Accepting the other

Can people change? That’s one of the toughest hurdles in selling a peace agreement after decades of internecine violence.

David Trimble of Northern Ireland won a Nobel Peace Prize, together with Irish politician David Hume, for the peace agreement signed in Belfast on Good Friday, April 10, 1998. The peace and prosperity enjoyed since then by Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (plus a great reduction in the United Kingdom’s security headaches) emanated from the successful implementation of that agreement.

Trimble was in Manila for several days to share his experience in the peace process with the parties in the ongoing peace initiative between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

As British officials have emphasized, the situations between our countries are different, but perhaps Filipinos can learn some lessons from the Irish experience.

Asked what was the most difficult aspect of their peace process, Trimble told a small group of journalists last week that it was “getting parties to compromise… on the others’ own terms.”

“Accepting the existence of the other is crucial,” he said, adding that the outcome will have to consider the other party’s needs.

People, Trimble told us, have to adjust to the idea that someone who has used deadly violence in trying to achieve an end is sincerely committed to renouncing armed struggle.

“Difficulty with the concept of people changing – that’s what it comes down to,” Trimble said in describing the skepticism that greeted the idea of Irish Republican Army militants renouncing violence for good. For a long time, the IRA was classified by Britain as a terrorist group.

This is also a major hurdle in the Philippines, especially because of the record of the group that signed the original peace agreement in 1996, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

Can a leopard change its spots? Until a few months ago, MILF militants were still fighting government forces, with decapitation a favored mode of capping armed skirmishes.

MNLF chieftain Nur Misuari joined the political mainstream but kept most of his fighters as members of what eventually turned out to be his private army. When his hold on power in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) became tenuous, he staged a “mini rebellion” that left about 100 people dead. He fled to Malaysia, which extradited him.

These days, out of prison and no longer on the run, he is battling not to be marginalized by the peace process with the MILF, a splinter group of the MNLF.

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“We also had splinter groups… capable of causing some problems, capable of derailing the process,” Trimble told us. “They thought they may be able to exploit difficulties.”

The important thing, he said, is that the process is not held hostage by a minority group.

“It is obviously desirable that all the people are in the same ballpark,” he said. But it is practical, he stressed, to aim for “sufficient consensus” rather than unanimity.

It is also important for fighters who are seeking peace, he said, to “make it clear that they are giving up their violence for good.”

This has to be explicit, he said: “It is important for society to get that reassurance. It’s important that society has confidence in the process. It’s desirable that confidence is created and sustained.”

The problem with the IRA, Trimble recalled, was that its leaders “were reluctant to clearly and unequivocally say what they were doing.”

Laying down arms has to be one of the most difficult things for a rebel to do. The Irish deal included “decommissioning,” but it took some time before the IRA leaders could disclose the commitment to their members.

“I don’t think the IRA told the rank-and-file what they were doing,” Trimble recalled. “We couldn’t get them to say, we’ve given up arms, unequivocally.”

Laying down arms could be particularly complicated in Mindanao, where men seem to believe bearing arms is a basic human right.

In the MNLF’s case, the peace deal did not include a commitment to lay down arms. Many MNLF fighters were absorbed into the regular military, police, and militias that were assigned in the areas that eventually became the ARMM.

As we saw during the massacre in Maguindanao in 2009, there were too many loose firearms in the ARMM, and armed militias did the bidding, no matter how atrocious, of their political patrons.

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In the case of the MILF, it has committed to a “normalization” process – their preferred euphemism for decommissioning.

MILF leaders are still selling the framework agreement, which Trimble said “has the potential to be a watershed,” to its members. No one knows how MILF fighters will take the “normalization” process.

Their deal does not include the absorption of MILF fighters into the military and police. Maybe this was inspired by the Irish experience; IRA members did not become part of the regular security forces after the peace agreement.

Trimble explained that people wanted the “operational independence” of their security forces.

The Irish also thumbed down the idea of a truth commission, like the one set up in post-apartheid South Africa.

Former South African leader and Nobel peace laureate Nelson Mandela helped inspire the Irish in resolving deadlocks in the peace process, Trimble said, but the truth commission didn’t work.

The Irish looked at many countries, especially in Europe, for experiences in dealing with internal conflict. “If you’re looking for examples, there’s no shortage, unfortunately,” Trimble told us.

What finally persuaded the IRA to end the violence? What makes people change?

People get tired of violence, and Trimble admitted that age can mellow rebels. “Reality has a way of intruding upon you,” he said.

The Philippine situation is different, but Ireland and Northern Ireland, although currently suffering from the effects of Europe’s debt crisis, are showing the world the dividends of peace.

The Irish aren’t regretting the change. “Northern Ireland is really a very different place from where it was 10, 15 years ago,” Trimble told us. “Having peace itself improves the quality of life.”