Editorial
Stabroek News
April 10, 2001

Mr Desmond Hoyte, leader of the People's National Congress, has responded positively to President Jagdeo's initiative for dialogue between the two men. It is a welcome step forward, on both sides, and it must be hoped that early efforts will be made to finalise the place and time of the meeting.

In his broadcast on March 30 Mr Hoyte had outlined a number of priority issues for resolution and had said that "solutions to the problems raised by those issues would indicate to us whether others are serious about justice, peace and development." In his speech to the party's general council last Saturday he said again that if these issues were addressed by a joint programme and its implementation monitored jointly "that would be real power sharing." These issues included the establishment of a joint programme for the resuscitation of the bauxite industry and the Linden community, an immediate inquiry into police brutality, extra judicial killings and systematic police harassment of selective communities, with a view to preventing their recurrence, the immediate establishment of a specially funded and independently administered broad-based community development and anti-poverty programme for remedying the problems affecting marginalised communities, creation of a special fund independently administered to provide jobs and relief programmes for the unemployed, especially young people and the implementation of a programme of land and house lot allocation and distribution that would eradicate political and other forms of discrimination. There were several other issues including the reform of tendering and contracting procedures and the implementation of agreed constitutional reforms.

Mr Hoyte has therefore set out his agenda quite clearly and there seems to be no reason in principle why many of these issues can't be dealt with promptly. Joint committees could be set up to discuss programmes for the bauxite industry, the relief of unemployment by special projects (city drainage comes to mind), village infrastructure and so on. President Jagdeo may wish to add one or two concerns of his own to the agenda.

The way is clear therefore for an initial meeting to get the ball rolling and to create some momentum. Let us hope that an early meeting can be arranged and that the parties will meet in good faith and with goodwill and that any follow up teams they appoint to discuss and implement the agenda will be of a seniority and competence that reflect their commitment to the process.