What does it mean having a New Zealand passport? You know, what does it mean having an Irish passport? You know, they're both quite similar. And I used to have this conversation actually with the former Irish ambassador here, Peter Ryan, great guy. He's in Nigeria at the moment actually. And I'd say, you know what, Peter, you know Ireland, it's like New Zealand, just the other side of the world. Rains all the blooming time and it's green and you know, people like a bit of a crack and it's easy going, people are friendly, but there's a bunch of issues there as well. And some of those issues go back a few hundred years or more and we've got a lot in common and we should have a much closer relationship. I think now, you know, you've got Trevor Mallard, that might happen. But you know, you know what it means to be Irish, you know, you know that doesn't matter where you are in the world. And I think the same for Kiwis when you go around the world. So I'm from New Zealand, it's like, oh, people go, okay. You know, it's always a good feeling, it's a good response, you know, so what, what can we do to build on that? You know, it's like, yeah, something happens, we'll roll up our sleeves and get stuck in and try and help.
