The sense of joy and relief which I experienced on Good Friday 1998 was shared by thousands of people across Ireland when news of the agreement broke. For the first time in my experience, unionists and nationalists were able to celebrate together what was truly a victory for both.
The will to find accommodation had prevailed over the endemic fear of compromise. The opportunity and the challenge of a new beginning beckoned. The people of Ireland, North and South, unionist and nationalist, responded to that challenge with an overwhelming mandate for the agreement in the subsequent referendums.
Implementation was never going to be easy given the deep distrust and divisions arising from the bitter experience of all. The Good Friday Agreement was a tender plant which needed careful handling and nurturing. Anti-agreement elements with in unionism and republicanism would, and indeed have, used every opportunity to undermine and destroy it.
The wreckers within the Ulster Unionist Party have not yet come to terms with the reality that going back to "the good old days" is no longer an option. Dissident republicans have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. They contribute in large measure to the erosion of confidence within the unionist community, thus helping the efforts of the unionist No camp.
Certain realities need to be faced up to. The issue of decommissioning has been recognised and used by anti-agreement unionists as their most potent weapon. Those who have insisted on turning it into a precondition must have learnt by now that such a tactic can have only two results, it will prevent progress and it will prevent decommissioning.
What needs to be urgently addressed is that which lies at the heart of the decommissioning debate - the issue of confidence. The slippage within the unionist community is not a slippage of support for the agreement, but rather one of confidence in its ability to deliver.
Put bluntly, they need to be reassured that the Provisional IRA has no intention of going back to "what they do best" if it fails to get its own way on every political issue. Pro-agreement unionists, on the other hand, must recognise that demanding decommissioning to a unionist timetable and on unionist terms is the best way of ensuring it will not happen.
We are dealing with a complex problem at the core of which lies deep distrust. The building of confidence is a vital part of the process. Many confidence-building measures have been or are being put in place, some in the face of objections. Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution have been amended, copper-fastening the issue of consent, so long a Holy Grail for unionism. Governments have delivered on prisoner releases. The Human Rights Commission and the Equality Commission are operating. We have seen, albeit for a short while, the institutions working well.
Regrettably, the unilateral suspension of those institutions in response to unionist needs has severely dented the confidence of the nationalist community. The British government must act upon its commitment to implement in full the Patten report, which for its part made recommendations fully in line with the remit given to it by the Belfast Agreement. I must stress that any U-turn at this point would be a serious miscalculation.
So while some progress has been made, confidence-building remains an essential element for continuing success. It is the language, the actions, or sometimes inaction of those whom we distrust which paralyse this process. It follows therefore that the parties mainly responsible for the absence of confidence need to explore urgently ways in which they can contribute to building the confidence of others.
Nelson Mandela made it clear to us on our visit to South Africa that the most important element which ensured a successful outcome to the South African negotiations was the readiness to recognise the difficulties of their opponents and to do all in their power to minimise those difficulties. Making public demands on your opponents may keep your constituency happy for the moment. In the long term, it ensures there is no progress.
Progress will be achieved by enabling one another, not by blaming one another. The South African negotiations succeeded because of the absolute determination of the opposing parties to make it succeed. Sinn Fein has said the Belfast Agreement is facing its most serious crisis to date. Yet at its last ardfheis it focused almost exclusively on its own narrow party political interests rather than on the will and the hopes of the Irish people as a whole as encapsulated in the full implementation of the Belfast Agreement. The SDLP believes the agreement is more important than the future of any one party. We believe the people agree.
The real question is not whether decommissioning is going to happen, but whether the will and commitment necessary to resolve the present impasse exist. We in the SDLP continue to play our part in "working constructively and in good faith" with all other parties to bring about decommissioning in the context of full implementation of the agreement. The impasse will be resolved only by returning to the template which forged the agreement, namely with the inclusive participation, collective will and support of all the pro-agreement parties. Full implementation cannot be delivered in any other way.
The question remains, is the survival of the people's agreement the priority? Or is it narrow party political advantage? Is that section of political unionism which supports a new dispensation based on partnership in Ireland to be strengthened and enabled? Or is a lifeline to be thrown to "not an inch" unionism which cannot survive in a new Ireland capable of accommodating and cherishing equally all its traditions? We shall soon know.
Brid Rodgers is a member of the suspended Legislative Assembly and was minister for agriculture in the suspended Northern Ireland Executive.