NI agreement being wrecked

Let us hope the prophets of doom are wrong and the storm clouds are not gathering across the North but there is little to suggest that everything is rosy in the garden and the Good Friday Agreement is safe in the custody of the DUP and Sinn Féin, two parties that have the capacity to either make it work but apparently are more interested in wrecking it.

Unfortunately, since these parties moved into key positions everything has been done to further their own political agenda with little to do with enshrining the principles contained in that agreement which was endorsed by the major democracies across the world on the understanding that the key elements in it would be honoured.

Building new relationships between North and South was underlined time and time again in the GFA and obvious even to those with the most elementary understanding of the need to address the errors of the past. So, too, was the need to create the broadest spectrum of consultation and input to ensure decisions taken within the North are the correct ones and most likely to influence the kind of changes envisaged in that Good Friday Agreement.

Neither has happened with the former Minister for Finance Sammy Wilson claiming he would neuter every cross-border body if he could.

Twice the SDLP has proposed a civic forum and won the vote but nothing has happened because the Unionists have yet to grasp the message that they alone cannot create a new society worthy of respect from the broadest spectrum of people.

The office of the first and deputy first minister currently managed by Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness have remained silent but have no trouble clearing their throats on issues which have nothing to do with uniting our people, nothing to do with addressing the ever increasing calamities in health, education, job creation and other matters where the input of a civic forum is crucial because the assembly alone does not have the skills and expertise, understanding or trust of the people on these issues.

The British government needs to be reminded daily there is an uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu among the public as the arrogance of the unionists increases and the disengagement of Sinn Féin from the politics of reconciliation becomes more evident as they focus more on covering up their broken promises and deceit over the last decade when everything should have been directed to uniting our people rather than pandering to the bigots of the past who got us to the brink of disaster in the first place.

John Dallat

SDLP MLA

East Derry