Reprinted from The Common Good, no 5, Winter 1997
Waihopai: MarlboroughÕs Sour Grape
ÔExposure is disabling to the demonic.Õ
ÑWilliam Stringfellow
The Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) has run the Waihopai Spy Base, near Blenheim, for the last ten years. The USA is behind the setting up of this and many other similar installations around the world. These facilities lock onto satellites and, like giant vacuum cleaners, drag all the phone calls, telexes, and faxes back to their computers, which then filter out any sensitive political, economic or regional information useful to the USA and the UK. The NZ taxpayer, for the privilege of allowing a powerful nation to further exploit our Pacific neighbours, pays about $20 million a year to keep it running.
On 18th January this year, 20 people sought to Ôget a closer lookÕ at this Ôblot on the landscapeÕ, and to expose this evil structure for what it is. We had already tried to get information on the base through normal channels, and only an hour earlier two MPs had been told they couldnÕt inspect the base on behalf of the people who had paid for it. Alas!Ñ we too were told to leave or weÕd be arrested. So for the sake of raising public awareness about how our dollars are spent and how easily ÔFirst WorldÕ nations get their own way, we decided to fill the two paddy-wagons to overflowing and visit the Blenheim Police Station. Bringing the issue to the public via the media was our plan from the start, so spirits were high and after being duly processed we were all charged with trespass.
After much phoning, letter-writing and faxing, the Waihopai Twenty arrived at the Blenheim Court, 21 April, a little apprehensive, but buoyed by the solidarity of the group and the high moral ground on which we stood. Peter Williams, QC, our lawyer, in his opening statement for the defence said we were all pleading Not Guilty, and would call on the judgeÕs discretion to use a section of the Criminal Justice Act which states that there has to be Ômoral turpitudeÕ present for an act to be criminal. In other words we were saying that none of us was wanting to do anyone or anything any harm, and in fact we were all convinced we were doing a power of good!
Unfortunately, Judge Grace did not accept Peter WilliamsÕ argument. Peter mentioned many honourable dissidents including Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, not to mention the suffragettes and the anti-slavery movements. Five of us stood in the ÔboxÕ to show we were all convinced of the rightness of our actions. However, the pressure on the judge to find us guilty was enormous; both the police and the GCSB wouldnÕt have it any other way. We were all, bar one (Warren Thomson was fined $300) convicted and discharged. Realistically, we couldnÕt have expected anything better.
Hopefully, the publicity we received through the media will heighten peopleÕs awareness of the Ôspy baseÕ and shorten its lifespan considerably. As a Christian, I felt I was following JesusÕ command to be a peacemaker. Peacemaking takes many forms these days. Waihopai will be hearing from us again.