Nandor Tanczos resigns

[cedric]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/multimedia/video.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10518608&content_media_id=5008476

The Green Party politician, who says he smokes marijuana "for religious reasons", claimed the first thing he had done when he entered Parliament in 1999 was buy a watch and he had been "cuffed" to it ever since.

"So today I remove that shackle, because when I look at the state of our rivers, our atmosphere and our people I don't need a watch to tell me what time it is," the dread-locked lawmaker said before smashing his watch with a hammer.

Tanczos announced earlier this year that he intended to quit politics because it had changed his life.

"I came to Parliament thinking you're all a bunch of *****," he told fellow legislators in his valedictory speech.

"And I was wrong. There are many good people here," he said.

"The very notion that all politicians are dishonest is misconceived," Tanczos said, adding that most lawmakers began with honest intentions, but many were compromised by the system.

"And that's why I'm leaving. The problem isn't how many people enter this place with honest intentions, but how many leave with them intact," he said.

He told lawmakers that he would go away to cleanse his soul but did not elaborate.