Barry Soper: It’s time for the government to consider being cruel to be kind

OPINION:

There is an old saying: you have to be cruel to be nice. Perhaps it is time for the powers that be to consider it.

For starters, criticize willful rule breakers, prosecute them according to the law, and show kindness to the majority of the people in this country who follow the rules.

But consider these reflections.

We can get to the other side when people do silly things, but we’re not going to get over this if, every time someone does something silly, we ridicule them to the point that people are afraid and won’t tell us the truth.

And the truth is gold to us (just like the Covid tracking “gold standard” was the government boasted so much about last year).

Well, it was the thoughts proposed by the prime minister on the AM program.

Jacinda Ardern agreed that there were multiple mistakes that she called ‘mistakes’ during the last Covid ‘blink’ in Auckland, and went on to list them: not staying home when sick, not staying home after testing and waiting for a result. negative, and not giving complete information during contact tracing interviews.

The family of three that was the first to test positive made a “mistake” when the mother went for a walk with a friend during the first brief level 3 block and infected her. It seems he forgot to tell the interviewers about that walk through the confinement.

Her friend infected her 21-year-old son, who made the “mistake” of going to the gym after taking a test and heading to the Manukau Institute of Technology on the days he was infected.

The family that made the original mistake has now recovered and been released from forced isolation to see the havoc they have unleashed.

Nobody wants to be in this situation, Ardern said. And least of all those whose cash registers are being emptied again, particularly in Auckland.

But our nation’s leader says it’s not her job to criticize rule breakers, it’s the role of the police. If you listen to Simon Bridges from National, they’ll kindly turn the other cheek.

However, there is one thing that Ardern has power over and that is the tens of thousands of pen sellers that make up the public service.

Several Wellington business owners showed up at the IRD to pay their GST bills, but a notice had been posted on the door telling them that the offices had been closed due to changes in alert levels.

It’s true: IRD offices nationwide have been closed because they apparently can’t guarantee social distancing!

Businesses in the capital’s center have suffered over the past year as bureaucratic lawsuits were allowed to work from home. Taxpayer-funded office blocks are now sparsely occupied.

If this government is serious about helping businesses, put public servants back to work.

And also consider this reflection, delivered dramatically by Ardern to the media in the Beehive yesterday: “For now, today this week, we have to move on, do what we have done so well, crush this outbreak, come back to life. normal, with zero complacency, kindness and teamwork. “

Preach!