"I want to say to young people in the nationalist community: here is an opportunity. Here is the mechanism now through which policing can be changed and changed forever more." To hear Mr Seamus Mallon utter these words yesterday as his party announced its acceptance of the British government's plan on police reform is to realise what a major milestone has been passed in Northern Ireland's affairs. For the first time in its history, cross-community accord on policing is within reach.
The SDLP's agreement to nominate members of the Policing Board is a welcome and courageous endorsement of the latest package worked out between the parties and the two governments. Effective and legitimate policing is a sine qua non of a more just and stable society in Northern Ireland. Without a universally-accepted police service the influence of the paramilitaries will continue.
That may well be an element in IRA and Sinn FΘin thinking. The SDLP's decision may signify a significant realignment within nationalism. Sinn FΘin has rejected the police reforms on the grounds that they do not fully implement the Patten report, thus breaking the united front with the SDLP and the Government which has been so marked a feature of the recent peace process. Irrespective of that, the Police Board is expected to go ahead with support from the Ulster Unionist Party. Its endorsement by the North's Catholic bishops was also welcome and timely.
The Sinn FΘin rejection is regrettable, given the intense efforts to bring all parties along with this package which addresses policing, demilitarisation, decommissioning and the stability of the new institutions. It is to be hoped that in time the party will come around to accepting that the implementation plan can indeed "comprehensively deliver on the spirit and substance of the Patten report," as the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, put it. The SDLP's detailed justification of its decision yesterday, is a reminder of the long-drawn-out nature of the negotiations involved. They will continue in a different setting on the Policing Board, from which, in due course, Sinn FΘin may well regret excluding itself. It took those who opposed the Treaty in 1922 some years to accept the Garda S∅ochβna.
Now that this milestone has been passed, attention will return to the other elements in the package drawn up by the two governments after the Weston Park meetings last month. The most important of these is that a start be made to decommission arms held by the IRA. The realignment of political forces represented by yesterday's decision, coming alongside Sinn FΘin's embarrassment over its links with the three men arrested in Colombia, might tilt the balance against working the agreement. That would be an historic mistake. It can best be avoided by a start to decommissioning.