Sir - Sean Crowe's letter (May 13th) makes reference to the stance taken by the Green Party in regard to the final draft of the "Forum Report". I would like to take this opportunity to clarify our position and to highlight the serious misrepresentation of the Drafting Committee's work, which followed its publication at the end of January.
Sean is absolutely correct to state that it was not the principle of consent but the means of measurement of consent that gave rise to problems. The Green Party has been to the fore in pioneering, advanced systems for non majoritarian decision making for over a decade now. The favoured model of republicanism, the simple majority on an all Ireland basis, and the model offered in the Forum Report (drawing on the Downing Street Declaration) of a simple majority on a six county basis are both flawed. They measure levels of support, not of consent. The measurement of the level of consent (consensus) requires far more sophisticated systems and mechanisms than the simple majority vote. Put simply, if the issue was the measurement of consent, and Judge Catherine McGuinness told us clearly that it was, it was essential for the Green Party to establish that it belonged to neither of the two mutually exclusive and mutually destructive majoritarian camps.
Within minutes of the Forum releasing the "Final Draft" both the media and senior politicians set to their task of distortion. To present the failure to reach a consensus as simply a matter of Sinn Fein's failure to sign up to the principle of consent may have made great copy for the morning papers and may have served the party political advantage of some, but it was neither true nor helpful to the peace process as a whole. Within a week the ceasefire was broken and the rest as they say is history. The Forum has not met since and we have not had the opportunity to set the record straight in Dublin Castle. We are delighted to do so through your pages here. Yours, etc.,
Co ordinator,
Green Party/An Comhaontas
Glas,
Forum for Peace and
Reconciliation
Fownes Street,
Dublin 2.