Critics of the Belfast Agreement have been demonised more than terrorists in Northern Ireland in recent years, a former Orange Order leader claimed today.
Ulster Unionist Party president the Rev Martin Smyth, who along with fellow MPs Mr Jeffrey Donaldson and Mr David Burnside is facing disciplinary action in his party for challenging the Agreement, said they held a "legitimate and democratic point of view" which was shared by hundreds of thousands of unionists.
The South Belfast MP told Orangemen and their supporters at their July 12th demonstration in Crossgar, Co Down, the current divisions in unionism were "regrettable".
"Those who criticise the Belfast Agreement have been demonised more than the terrorists - all for holding a legitimate and democratic point of view," the former Grand Master of the Orange Order argued.
"Some of us have been described as rebels, dissidents and hardliners. How can one be a rebel and a dissident when one has consistently maintained the same values and principles all along?
"We do not just speak for ourselves. We represent the views of hundreds of thousands of ordinary and disaffected unionists. Are all these people to be similarly labelled?
"Are all these people going to be continually written off and be denied an equal entitlement to have their views heeded?"
Mr Smyth said there were a number of reasons for unionist dissatisfaction with the Agreement.
The peace process, he claimed, had "institutionalised gangsterism and violence".
Unionists were also, he said, appalled by the early release of terrorist prisoners, the elevation of Sinn Féin to government before republicans had proven they were committed to exclusively peaceful and democratic means and the diminishing, dismantling and demoralisation of the forces of the police and the British army.
The UUP president also criticised the British and Irish Governments for implementing some of their recent peace process proposals before paramilitaries had embarked on the "acts of completion".
The UUP president warned: "In the long term no agreement will survive without the consent and approval of the unionist community as well as the nationalist community.
"The illogical cry of 'no alternative' ignores the fact that governments and parties would have to face the reality if a majority of citizens, either unionist or nationalist, refused to work the current arrangements."
PA