‘A Shared Society - Just a Figure of Speech?, Maureen Hetherington
As someone who has worked in the field of community relations and peace building for over 25 years, it frustrates me that the rhetoric of a ‘shared society’ - without a deep commitment to change - is used repeatedly in numerous government documents to somehow convince people that politicians in power are serious about altering long-held attitudes and beliefs about how we might live together going forward.
Stormont’s efforts in Together: Building a United Community Strategy and Action Plan, has been doomed to fail from the get-go! Peace building requires a top-down as well as a bottom-up approach. Given the design of the political setup, our politicians in power cannot do ‘united’; Its anathema to them! The Good Friday Agreement took the existing political system as a given even when it went against the core of reconciliation; It’s a system which, however unintentionally has, to quote Duncan Morrow, “institutionalised sectarianism”.
In light of a disastrous 2020; Covid-19, Brexit, and a world in chaos, we now need to look at our society differently and do things differently. Everything has changed utterly. No longer can we be insular in our thinking about our place here, or in the world, we need a global vision of a shared society, and systems that are ethical and compassionate. Following the Africa concept of ‘Ubuntu’, we need to locate individual identity in the context of belonging to each other. It enables human flourishing and a future for life on earth. Ubuntu is also about the removal of self-serving practices that go against the very concept of a shared society.
And it starts with us! Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen incredible resourcefulness and generosity of thousands of people truly bringing a deep and profound meaning to being ‘all in this together’. Individuals and groups across all sectors of society have been providing much needed support and love to the most vulnerable and those in need, irrespective of political, religious or cultural backgrounds. There are important lessons to be learnt from this devastating pandemic, for the world at large and in our wee part of the world here; everyone and everything is connected and interdependent. Over the Christmas period we have witnessed our connectedness in acts of generosity, neighbourliness and kindness in abundance to those in need and the most vulnerable in society. We have connected at the human level, and the labels of religion and politics have been set aside.
If we are to build a truly shared society, our local politicians need to step up to the mark! As we face into one of the most sensitive centennial events on the calendar of the Decade of Centenaries (The Formation of Northern Ireland, May 2021), certain local Councillors decided to abandon the Guiding Principles* that had been adopted by them in 2015 to mark Decade events; “That Derry City and Strabane District Council mark the decade of 100th anniversary from 1913 – 1923 in a fitting and dignified manner, by giving recognition to the diverse narratives of the period, including the 1916 Easter Rising, the Battle of the Somme and other significant events …” Instead, certain Councillors chose a narrow political stance based on a nationalist/republican ideology, taking a position that totally alienated one section of the community, causing great hurt as well as damage to the sterling efforts of the community and voluntary sector to build a shared society. As Fingerpost goes to press there are indications that Council is prepared to draw back from this partisan position and to reinstate its commitment to the principles for ethical remembering as adopted in 2015. If this is so it is most welcome. We deserve ethical leadership as we face into an uncertain future, and more than ever we need to face into that future together.
*The Junction, in partnership with Johnston McMaster, devised a set of Guiding Principles for the Decade of Centenaries to support and enable centennial events to be remembered in a way that would contribute to the building of a shared society, using the events to build a better understanding and appreciation of difference. The Guiding Principles were adopted in 2015 by DCSDC. Full details are available from www.thejunction-ni.org website.