Rudman's city: Now they can really march with freedom of the city

By BRIAN RUDMAN

On Saturday Mayor Christine Fletcher can play queen for a day as she takes the salute at Auckland's very own version of Trooping the Colour.

To everyone's relief though, the military parade up Queen St will not be the divisive, politically driven, 25-years-too-late, welcome home Vietnam War veterans parade she proposed back in April.

Instead it will be a combined parade of serving Army, Navy and Air Force personnel exercising their right of charter to parade through the city once a year with bayonets fixed, colours flying and bands playing. Accompanying them on foot or in vehicles will be an unknown number of veterans - including those from the Vietnam conflict.

It's a sensible solution to what was without doubt one of the zaniest ideas ever promoted by a civic leader. And that's saying something.

Responding to a proposal from Auckland Returned Services Association president Chris Yates, Mrs Fletcher told mourners at this year's Auckland Cenotaph dawn service that a special welcome-home parade would heal old wounds and correct the mistakes of the past. It was "a rare opportunity to revisit this part of our country's history, to set the record straight and record our appreciation of these men and women and their families".

What Mrs Fletcher didn't seem to appreciate was that it was also a rare opportunity to divide the community all over again - a bit like inviting Ross Meurant and his Red Squad stormtroopers to kit up in their hard hats and batons and join in this weekend's Springbok tour protest commemorations.

One thing it didn't look like being was the mayor's hoped-for "celebration of peace".

For a start, the Armed Forces were not altogether happy at the way their traditional charter parade risked being turned into a political circus by RSA and Vietnam veteran activists.

On a personal level it can't have been easy for the Auckland Territorial's senior ranking officer, Bell Gully lawyer Brigadier David McGregor, either. In a previous life he had been part of the flour-bombing, placard-waving Victoria University protest crowd, jeering United States President Lyndon Johnson on his visit to drum up support for the war in the mid-1960s.

All the Armed Forces had desired was to revive its annual charter parade, in abeyance for a couple of years after a restructuring of the Territorial Army. This now seems to be the focus of the parade - the first to combine all three services.

Veteran participation will also be a first - as of yesterday about 400 had said they will join the 300 Army, Navy and Air Force personnel.

Missing, it seems, will be the protesters. In April I predicted a welcome-home parade was sure to flush out the old duffel coats and old Mao badges. With the focus of the event now off Vietnam, there is little reason for the old anti-war protesters to make their presence felt. Which is just as well, because this Saturday most of them are booked elsewhere.

At the risk of confirming every right-winger's worst nightmare, the rent-a-protesters will be busy marking the 20th anniversary of another campaign battle - the anti-apartheid demonstrations at Rugby Park, Hamilton, that led to the cancellation of the Springbok tour match.

In Auckland, city councillor Maire Leadbeater, who also carries the battle honours of detention in Indonesia, says she and her activist friends will give the military parade a miss. Instead they will gather in the Grey Lynn community centre to tell tales of 1981. The Vietnam battles will not, however, be forgotten.

The indefatigable Ms Leadbeater is preparing a "people's apology" addressed to the President of Vietnam. "There's never been an official apology from New Zealand for what we and our Allies did. So roughly at the time people are parading up Queen St, we'll be concentrating on the apology."

If they hurry, they might be able to get up to the town hall in time to secure the signatures of Mrs Fletcher and Brigadier McGregor as well.