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Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 22. September 10 1979

Gourlie Hits the Fan

page 12

Gourlie Hits the Fan

Photo of a man wearing a woollen sweater

Council

Sexism hit the headlines of the recent NZUSA August Council, with the Women's Commission circulating a number of leaflets threatening dire occurrences should any sexist behaviour emerge, particularly an Council Dinner. Indeed, as reported in earlier Salients, the applicant for General Vice-President, Colin McFadzean, was not elected, as much as anything else because of his sexist behaviour earlier in the Council.

However there was another issue that was causing a similar amount of concern, although not so vocally expressed, particularly amongst the overseas students involved in NOSAC. It was the issue of racism, which first reared its ugly head at this year's May Council, when Paul Gourlie delivered a stinging attack on NOSAC, alleging that it was concentrating too exclusively on issues relating to Malaysian students rather than trying to "integrate" with the activities of local students. Although he subsequently apologised for his remarks, saying that they were not meant to be racist, but were rather comments on how NOSAC could operate more successfully, the comments caused a real concern amongst overseas students that has not yet died down.

What NOSAC is

Before going on to discuss the events at Council, an explanation of what NOSAC is should be made. Both NOSAC (National Overseas Students' Action Committee) and WRAC (Women's Rights Action Committee) were formed in 1977 as bodies that could specifically work in these two vital areas. Both bodies are standing committees of NZUSA with delegates from each campus plus a part-time National Coordinator. They meet about 6 times during the year to plan activities to action the policy set for the Association at Councils.

The position of NOSAC assumed greater importance at May Council last year when it was decided to abolish the position of International Vice-President, who was charged, amongst other things, with looking after the needs of overseas students. With the abolition of the IVP, the budget for NOSAC was increased to make sure that the concerns of overseas students would be adequately represented. However many overseas students are concerned that there is no security for NOSAC, it is answerable to the leadership of NZUSA.

The Possibility of Interference

It is in this climate that the Overseas Students Commission were upset by; the racist remarks made by Gourlie at May Council, and expressed fears for the future leadership of NZUSA if a person such as Gourlie could rise to the position of president of [unclear: orie] of its constituent bodies.

The Commission were discussing the pros and cons of NOSAC becoming independent from NZUSA, an issue covered quite fully at May Council, and it was mentioned that under the present structure, with NOSAC being a standing committee of NZUSA, overseas students didn't have much say in the direction or activities of the group. The leaders of NZUSA, under the constitution, give NOSAC its direction and can overrule it.

Auckland delegate Toong Ah Tea then mentioned the racist remarks Paul Gourlie directed at overseas students at May Council and said that "this shows that the leadership of NZUSA may not be so good." "We have to look to the future and the welfare of overseas students," he said.

The Commission continued to debate the prospect of independence as well as the problem of getting finance from NZUSA. When the question of the association's leadership came up again, Auckland's other delegate, Choong Tet Sieu, said that a lot of people in the association support overseas students but there are also others who don't share these views. "It's like Parliament" she said.

She added that "there are a lot of people who give lip service to overseas students, they say they support us but when it comes to the crunch what the hell do they do for overseas students?"

Waikato delegate Robert Teh then said that instead of "sitting here giving him (Gourlie) shit", the NOSAC Co-ordinator should investigate the situation on the Otago campus to see how it is that someone with such racist attitudes as Gourlie can be elected president.

The question of course was not one that could be resolved at any meeting. Like sexism, racism is a state of mind which must be fought and no amount of policy motions can eliminate racist attitudes from members of NZUSA. There was some concern expressed by members of NOSAC that identifying Gourlie by name would only antagonise the situation — however as the Women's Commission showed at Council, there is a time when you must stand up, must name names, must fight. The battle against sexism was successfully fought this Council, and although it will no doubt continue to appear, it will be a long time before it reaches its former hieghts. Racism is another offensive trait, and likewise it must be fought, and those who perpetrate it must be attacked.

On the subject of independence, the Commission eventually decided that it supported the idea in principle, but due to a number of considerations, including the fact that NOSAC cannot claim to be representative of all overseas students, it would have to be regarded as a long rather than a short term goal.