February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The minister was referring to the new Policing Board, set up to supervise the recently created Police Service of Northern Ireland. And “everyone” can be parsed as actually meaning only one party — Sinn Fein, the only party that is still not “on board” the Policing Board. Cowen warned that the refusal to “get on board” was a destabilizing factor that had the potential to undermine the Good Friday agreement.
The pressure has been building for months on Sinn Fein, as it hangs back like a reluctant bride on her way to the altar, with attacks coming on a regular basis from its rival for the Nationalist vote, the Social Democratic and Labor Party. This week, the SDLP’s spokesman for security, Alex Atwood, jibed at Sinn Fein that it was “paddling furiously in a dinghy after missing the boat on policing.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. administration’s envoy to Northern Ireland, Richard Haass, is reliably reported as being “furious” with Sinn Fein that it is still playing hard to get on policing. Haass, who was in Ireland last week, is believed to have told Sinn Fein that it was incompatible for the party to have seats in the Northern Ireland executive and at the same time to refuse to condone the police force, which enforces the laws that that executive passes.
Sinn Fein continues to argue that PSNI does not represent the vision for a new service that was outlined in the Patten Report on policing in September 1999. The party says the chief constable is still a tad too powerful, and the board lacks important powers such as that of initiating enquiries into past controversial cases. It also wants the policing boards to be open to former prisoners. But the SDLP has been vigorously arguing that it won important concessions at the negotiations, held at Weston Park in July 2001, which, when implemented, will rectify any remaining, minor problems.
Observers, especially former republican activists who have turned decidedly cynical about Sinn Fein, maintain that whatever way the debate goes now, it is only a matter of time before Sinn Fein goes from criticizing from afar to participating on the policing board. The question, they say, is no longer if Sinn Fein will sign up, but when. Sinn Fein’s coyness, they say, is fake modesty.
The signs are there, though they sometime come over as mixed. Two weeks ago, Sinn Fein’s MP for Fermanagh-South Tyrone, Michele Gildernew, refused to meet with Hugh Orde, the new chief constable of PSNI. This week, the party’s president, Gerry Adams, did an about-face and said he would be prepared to meet with Orde, mentioning that he thought Orde came from a “different policing culture” from that of the old RUC, which PSNI replaced. Two other party notables, the MLA for South Down, Mick Murphy, and councilor Francis McDowell accused PSNI of not cracking down on the activities of the Real IRA in the area, though they alleged that they knew who they were. A short time later, the Andersonstown News, a weekly that often reflects Sinn Fein thinking, called on PSNI to “shut down” the Ulster Freedom Fighters.
This appeal to the police has outraged some former republicans, who view it as yet another sign of Sinn Fein’s abandoning of republican aims and policies. But it is probably more in keeping with how the majority of Nationalists feel. At least this would be the instinct of the SDLP, whose recent, uncustomary display of aggressiveness in relation to Sinn Fein indicates that the moderate Nationalists are convinced that they can beat Sinn Fein on this issue.
Sinn Fein’s policing policy will be greatly influenced by its search for the moderate vote, which it needs if it wants to win primacy in the Nationalist community in the upcoming assembly elections. Moderate Nationalists want to see the law-and-order situation stabilized as soon as possible. It will also be aware that in February, the district policing boards will come into being. The pressure on it to “get on board” can only mount. If Sinn Fein’s past behavior is any guidance, then the direction it will take is inevitable. It will sign up to the new service. And when it does, it will have made a gesture far more significant than decommissioning.