Top honour for Helen Clark

An honour in order- Helen Clark

Queen Elizabeth II has appointed former Prime Minister Helen Clark to the Order of New Zealand in her New Year’s Honours List.

Restricted to 20 living Ordinary Members, this is the highest honour conferred on persons who have rendered outstanding service to the Crown and People of New Zealand in a civil or military capacity.

Ms Clark was Prime Minister for three terms from 1999. She resigned as Leader of the Labour Party after facing defeat in the general election held in November 2008, although she retained her parliamentary seat with a convincing win in Mt Albert. She resigned from Parliament in February 2009 following her appointment as Administrator of the New York City based UNDP, the highest post in the UN after the Secretary General.

During her tenure in politics, which spanned almost 30 years (of which 28 years were as Member of Parliament), Ms Clark gathered several adversaries but never allowed their comments distract her from policies and programmes. She stood by her decisions, much of which were later vindicated.

She is currently in New Zealand on holiday.

“I feel privileged to be counted among those incredible Kiwis who have been honoured with the Order of New Zealand in the past. It is great to meet and speak to old friends. I convey my greetings to Indian Newslink readers,” she said.

Among the others who received honours of significance were children’s rights campaigner Lesley Max (Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit), film producer-director (Sir) Peter Jackson (Knights Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit) and former One News presenter Judy Bailey (Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit).

Prime Minister John Key announced on March 9, 2009 changes to the New Zealand Honours, reinstating the titles of Knight and Dame Grand Companion (GNZM) and Knight and Dame Companion (KNZM/DNZM).

“It is my pleasure to be able to reinstate these titles that will recognise the service of outstanding New Zealanders,” he had said.

The Queen honoured three members of the Indian community in her New Year’s List. Among them are Wellington based Dr Daniel Charles Sundersingh Devadhar (Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit) for services to medicine and the  community, Panchanatham (Pancha) Narayanan of Upper Hutt (Queen’s Service Medal) for services to the ethnic community and Daulat Singh Bindra of Hamilton (QSM) for services to the Indian community.

We also recognise Indian Newslink reader John Wong, Director, Asian Services at the Problem Gambling Foundation, who is the list of QSM awardees.