diarmidlogan@yahoo.com (diarmid

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Lessons in the ignoble art of politics

(Jude Collins, Irish News)

Are the DUP running Gregory Campbell up the flagpole and seeing how
many people salute? In recent weeks the East Derry MP has been boldly
going to places where no DUP man has gone before. At the start of this
month he appeared in west Belfast at Feile an Phobail, last weekend he
was in the Bogside at a Derry City game. The body language message is
clear: the DUP wants to establish contact with republicans.

The verbal language, of course – the official line – is very
different. In the early 1960s Ian Paisley was roaring from any soapbox
he could find that O'Neill Must Go. Last week Gregory was declaring
with equal conviction that the Agreement Must Go, and using a vintage
Big Ian metaphor to explain why: ‘Because the foundation upon which it
is constructed is neither sound nor sure'. The DUP solution? Knock
down this agreement house and through negotiations, build a new
agreement, preferably excluding Sinn Féin.

Oh dear. It's the old failure-to-listen problem again. Both the SDLP
and Sinn Féin have said, over and over, that there are going to be no
negotiations – NO NEGOTIATIONS – about producing a new agreement.
Anti-agreement unionists may tell themselves that
republicans/nationalists have been taking everything and giving
nothing but the reality is a bit different. Allowing less than one
million unionists to decide the political structures for over four
million nationalists on this island is, believe me Gregory, as good as
it gets. Next time you're at the Brandywell, stop off at Martin
McGuinness's house on the way home and he'll explain the detail.

Or head up to the Rosemount and visit John Hume. You'll probably find
him at home. After an extended period of low visibility, the former
SDLP leader last week went high-profile again – writing in the Boston
Globe, appearing on TV. You can tell there's a European election
coming up.

The ideas John was articulating in the newspapers and on television
have been worn smooth with repetition down the decades. Respect for
diversity, spilling sweat rather than blood, peace not conflict,
Europe has set aside past enmities so why can't we? But one new note
was sounded. Normally John emphasises the need for an acceptance of
differing viewpoints, an understanding of unionist fears.

Last weekend a tougher tone emerged. Rather than comfort, Mr Hume had
a warning for unionists. If they insist on bringing down the Good
Friday Agreement, he says, they will bring down with it the principle
of consent. In a post-agreement period, the lock which unionists have
been given on constitutional change will be removed. The British and
Irish governments will be in charge and they will be free to create
what new relationships they think best between these two islands –
including constitutional change.

Other than an upcoming election, there are at least two reasons why
the former SDLP leader has delivered this blunt warning. One relates
to the Rev Martin Smyth's jibe that the SDLP has begun to resemble the
Incredible Hulk, it's got so green. Not quite. But the severe
electoral pressure coming from Sinn Féin has forced the SDLP to paddle
like mad and put some deep green water between it and John Hume's
post-nationalism of a few years back. Mr Hume's warning at the weekend
follows that new, greener line.

The second reason for the SDLP man's warning is that he is nothing if
not a politician. There are those who see John Hume as St John, a man
suffused with goodness, shining Ghandi-like in the gloom of local
politics. Hah. You don't get to supplant Gerry Fitt, drag a
kicking-and-screaming party the way you want, and survive a brutal
assault from the southern media, by being a saint. You do these things
by being the cleverest SDLP politician there has been or probably ever
will be. A few years ago, during a conversation with one of John's
senior colleagues, I made a naive remark about the need for
politicians to do the right thing. "Politics is about using power to
get what you want," the SDLP man said, looking at me with something
close to pity. "The rest is window-dressing." John Hume knows that.

If Gregory Campbell had been listening in 1998, if the DUP had been
listening, they would have heard the sinews of
nationalists/republicans groan to cracking point as they handed
unionists the principle of consent.

If, instead of accepting and guarding this precious gift, the DUP now
insist on winding its mechanism tighter and tighter until the
main-spring goes, they'll have proved themselves the most inept
politicians in the history of unionism. And then 100 Gregory Campbell
guest appearances won't save them.

August 22, 2003
________________
This article appeared first in the August 21, 2003 edition of the
Irish News.

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http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache...hl=en&ie=UTF-8


The drive for a lasting peace

By John Hume, 8/16/2003

RECENTLY, I attended the Special Olympics in Dublin organized by
Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Some 150 countries were represented. If people
from all over the world can gather to respect and celebrate the
achievement of people with disabilities, their leaders can also work
together to create many things, particularly a world of lasting peace.
We are living through the greatest revolution in history -- the
telecommunications, travel, and technological revolution. As a result,
the world is much smaller, and its leaders face major challenges. The
most important one is to create a world in which there is no longer
war or conflict.

Of course, that goal means that instead of sending armies to areas of
conflict, we should send a philosophy of peace, accompanied by a large
delegation of facilitators who would promote dialogue among
conflicting factions. I have always taken the view that no matter
where conflict exists, it is always about difference, whether in race,
religion, or nationality. The answer is to respect difference, not
fight about it. That respect should be the first principle of any
peace agreement. When we think back on the foundation of the United
States, a strong message comes across. The Founders, driven from their
homeland by persecution, conflict, poverty, and famine, met to create
a country in which none of these things could happen again. Their
philosophy was summed up in E Pluribus Unum -- from many we are one;
the essence of our unity is respect for our diversity.Their second
principle was to create institutions that respect that diversity. The
principle is central to the presidency, Congress, and each state
because the diversity of the United States is fully represented in its
democratic system.

Their third principle was that they worked together in their common
interests -- the socio-economic development and living standards of
the people. They spilled their sweat together and not their blood,
breaking down the barriers of the past and building trust and respect.
As a result, the new America evolved. These three principles can be
applied as a solution to any area of conflict in the world. These are
the same principles at the heart of the European Union. They are also
the principles at the heart of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern
Ireland. I have no doubt they can be applied to areas of conflict
elsewhere.

The European Union is the best example of conflict resolution.

The first half of the 20th century witnessed two world wars and 50
million people killed. Who could have forecast that in the second half
of the century people would come together and create a united Europe?

The first principle of the European Union is respect for difference --
no victory for any country. The second principle is about institutions
that respect those differences, including a Council of Ministers, a
European Commission, and a European Parliament.

The third principle addresses the healing process. We Europeans work
together in our common interest -- economic development. We spill our
sweat, not our blood. We are breaking down centuries-old barriers, and
the new Europe is evolving. Those same three principles are at the
heart of the Good Friday Agreement in Ireland. Because of my own
experience in the European Parliament and my party's involvement in
shaping the Irish agreement, I know we were inspired by our European
experience.

The first principle in the Good Friday Agreement is our respect for
difference: no victory for either community and total respect for both
identities.

The second is institutions that respect those identities -- an
assembly elected by an electoral system of proportional representation
that ensures that all sections of our people are represented.
Similarly, the assembly proportionally elects the government of
Northern Ireland so that all sections are represented.

The third -- the healing process -- will come when institutions are
fully in place, and representatives of all sections of our people will
be working together in our common interests -- our solid economic
development. We will be spilling our sweat, not our blood. The
distrust and hatreds of the past will be eroded and a new Ireland
based on agreement and respect for difference will evolve. The
institutions of that new Ireland will have the total loyalty of
Protestant, Catholic, and dissenter -- real unity.

It is clear that we must send that philosophy of peace to all areas of
conflict. Think of the enormous strength of such a process if the
United States and the united Europe were to come together to face that
challenge.

What if the United Nations were given the role -- sending teams of
facilitators of dialogue with the philosophy of peace instead of
armies? E Pluribus Unum.

John Hume won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998.


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