Letter: Peace starts with determining to build trust and demands that we overcome critical challenges
A letter from Garvin Crawford:
Unionists need a new vision of how to co-exist on this island, even if it means changing the nature of the Union. At the same time, republicans need to accept that without the support of unionists there can be no Ireland united. Each needs the other.
Agreement, settlement and partnership are the consecutive building blocks of peace and form its essential sequence.
Each is essential to the success of the others. In the absence of trust they are hard to form in their own right.
Achieving the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement took such a toll on the many parties who agreed it that, even if they had the desire, it left too much for them to tackle the next step – settlement.
So they celebrated their achievement and passed on ‘settling’ to the next generation.
But, with the process incomplete, the GFA could only stutter. Eventually, all efforts failed and we lost sight of the promised land. Now we have fallen back on our old struggle.
In desperation for some sort of order, Stormont has at last been recalled. Yet without even the sight of a settlement to keep it on track – there is no track - it can only fail again.
Therefore we must go much further in defining what that settlement will be. This needs no counsel of despair. We don’t have to agree on everything. We only have to help one another get what the other wants most, and then stay out of their way.
Peace starts with determining to build trust in one another. It then demands that we ask how we change ourselves as a people so we can do things differently.
Above all, we must overcome two critical challenges.
First, the deluding effect of propaganda. Sinn Fein’s ‘united Ireland’ is designed not to unite us but to win a border poll - thus setting in motion an endless succession of polls every seven years until they get the answer they want. This will stop inward investment, destroy jobs and sabotage our economy.
Second, the equally self-destructive criminality of loyalists and dissident republicans in undermining civil society – the very society that keeps them in business. Theirs is the equally delusional behaviour of gangsters fouling their own nests.
The huge costs and futility of both behaviours must be exposed repeatedly so people can escape the grip of intimidation and recover their faith in law and order. Both campaigns need to be prioritised and sustained by London and Dublin over the long term.
All this could be avoided if Sinn Fein were to stop seeking revenge on unionists with a repetitive border poll and pursue instead their overwhelming primary interest - uniting the island.
They could achieve this much sooner in partnership with unionists by agreeing now to back a united NI - the necessary first step in validating the future unity of the island. Their choice – revenge or partnership.
In return, unionists would agree to support intradependence and consumer choice democracy, confirming continuity of their British identity on a permanent basis, and allowing everyone in NI the freedom to choose where best to register for taxes and benefits – London or Dublin.
Thus, we gradually turn what has always been a sectarian choice into an economic one and we remove all remaining obstacles to Sinn Fein engaging fully in democratic politics.
Garvin Crawford, Comber