Recently Peter Robinson [was quoted in] an article,
Hain
pressed over IRA sanctions (by Alan Murray,
Nov 12 2006, Sunday Life). He claimed to
have a number of sanctions that his party wanted
to be imposed if any party was to have committed
any wrong doing. He also claims that these proposals
are reasonable which all democratic parties and
electors can support.
In
the dictionary definition, democracy "is
government by the people in which the supreme
power is vested in the people and exercised directly
by them or by their elected agents under a free
electoral system." In the phrase of Abraham
Lincoln, democracy is a government "of the
people, by the people, and for the people."
Freedom
and democracy are often used interchangeably,
but the two are not synonymous. Democracy is indeed
a set of ideas and principles about freedom, but
it also consists of a set of practices and procedures
that have been molded through a long, often tortuous
history. In short, democracy is the institutionalization
of freedom. For this reason, it is possible to
identify the time-tested fundamentals of constitutional
government, human rights, and equality before
the law that any society must possess to be properly
called democratic.
In
Mr Robinson's definition of democracy, equality
is replaced with equity whereby diversity is recognized,
without providing a reason for discrimination;
what his party proposes is that all nationalist
and constitutional republican parties are to be
treated without favor to one another while the
unionist parties remain in an ascendancy .
This
equitable ascendancy will permit nationalist and
republican parties to participate in political
decision making under certain predefined conditions.
These conditions are to apply to all other parties
except unionist parties. Evidence of this is the
precondition on the constitutional republican
party, Sinn Fein, to support the PSNI; any deviance
of this support could result in sanctions being
imposed on Sinn Fein if the DUP is successful
in its proposals
However,
Unionist support of the PSNI is conditional on
the PSNI’s support to the unionist cause;
when the PSNI attempts to enforce the law equally
(e.g. during the Whiterock riots last summer)
its actions are rebuked by the unionist political
machine as being heavy handed, without any sanction,
with the end result being millions of government
dollars been spent in loyalist areas. Similarly
the riots that broke out in Ardoyne by nationalists
were seen as being mindless and the action of
thugs and was coupled with immediate calls for
Sinn Fein to support the police, the end result
being no financial aid to this impoverished area
because it was a republican district.
Under
the ancient regime of absolute ascendancy, the
PSNI was the strong arm of the unionist political
machine. Both worked hand in glove to ensure the
all forms of opposition to the unionist political
machine was quelled by any means.
While
under the nouveau regime of an equitable ascendancy,
underwritten by the GFA and St Andrew, dictats
support for the PSNI is assumed by the unionists
and demanded of all other parties. However, although
this support is assumed, it is conditional on
how the police act, in equally applying the law
with regards to unionist interests. In other words,
the police should enforce the law equitably rather
than equally. Whereas for Sinn Fein, support of
the PSNI is a precondition, and must accept the
equitable approach of the police with regards
to nationalist and republican interests. Rather
than the constitutional republican party supporting
the police, the police should give a solid commitment
to support reform and transparency and earn the
support the peoples of the north.
