Irish Republican News and Information, 29. January 2003,
http://irlnet.com/rmlist/
Analysis: SF focus on implementation of Agreement
By Mitchel McLaughlin MLA
Newspapers, both here and in Britain, were awash with talk of
breakthrough concessions from the IRA last week. Everybody was
energised by the stories. They don't make sense. It's not where
things are at - which shows that there are other agendas at work
The whole focus for Sinn Fein is on the full and faithful
implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. There are so many
aspects of the Agreement that have yet to be implemented. Tony
Blair admitted in his speech, when he came to Belfast, that the
British government hadn't fulfilled its commitments under the
terms of the Agreement. These include demilitarisation, Policing,
the human rights agenda, the Criminal Justice review etc. All of
those things, are where the focus is at. It is not a single-issue
agenda as being portrayed in the media.
Tony Blair's speech in Belfast was widely interpreted as an
uncompromising demand for IRA disbandment. But on scrutiny he
never articulated such a demand.
He talked about acts of completion, and time for inch-by-inch
negotiation of the issues addressed by the Agreement to end. Sinn
Fein agrees with this sentiment. But as Tony Blair's admission of
his government's failure to implement its responsibilities under
the Agreement demonstrates, this applies as much to himself as to
anybody else. Sinn Fein also wants to see acts of completion on
demilitarisation, policing, criminal justice, human rights and
all of the other areas that the British government has
responsibility for. Sinn Fein is prepared to get into
negotiations around how all of that can be completed.
The inordinate focus on the IRA is unhealthy for the process. It
allows those that do not wish to see the Agreement implemented to
abdicate responsibility to find a mechanism to deal with all of
the arms in Irish politics. But you have to deal with all of
them. The fact is that the RUC or the PSNI is still the main
armed body, unionist paramilitary weapons are still very active
on a daily basis and, of course, there is the whole question of
demilitarisation, which is about British arms.
All of that has to be dealt with and it's only in the context of
making politics work, functioning political institutions and
all-Ireland bodies that will provide the opportunity for
politicians to deal with all of this. We can not allow what
should be an OBJECTIVE of the process to become a PRECONDITION to
making the process work. It is by demonstrating that politics
works that we will create the conditions that will convince all
of the armed groups to disarm.
The latest crisis had been widely predicted for months as a
result of the UUP's desire to get out of coalition with Sinn Fein
ahead of an election. In the end, however, it came about because
of the PSNI raid on Sinn Fein's Stormont offices. This all fitted
in nicely with the agenda set out by the Ulster Unionists to
engineer a situation that would cause the collapse of the
institutions in circumstances that would be blamed on
republicans. Elements in the PSNI were only too willing to play a
part in engineering this situation.
The UUP had outlined their gradual withdrawal strategy on 21
September. It would have been phased until 18 January, when they
would have totally withdrawn.
So regardless of what happened at Stormont or any other
allegations against republicans the UUP would have collapsed the
Institutions by last Saturday anyway. They used the situation - a
contrived situation - around the raids to fast-forward the
programme of collapse that they had already outlined.
That does give me cause for concern. It makes no political sense
to attack the political institutions that come out of the Good
Friday Agreement or to collapse the only forum in which we all
collectively can relate to each other.
Who was responsible for the Stormont raid? Was it the British
government or was it, as some believe, a cabal within the PSNI?
We've always believed that the people who control the RUC are the
Special Branch, and MI5 control Special Branch. So who controls
MI5? Are there elements of the British government directly in
there? Time will tell in relation to all of that. At this point
the political damage has been done.
There's a degree of concern that the British government might try
to avoid having the elections, which I think would be a big
mistake. It would be a mistake not to face the democratic process
within the given timescale, just because the British government
and some of the parties are fearful of the outcome. Sinn Fein
wants to see those elections. The British government needs to
understand the desire of the people for change.
Would the British government postpone an election beyond its due
date because they thought the Tories were going to make a
comeback? It wouldn't be considered. Likewise, if we're due
elections, which we are, then let's have elections.
There is a dynamic within Sinn Fein. We are now the biggest party
representing the nationally minded people of the Six-Counties. I
think that trend will continue. That dynamic is behind Sinn Fein
throughout all of Ireland, not just the North, and it is throwing
up challenges to all of the other parties. So much so that we now
have regular talk of mergers between the SDLP and Fianna Fail,
the Irish Labour Party opening up membership to residents of the
North and even Fine Gael attempting to claim that it is a
republican party. These moves are all reaction to the growing
attraction of Sinn Fein as the party of choice for more and more
people.
We have been pursuing our politics for a long time. We are an
all-Ireland party. We are the only party in Ireland that is
organised throughout the country. Quite clearly, we are a
republican labour party. We're very proud of that and we want to
bring about the re-unification of Ireland. The other parties now
see the attraction of that and as the Sinn Fein electorate
continues to grow they will continue to react by donning the
republican mantle. And that's a good thing if it hastens the dawn
of the new, united Ireland.
The re-unification of Ireland is now the big picture. It is going
to happen and although parties will come at it from different
perspectives as to how it will come about or how long it will
take I believe that there is a general acceptance that it will
happen. Even from unionists. The parties will react - some of
them in a positive way, some of them in a half-hearted way -
unionists will come at it quite negatively - but they are all
coming at it. That's exactly what happened at the emergence of
the peace process. Nobody could ignore the realpolitik of the
peace process emergingm just as they will not now be able to
ignore the realpolitik of the reunification of Ireland emerging.
It's a bold forecast and one that will no doubt arouse some
scepticism but as I say - the same scepticism was around at the
time of the Hume-Adams talks that led a decade later to the Good
Friday Agreement. Time will tell how far the analogy extends.