Dialogue: It's just as well Helen Clark did stay away

By DANIEL JACKSON in northland

Helen Clark's decision to stay away from Waitangi probably did more to help race relations in New Zealand than hinder them.

Her refusal to attend meant people around the country were not bombarded with the scenes of angry protest they have come to expect every year on February 6.

Watching mainly brown-skinned protesters baring buttocks, spitting and threatening violence has caused incalculable damage to race relations over the years.

But this year few people would have got up on Wednesday grumbling about radicals and wondering whether New Zealand is a good place to live after all.

No one can really dispute that this year's commemorations of the 161st anniversary of the first signing of the Treaty of Waitangi went ahead with little disruption since no one was arrested, no one got hurt and I'm pretty sure no one was spat on.

The interruption of a church service by a group of chanting protesters is small potatoes compared with the assaults and arrests of previous years.

And the Prime Minister's decision allowed Maori at Waitangi to sit down and talk to each other without being blinded by resentment of the Crown and the lack of what some see as real advancement on treaty issues.

Her staying away did not diminish debate on the treaty or the future of Maori - if anything it allowed real issues concerning the future to take prominence in the nation's news rather than the sideshows of protest.

A good example of this was the coverage given to the launch of the beginnings of a plan devised by Sir Graham Latimer and Sir John Turei for Maori for the next 40 years. How much air time would that have received if Ms Clark had been reduced to tears again at Waitangi?

This year's events on the day at Waitangi could almost be described as a low-key but productive conference on Maori issues, run by Maori, for Maori, without the interference of the Crown. Isn't that a practical application of tino rangatiratanga, or self-determination, that many Maori have been calling for?

But I'm not saying that the PM handled the Waitangi situation well at all. I think her direction to other ministers to stay away was wrong. It is the anniversary of a free country's founding document and people, Government ministers included, should be allowed to celebrate any way they choose.

If she was hoping to show solidarity on the part of the Government, she failed when Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia and his associate, Tariana Turia, turned up to the celebrations.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the only reason she relented and allowed them to go at the last minute was that they told her they were going anyway and she agreed rather than lose face.

After all, it is not too long ago that Mrs Turia would have been protesting herself, and Mr Horomia, who is not a list MP like Mrs Turia, could not help but realise that to win Maori support come the next election he must be with Maori when it matters, and the most important of those times is at Waitangi on Waitangi Day.

The PM should also have made it clear that the Governor-General, Sir Michael Hardie Boys, should do what he felt right instead of advising him to stay away in accordance with a decision by the cabinet.

Ms Clark also hurt a lot of feelings. Her visit to Northland the week before was billed as a trip to observe Maori health initiatives, but it was plain to see she was also mending fences with Maori who remain upset at her treatment of Te Tai Tokerau MP Dover Samuels and her refusal to be at Waitangi.

Her visit was the soft option and everyone not wearing rose-coloured or Government-funded glasses saw it as such.

Waitangi Day is special to New Zealand and Waitangi is a special place because of it, and it is to be hoped that one day the Prime Minister and the Government can return to celebrate the partnership symbolised by the treaty.

But this year I, for one, was glad they didn't set themselves up as targets for abuse because I didn't have to watch it.