Urgent action needed to stop the drift
BY SEAN BRADY
As we go to press a political initiative by British Prime
Minister Tony Blair to break the logjam in the peace process is
reportedly imminent.
It is to be hoped that Blair's announcement will not merely be a
cosmetic exercise which fails to deal with the fundamental
problem blocking progress, namely the political unwillingness of
the Unionist leadership to allow the implementation of the Good
Friday Agreement.
Sinn Fein has consistently called for a greater focus by the
Irish and British governments on the problem which has beset the
process for some considerable time.
Republicans have pointed out that it was such a focus which
secured the Good Friday Agreement and which needed to be employed
again if unionist obduracy was to be circumvented.
What is central to rescuing the process is the implemetation of
the Good Friday Agreement. That means essentially, the
establishment of a Six County Executive, an all-Ireland
Ministerial Council, and the various implementation bodies. It is
clear that the all-Ireland Ministerial Council and policy
implementation bodies are interlocking and interdependent on the
creation of the Executive.
Following a meeting between all the party leaders in the North
and Tony Blair at Stormont on Wednesday Gerry Adams noted that
the British government had set itself modest expectations and
said there was no reason why this should be the case. He called
for a relentless surge in concentration to move the process on
and said the Stormont meeting merely did what should have been
done some time ago.
Adams went on to point out that although people were reluctant to
use the word crisis ``if the current threat was allowed to
continue and if the only institution to be established out of the
Good Friday Agreement is this shadow assembly and two ministers
up at Stormont then clearly the situation becomes untenable for
everybody involved in the process.
``There are deadlines, we have missed one deadline already. There
is another deadline in February, there are other deadlines after
that. Clearly the question of the credibility of the Agreement
becomes more and more into question as the slip continues.''
Seamus Mallon was at it again this week attempting to construct
for himself the image of a man attempting to hold the
middle-ground between unreasonable extremes. But again that lie
needs to be nailed. Sinn Fein is, as it has been from the
beginning, meeting its responsibilities under the Agreement and
is pro-actively seeking to have it implemented. David Trimble and
the Ulster Unionist Party on the other hand are engaged in an
exericise which seeks to overturn the Agreement.
Tony Blair's visit, signalling as it does a renewed emphasis on
getting the peace process moving again, is to be welcomed. But it
must be pointed out that a sticking plaster solution will not do
and may only postpone the crisis for a date further down the
road. Calls by Sinn Fein for direct intervention from both
governments may now be bearing fruit but the very modest noises
which were made at Stormont are not encouraging.
Unionist ability to frustrate the democratic choice of the people
has led to an increasing cynicism and fatalism in regard to the
efficacy of political action in pursuit of equality and justice.
Only fundamental and radical action can arrest the decline into
disillusionment and eventually alienation from the entire
process.
Events on the ground recently in nationalist areas of the Six
Counties tend to compound the disillusionment. This has included
a rampage by the British Army's Royal Marines and the RUC in
Silverbridge, South Armagh in which live rounds were fired at
local people and a confrontation between the RUC and nationalist
residents in Lurgan during which plastic bullets were fired.
At this stage what is clearly required are meaures which can
demonstrate that the unionist veto will not succeed again. That
British governments have consistently given way to unionist
threats over the years has reinforced the sense that the Orange
card is being successfully employed once more. It will require
radical measures to convince the nationalist people that things
have really changed.
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