The Task Ahead
by Sean Brady
(An Phoblacht/Republican News 28/05/98)
Republicans can be forgiven for feeling a little cynical about the hype surrounding the result of last Friday's referenda. Every Tom, Dick and Harry is now claiming credit for the political changes that have happened and for moving us all towards peace, harmony and enlightenment.
What is particular galling is that these include people who did all in their power to crush the peace process in its embryonic stages and others who, up until very recently, contributed nothing but negativity towards the search for peace and accommodation.
Such elements include powerful and influential sections of the political and media establishments in the 26 Counties who operated a vociferous campaign against the architects of the peace process. Their negativity is now exceeded only by their utter shamelessness.
As if claiming credit for something which they did nothing to build was not enough, they are now attempting to lecture those who did. The greatest illustration of this are the attempts to pressurise Sinn Féin over the arms decommissioning issue.
According to the most recent shallow media analysis, an end to all injustice and lasting peace would be established if the IRA handed up all of their weapons immediately. Nobody seems to be seeking the surrender of weapons held by the loyalist death squads and nobody is drawing attention to the British Army's increased activity in fortifying and rebuilding spy posts, barracks and installations.
The unionists are making no secret about their intention to use the decommissioning issue to keep Sinn Féin out of a Six-County Executive. They are being aided and abetted in this by others. Sinn Féin has made its position on the decommissioning issue clear and is no less committed to the removal of weaponry from Irish politics than is anyone else.
What 26-County political and media figures in particular need to understand is that what happened last Friday will not of itself bring a lasting peace. Unfortunately for the two-nationist element in Dublin the Agreement will not get "the North" finally out of their hair. This would allow them to return to the comfort of the insular, partitionist politics which they have been used to for all their political lives. The nationalist community in the Six Counties will not allow that to happen. A myriad of issues which need close and careful attention by nationalist proponents of the Agreement have now been opened up. The reality is that 26-County involvement in the Six Counties must increase. So too must nationalist co-operation on the way ahead.
Recent comments by Bríd Rodgers which characterised an electoral pact between Sinn Féin and the SDLP as "sectarian" were a disgrace. Rodgers is ignoring the reality that it was nationalist unity which brought about political negotiations and created the hope for political progress and peace.
The real sectarianism is the emphasis being put by the British government and the political and media establishments in Britain and Ireland solely on unionist concerns and unionists votes. Tony Blair's campaigning last week sailed dangerously close to rewriting the Agreement in unionist terms.
What cannot be allowed to falter now is nationalist pressure for political progress and equality. Without nationalist unity of purpose and focused political pressure, any of the gains which were achieved with such monumental effort over a protracted period will be lost. This is definitely not a time for taking the foot off the accelerator.
The Belfast Agreement must be pushed as far as it can possibly go. We do
not have a political settlement and the only way in which we can advance
towards that goal is by pursuing maximum political change. If things are
to stand still, the Six-County state will remain frozen in time, the momentum
which has sustained a relative peace will be absent and the situation may
begin to roll backwards. |
