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22nd February 2008

Colofn Golwg

Yn etholiadau cyntaf Senedd Ewrop ym 1979, blwyddyn y Pla chwedl Gwyn Alff Williams, cafodd Mebyon Kernow bron 10% o’r bleidlais, dim ond ychydig yn llai na Phlaid Cymru. Dyma hefyd oedd y flwyddyn orau erioed i Union Democratique Bretagne gan iddynt ennill tua 6% o’r bleidlais mewn etholiadau lleol,tra chwalwyd Plaid Cymru ar gyngor bwrdesitref Merthyr Tudful.

Bu bron i Blaid Cymru chwalu’n gyfangwbl. Beirniadwyd yr arweinyddiaeth am gynghreirio â Llafur ac ymddiswyddodd Gwynfor fel Llywydd. Ond, rhywsut, fe oroesodd cenedlaetholdeb Cymreig. Fe dyfodd Plaid Cymru i fod yn ail blaid fwyaf Cymru. Aeddfedodd o fod yn blaid protest gwlad ar y cyrion i fod yn blaid sydd yn llywodraethu yn ein Senedd ein hunain. Hyn i gyd oherwydd nodwedd eithaf anarferol yn hanes Cymru: undod.

Cymharer hyn â Chernyw. Holltwyd y mudiad yno’n ddau yn fuan wedi ‘79. Syrthiodd y bleidlais i 2% ac arhosodd ar y lefel hynny tan yn gymharol ddiweddar. Yr un yw’r hanes trist o rannu ac ymgecru yn Llydaw, lle mae’r rhestr faith o bleidiau sydd wedi mynd a dod ers y saithdegau yn darllen fel deunydd ar gyfer y sgets enwog o’r ffilm, The Life of Brian, er yn yr achos yma, y Front de Liberation de La Bretagne sydd dan sylw nid Jiwdea. Ar wahan i’r FLB a’r UDB, mi oedd gyda chi yr MOB (yr holltodd UDB ohoni yn y chwedegau), Frankiz Breizh (a holltodd oddi wrth yr UDB yn yr wythdegau), yr ymgnawdoliad diweddaraf, le parti bretonne, ynghŷd â llu o grwpiau ymylol eraill megis Emgann, Adsav a’r MRB. Rhyngddynt oll, dim ond rhyw bedair mil o aelodau oedd ganddynt, gyda chanran fechan o ddim ond dau y cant o’r bleidlais a thair sedd yn unig yng nghynulliad Llydaw.

Nid trafod ariannu coleg ffederal a phapur dyddiol, neu ddeddf iaith newydd, cau ysgolion bach Llydaweg er mwyn agor rhai mwy neu ffedereiddo y mae cenedlaetholwyr Llydewig ar hyn o bryd ond yn hytrach trafod holl ddyfodol ysgolion Diwan yn wyneb gwrthwynebiad y Wladwriaeth Ffrengig. Dyma ateb felly i haeriad un cyfrannydd i drafodaeth maes-e yr wythnos diwethaf ar Blaid Cymru : “Byddwn ni ddim gwaeth pe na baech chi yma o gwbl”. Dwedwch hynny wrth y Cernywiaid a’r Llydawyr, gymrawd, neu’r Gwyddelod a gollodd ddeugain mlynedd oherwydd yr hollt rhwng Redmond a Parnell. Ond sut y gellir ymateb i ebychiad ‘Obi Wan’ ar faes-e - “Tyrd yn ôl, John Redwood” - neu ‘Lleucu Roberts’ yn galw arweinydd Plaid Cymru mewn Eingl-Sacsoneg coeth yn “****”?

Os ydi’r mudiad cenedlaethol yn ymrannu, Cymru i gyd fydd ar ei cholled, nid dim ond y Blaid sydd yn arddel ei henw. Divide et impera, fel dywedodd rhywun rhyw dro. Heb undod, heb ddim.

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In the first European Parliament elections of 1979, the year of the plague accordig to Gwyn Alf Williams, Mebyon Kernow received almost 10% of the vote, only a fraction smaller than Plaid Cymru. This was also the best ever year for Union Democratique Bretagne as they won approximetly 6% of the vote in local elections, whilst Plaid Cymru disintegrated on the borough council of Merthyr Tudful.

Plaid Cymru almost came to a complete collapse. The leadership was criticized for making alliances with Labour and Gwynfor resigned as President. But, somehow, Welsh nationalism survived. Plaid Cymru grew to become the second largest party in Wales. It matured from being a protest party on the sidelines to being a party which governs in its own Parliament. All of this because of one quite unusual trait in the history of Wales: unity.

Compare this with Cornall. The movement there split in two soon after ‘79. The vote fell to 2% and stayed on that level until relatively recently. The same sorry story of splitting and in-fighting is true of  Brittany, where the long list of parties that have come and gone since the 70s reads like material for the famous sketch in the film, The Life of Brian, though on this occation, the Front de Liberation de La Bretagne is the subject matter rather than Judea. Apart from the FLB and the UDB, you had the MOB (which the UDB split from in the 1960s), Frankiz Breizh (which split from the UDB in the 1980s), and the latest addition, le parti bretonne, as well as other marginal groups such as Emgann, Adsav and the MRB. Between them all, they only had about four thousand members, with a small percentage of only two per cent of the vote and only three searts in Brittanys assembly.

Brittanys nationalists aren’t discussing funding a federal university or a daily newspaper or establishing a new language act, nor the closure of small schools to open new and bigger ones, but rather they are discussing the future of all of Diwans’ schools in lights of objections from France. This is therefore an apt response to one maes-e contributor who said last week of Plaid Cymru: “We would be no worse if you weren’t here at all”. Tell that to the Cornish or Brettons, comrade, or the Irish who lost fourty years because of the split between Redmond and Parnell. But how should one repond to ‘Obi Wans’ comment on maes-e – ” Come back John Redwood’ or ‘Lleucu Roberts’ calling Plaid Cymru’s leader a “****”?

If the national movement splits, the whole of Wales will suffer, not just the party that hails its name. Divide et impera, as someone once said. Without unity, without anything.  

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