Civic forum must not be a rubber stamp.
From IRISH NEWS June 30th, 2000
By Frances McCANDLESS
POWER to the people. No, it's not the return of the Tooting Popular Front,
but a new institution is about to be set up in Northern Ireland which could
bring all of us closer to the political decisions which affect our daily
lives. The civic forum is one of the bodies to be established as part of
the Good Friday agreement. It will have 60 members, drawn from all sectors
of society and will act as an advisory body on social, economic and cultural
matters. Selection of its members is about to start and it should sit for
the first time in the autumn. Who will these 60 chosen ones be? This was
left up to David Trimble and Seamus Mallon, who decided that there should
be seven people from business, three from agriculture/fisheries, seven from
trade unions, 18 from the voluntary/community sector, five from churches,
four from culture, four from arts and sports, two representing victims,
two from community relations, two from education and six appointed by the
first and deputy first ministers. Representatives will be chosen via nomination
procedures approved by Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon. The idea of a civic forum
was first thrown into the ring by the NI Women's Coalition, during the negotiations
which resulted in the Good Friday agreement. It wasn't designed to be a
second chamber, either an unelected body filled with a load of worthies
and people the government wants to reward or another elected chamber which
might merely duplicate the original one. As for what it will actually do,
it won't make decisions, but it will scrutinise legislation, commission
research, produce reports, hold hearings and discuss broad themes. It will
then pass its reflections on to the assembly to help inform the decisions
that are taken there. It will be able both to react to matters which the
assembly is currently discussing and to consider issues on its own initiative.
This could be a big step forward in getting people more involved with real
politics. Just voting once every few years doesn't give you much of a say
in how things are done. Or what things are done. And let's face it, most
people vote on party lines, rather than on policies. In fact, we haven't
really been used to voting on policies at all, more on constitutional issues
- big P politics, as some like to think of it. However, this hasn't given
people much of a voice on issues like the 11-plus, public transport, the
gradual demise of the health service and even water and sewage, which is
due for a major overall. So much for 'representative democracy.' These issues,
or a combination of them, affect everyone in Northern Ireland and some kind
of more 'participative democracy', which the civic forum could represent,
can only do some good in addressing the alienation a great many people feel
from mainstream politics. There are also issues which no government has
yet managed to solve on its own. The so-called 'wicked problems' - unemployment,
social exclusion, community relations and health issues like our appalling
rates of heart disease - need fresh, cross-cutting approaches which the
involvement of the wider community might bring. There are those who oppose
the idea of a civic forum on the grounds that it will be unelected and will
therefore be unrepresentative and a threat to politicians. But politicians
in Northern Ireland are often constrained by their party background and,
this being a divided society, certain issues are very difficult for them
to deal with. The civic forum, precisely because it is unelected, could
grasp the nettle in these more sensitive issues, as it won't have to worry
about its members losing their seats at the next election. Terms will, incidentally,
be for three years, so they won't be there forever either. So how on earth
will 60 people represent everyone in Northern Ireland? |
