Echo Opinion: SDLP remains committed to applying positive pressure

Does this mean an end to the IRA? Does it mean an end to bank robberies and murder coverups? Is this a real breakthrough — or a stunt before May’s elections?
The SDLP wants to be positive about any possible development. We want to see all paramilitaries — republican and loyalist — go away. We want the total demilitarization of our society. We want a totally peaceful future for all our people.
We cannot say for certain whether the IRA will play its part. After all, it is what they do after an election that counts — not what they say before one. But what the SDLP can be sure of is that Gerry Adams’s statement vindicates our position.
The SDLP has long argued that the IRA’s activity only holds back change for nationalists and has been giving unionists the excuse that they need to avoid living up to the Good Friday agreement. At last, Gerry Adams appears to accept this.
We have also long argued that there is no republican reason for the IRA to exist and that the only way forward is through exclusively peaceful means. At last, Gerry Adams appears to accept this also.
As with so much else, where the SDLP leads, Sinn Fein belatedly follows.
I say belatedly because central to the Good Friday agreement was the commitment by all sides to “exclusively peaceful and democratic means.” The Irish people, North and South, approved the agreement by overwhelming majorities seven years ago. Now, seven years on, Gerry Adams has asked the IRA to consider embracing purely peaceful means and to consult internally about this. In other words, seven years after the Irish people spoke so overwhelmingly, Gerry Adams has asked the IRA to consider accepting their will.
Still, better seven years late than never.
The IRA claims to act in the name of the Irish people. If they do care about what the Irish people want, they will honor the agreement and end all their activity, including their involvement in organized crime. Sinn Fein must also accept policing and the rule of law. Without this, the reality is that we have no chance of getting all of the agreement up and running again.
Understandably, many people worry that no matter what Gerry Adams or the IRA say, the IRA will not in fact wind up. People worry that — like in the case of murdered Belfast man Robert McCartney — neither Sinn Fein nor the IRA will live up to their words. Sinn Fein said that they were determined to ensure justice for Robert’s killers — yet three Sinn Fein election candidates in the bar when he was so brutally attacked have not gone for interview to the police or police ombudsman. The IRA said there should be no intimidation — yet the wall of silence remains.
What is clear, though, is that what is driving any movement from the IRA is positive pressure. People see that the IRA has had seven years to deliver. Yet, every time Sinn Fein’s vote grew, the IRA only became more complacent and Sinn Fein more arrogant.
Compare that with the last five months when the provisional movement has come under positive pressure from democratic Ireland to clean up their act. Bit by bit, the IRA has had to move in response. Not all the way, but further than in all the rest of the time since the Good Friday Agreement.
That’s why, if we want real progress, people need to keep that positive pressure on. People need to back the SDLP’s strategy for inclusive democracy and a lawful society. We are standing strong for inclusive democracy and resisting unionist demands — privately supported by the British government — to exclude Sinn Fein. We are standing firm for a lawful society, too, and resisting Sinn Fein’s demand that anything the IRA does is not a crime. We and other nationalist parties on the island are insisting that the provisional movement respect the standards for Irish democracy in the 21st century.
And it is not just the IRA that needs to come under pressure — loyalists must too. They cannot be allowed to continue intimidating the nationalist and minority ethnic communities — while poisoning their own with drugs. Pressure is starting to come on loyalists — to the point that unionist politicians are complaining that for every republican with criminal assets seized, four loyalists have their assets seized.
We will also keep the positive pressure on Ian Paisley’s DUP too. Unlike Sinn Fein, we did not agree to renegotiate the Good Friday agreement in last year’s failed Sinn Fein-DUP deal. Unlike Sinn Fein, we did not acquiesce in a deal with the DUP that involved the creation of not a single extra area for North South cooperation.
Nor will we.
We are convinced that there is nothing wrong with the Good Friday agreement that the Irish people, North and South, voted for. The problem is that the DUP are not living up to it. Thanks to our stance, the DUP have had to accept far more of the agreement than they would like. We believe that they can be made accept it in full.
The fact is, when the SDLP has been strong, progress has always been made. It was we who won every step forward — from the Anglo-Irish Agreement to the Good Friday agreement. Compare that to Sinn Fein, which has negotiated flawed deal after failed deal. That’s why in these elections we are asking people to vote for a stronger SDLP to get things working again.
We seek a mandate from the people of the North to stand strong for the agreement and to stand firm against terror from whatever quarter. We are arguing that the best way to force the peace from paramilitaries and to force the pace with unionist politicians is to vote SDLP. Our message is clear — and our strategy is working. People need to keep on the positive pressure by supporting a stronger SDLP.
(Mark Durkan is the SDLP’s leader.)