Time to govern in Ulster

THE PEOPLE of Northern Ireland have endured three provincial election cycles since voters throughout Ireland ratified a peace agreement nine years ago. After all this campaigning, it's about time the politicians started to govern. Ian Paisley needs to lead his Democratic Unionist Party into an odd couple coalition with Sinn Fein, despite his loathing for the Irish Republican Army.

Sinn Fein remains the political adjunct of the IRA, but Sinn Fein politicians are in control. The IRA has put its weapons beyond use to the satisfaction of an international commission and declared an end to its war against Britain and the unionists. Sinn Fein has agreed to support the new Police Service of Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein-IRA does not need to do anything more to demonstrate that it has forsaken violence in favor of politics.

Both the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein have increased their margins over the more moderate parties in the Northern Ireland assembly. The two major parties have the mandate to govern under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday agreement. If Democratic Unionist politicians didn't want to rule this divided land, they should not have agreed to serve as assembly members since 1998.

Yet they have done so, earning a comfortable salary all the while (it's now $61,700 a year, plus expenses), even though the assembly has barely met because the unionists kept insisting that Sinn Fein and the IRA renounce violence. If Paisley's party doesn't accept its responsibilities now, the British government would be justified in cutting off the legislators' salaries and institutionalizing direct rule from London in consultation with the Irish Republic, cobroker of the peace process.

A form of direct rule from London has been the norm in Northern Ireland for years. The IRA has ended its war, so this society is no longer in danger of fracture. Yet the peace between unionists and nationalists -- those like Sinn Fein who favor affiliation with the republic -- remains uneasy. Both sides would benefit from the give-and-take of provincial government.

Paisley is supposedly holding out for a $1.9 billion aid package from the British exchequer. Some aid is necessary, to be sure, but Northern Ireland has been on the dole to Britain for decades. It's time that Northern Irish leaders accepted responsibility for the decisions that affect their constituents.

One issue that comes to mind immediately is that of water and sewerage rates. The British government wants Northern Irish homeowners to pay for these separately, instead of having them defrayed by other taxes. Many people in the north prefer the status quo. Instead of worrying about who will ultimately rule the north, a decision that the Good Friday agreement left to a popular vote in the far-off future, the politicians of Northern Ireland should restore the assembly to focus on this and other more immediate concerns.