Irish Author and Journalist - Danny Morrison

A Legalised Gerrymander

So, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern will return in early April with, apparently, a “take it or leave it” plan, based on amendments to the 28-page document they presented to the parties in Hillsborough last week. They have justified the postponement of the Assembly elections by a month (May 29th) because of the inconclusive nature of the negotiations aimed at restoring the Assembly and the power-sharing executive.

In one fell swoop they have linked the holding of elections, separate and important in their own right, to a deal being struck that favours the elective prospects of David Trimble’s party.

Were the elections to have taken place on May 1st without a deal (or perhaps even with a deal) the predictions were that the Ulster Unionists would have suffered at the hands of the DUP due to unionist disillusionment with the Belfast Agreement. That would be ironic, given that it is the Ulster Unionists, under the eccentric leadership of David Trimble, who have set the pace and concentrated attention on the IRA.

It is being demanded of the IRA that the organisation do something ‘big’ (“acts of completion”) to show that its course is to permanently stand down.
How the IRA will react is anyone’s guess. But it will have to involve a balancing act with regard to republican sensitivities on what is acceptable, whilst aiming to break the deadlock created by the unionists in reaction to alleged or actual IRA activity.

In 1969 it was the RUC, the unionists’ police force, which led the charge into nationalist areas when hundreds of homes were burnt to the ground. That is why nationalists, particularly in vulnerable areas, expect protection from the IRA (even be it of psychological comfort) given that they could neither rely upon the forces of the northern state, nor help from the Irish government.

And that is why an indispensable condition of any Agreement is that the new police service be from the people and of the people, if it is to be accepted, supported and recognised. Unionist resistance to this idea, by their opposition to Patten, and by their opposition to the equality and justice issues, only adds to nationalist distrust.

The SDLP had claimed that policing had been sorted out and took their seats on the policing board. But Sinn Fein refuted that argument and its strategy has paid off with further legislation now being introduced to make improved changes.

However, the major sticking point from the talks is the other unionist demand for a new system in the way that sanctions would be imposed against Sinn Fein for future alleged IRA breaches of its ceasefire.

If I were to act on my emotions alone, I could find many justifications for refusing to concede any unionist grounds for complaint. I could refer to the origin and causes of the conflict and the way the Ulster Unionist Party mistreated and abused my community whilst failing to admit its responsibility or apologise. I could point to the varying shades of unionist ambivalence, hypocrisy and double-standards with regard to loyalist violence, the disregard for the loss of Catholic lives as long as nationalists were kept down and the union defended.

I could even point to their continuing pettiness and meanness in Belfast City Hall each time a nationalist organisation makes a funding application.
All of these observations and experiences and, of course, suspicions about their real intentions, inform the republican approach to negotiations with unionists.

On the other hand, republicans must not forget that despite all the upheavals and delays, Ulster Unionists eventually shared power with Sinn Fein. Does it matter the motive: recognition of political reality, or love of power, or other?

They shared power with republicans who defended an armed struggle aimed at destroying their state and which killed their people. And it gave them massive difficulties, regardless of how unsympathetic one might generally be to their position. Of course, they would try to justify their turnaround by taunting republicans with, “You’re now administering British rule.” But there was no conviction in the accusation. It sounded pathetic (but even more pathetic in the mouths of dissident republicans who think aphorisms are an alternative to a political strategy).

Under the Belfast Agreement, a party which is allegedly in breach of the Mitchell Principles on violence could have its ministers removed from office only if both a majority of unionists and a majority of nationalists supported such a recommendation to the Secretary of State. This balance was deliberately introduced to counter traditional unionist abuse of their simple majority.

Unionists are now proposing that this be amended so that 40% of Assembly members should be able to impose sanctions against a party deemed in breach of its ministerial oaths of office. At its starkest, it could allow the unionists to trigger sanctions against Sinn Fein for the actions, alleged actions, or the words, or alleged words, of an alleged or actual member of the Republican Movement anywhere in the world.

We saw how unionists last year lighted on a spurious report from the Middle East that pipe bombs found in a Palestinian camp appeared similar to those made by the IRA (even though the IRA doesn’t make pipe bombs). The IRA was in breach of their ceasefire, anti-Agreement unionists screamed: Sinn Fein should be expelled from the Executive!

Such a sanction is a wreckers’ charter and Sinn Fein are totally opposed to it. There are alleged ‘safeguards’ being talked about to prevent unionists abusing the mechanism: for example, that the application for sanctions would be made to an Independent Monitoring Body which would make a judgement on which the Secretary of State would then act.

Typically, the Irish government and the SDLP support the idea without considering the destabilising effect it would have on the peace process were Sinn Fein to be dismissed from the Executive in disputed circumstances, with unionists then seizing the ministerial posts of nationalists in a legalised gerrymander.

Bertie Ahern needs to think again. Nobody really doubts the IRA’s commitment to the peace process. But nor should anyone doubt the anger and disillusionment there would be among nationalists if unionists were to be given and then abuse the power of sanction against Sinn Fein, the leading party of the nationalist community.

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