   Presencia-Opinión / Nacionalismos
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| Democracy in Northern Ireland: a victim of peace? Por Benjamín Kienzle (Canal Mundo, 21/10/2003) |
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In October 2002, John Reid, then secretary of state for Northern Ireland, suspended all the institutions of the devolved government in Northern Ireland – the pillars of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 – due to an alleged spy ring of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the seat of the Northern Irish Assembly in Belfast. In May 2003, Tony Blair’s government even cancelled the elections to the (already suspended) Assembly, since the Northern Irish parties had not reached an agreement on the resumption of devolved government despite compromise offers and pressure from the governments of Great Britain, Ireland and the United States. However, the cancellation of the elections was a very problematic decision in a representative democracy such as Northern Ireland: Elections are the basis of democracy, as they are, in principle, the only direct possibility of the sovereign, the people, to control the persons in power. But how did Tony Blair – after all a democratic politician in spite of his less democratic escapades outside of Europe – justify that cancellation? The principal argument was that the May elections would have put the Good Friday Agreement and the whole peace process in danger, since in the then situation, the most radical anti-Agreement parties, in particular Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party, would have won almost for sure. In the opinion of Blair’s government, the cancellation of the elections was the lesser evil. In this way, the Prime Minister could give more time, mainly to the moderate Unionists of David Trimble’s Ulster Unionist Party and the Republicans of Sinn Féin, to reach an agreement on the resumption of devolved government, what would improve the electoral perspectives of these (and other) pro-Agreement parties. Unfortunately, the parties have not found a solution so far. In fact, the current political situation in Northern Ireland seems to be bogged down. Besides structural causes such as the still deep divisions between Unionists/Loyalists on the one hand and Nationalists/Republicans on the other, the main cause of the current crisis is the mutual distrust in the sensitive area of security: Unionists do not want to share power with Sinn Féin in the devolved government, if the IRA will not decommission and will not permanently cease its paramilitary activities. At the same time, the IRA does not want to decommission, if it cannot trust a state that does not work because, in its opinion, the Unionists do not want to share power with its political wing and to reform completely the old oppression apparatus of the Unionist regime – the Northern Irish police force. It is a true vicious circle. Since the current situation is so complex, the strategy of the British government was indeed the better option in the short term, as democracy would not have won, if violence had broken out again after the electoral victory of anti-Agreement parties: After all, peace – defined here as “negative peace”, i.e. the absence of physical violence – is the basis of democracy. Nevertheless, in the long term, the cancellation of the elections can seriously harm democracy. If the parties do not reach an agreement and if the cancellation is not only temporary, the people – both Unionists/Loyalists and Nationalists/Republicans – will lose their trust in the functioning of democracy and, as a consequence, its patience with the dialogue between the pro-Agreement parties. In the long term, the people must participate in the democratic process and, thus, in the peace process. If the politicians have not been able to break the stalemate between the two camps so far – something very likely after the unsuccessful end of a conference between all the parties of the conflict in Downing Street this week – the people have to decide whether they give their vote to candidates willing to compromise or to candidates prepared for further confrontation. At the end of the day, democracy is the basis of “positive peace”, i.e. the absence of all forms of violence and the resolution of conflicts with exclusively peaceful means. Therefore, democracy must not turn into a victim of “negative peace”. Each day, it seems to be more likely now that, even without an agreement, elections will be hold between the 13 November and 4 December, although Northern Ireland is always good for a surprise in the last minute. |
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Benjamín Kienzle, estudiante en prácticas no IGADI. |
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ÚLTIMA REVISIÓN: 23/10/2003 |
