An Phoblacht , 15. March 2007
The Mitchel McLaughlin Column:
Decision of Electorate must be respected
The results of the Northern election once more showed an overwhelming
endorsement for continued political and social change.
Nobody can deny that the DUP received an exceptional endorsement by its
electorate and that mandate must be respected. But the DUP must also
recognise that 70% of the electorate voted for representatives committed to
the restitution of the Political Institutions. They should also consider the
fact that those voters who oppose power sharing had the opportunity to vote
for candidates who stood on a platform of resistance to sharing power. These
candidates received a derisory vote from an electorate demanding that local
politicians take charge. Implicit in the unionist electorate’s rejection of
the anti-power sharing candidates is a message to the DUP to form an
Executive by the 26 March.
The electorate similarly rejected the objectives of those republicans who
stood against the Sinn Féin strategy. Hopefully they will now accept the
verdict of the electorate by adopting a supportive role and help map out the
road to the republic through peaceful and democratic means.
But there is a third group intent on bolstering the rejectionists. They make
up that section of the media who are consumed with an anti-republican bias
and will uncritically adopt a line of questioning conducive to the no change
under any circumstances brigade.
This can be seen in the present attempts to get Sinn Féin representatives to
answer all permutations of rhetorical questions about support for policing.
Implying, a la the DUP mantra, that Sinn Féin must give ‘uncritical or
unconditional’ support to the PSNI. So let’s be clear, Sinn Féin will give
our unambiguous support to accountable policing and ‘the rule of law’ and we
will criticise bad policing and bad laws where we feel it necessary.
Neither the DUP nor its elements in the media are in any position to lecture
Sinn Féin on support for policing or the rule of law. When was the last time
the media put this same question to the DUP? Was it not Ian Paisley during
the Drumcree crisis who warned the police not to come knocking at his door
if they were being burned out of their homes? Was that ‘unconditional’
support for policing? Was it not the DUP’s Jimmy Spratt who advised PSNI
officers not to co-operate with the Police Ombudsman’s inquiry into
collusion? Was that an example of ‘unconditional’ support for the rule of
law? Was it not unionists sitting on DPP’s who walked out because of how the
PSNI handled loyalist violence in west Belfast in 2005? Was it not Ian
Paisley Junior who voiced his public outrage at the PSNI treatment of a
Belfast estate agent in August 2006? DUP support for Law and Order was
always conditional on whether its application coincided with the DUP agenda.
It’s time for the DUP and its friends in the media to give ‘wholehearted’
support for the process of political and social change that the electorate
has voted for.