In March I had a go at the Maori ‘king’, Tuheitia Paki, in Waikato truck driver gets uppity. I called him a self-important, unelected, anachronistic twerp.

Recently his son Korotangi, presumably a ‘prince’, made an even bigger ass of the Maori monarchy. The young hoon was discharged without conviction on a variety of raps from burglary, theft to drink-driving, on the grounds that he needed a clean record for a possible ascent to the throne in the future.

I’ve been waiting for someone in Maoridom to go public on how ridiculous the whole Maori king thing is. Finally a senior Ngapui elder, David Rankin, has done it in a media release circulated yesterday. The time has come, Rankin said, to “bring this colonial relic of an institution to an end.”

“A lot of Maori around the country are not actually happy with [Tuheitia] calling himself the king of all Maori because in reality he is only king of the Tainui region and people around the Central Plateau who want to go under his reign.”

Maoridom had been embarrassed and shamed by the case, Rankin said. Further, the King movement was now like a badly injured horse.

“Sometimes you have no choice but to put it out of its misery. The same applies to the King Movement. The present truck-driver king cannot speak Maori, has to have other Maori advise him on basic protocol, and has been ordered by Tuku Morgan never to make any public statements. This is not a King but an object of nationwide ridicule.”

Hear, hear!

Meanwhile Waikato Uni professor Pou Temara made an academic ass of himself while responding to Rankin. Temara, a member of King Tuheitia’s national council of twelve, sneered that “These [Rankin’s] are the rantings of a ultracrepidarian and I will not dignify it with a comment.”

Which of course he proceeded to do.

What about that word ‘ultracrepidarian’! Apparently it describes a person who criticises, judges, or gives advice outside the area of his or her expertise. Straight out of academia.