Editorial
Stabroek News
April 26, 2001

The meeting on Tuesday afternoon of President Bharrat Jagdeo and Leader of the Opposition Desmond Hoyte was like a lifeline to a drowning population, overwhelmed by news of shootings and violent acts. The leaders met for nearly two hours and came up with some very positive results. There were scheduled to meet again yesterday afternoon.

It is good that agreement has been reached that the civil service be politically neutral and that the necessary action will be taken to achieve this result. The Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS) should be seen as a party appointment and other arrangements should be made to create a head of the public service. This should be good for the public service, good for the current HPS Dr Luncheon, and good for relations between the government and the Guyana Public Service Union.

It is also positive that agreement has been reached on passing all pending constitutional legislation within one month of the convening of Parliament. This includes some important measures that had been agreed by the all-party committee.

The formal recognition of the government by the PNC REFORM and the acceptance by both parties that violence ought not to be a part of any protest and the agreement to work towards the lessening of tensions will be widely welcomed. It must also be acknowledged as a very positive step that the PNC/R leaders have scheduled five meetings with their supporters to explain to them the present situation and to ask them to give the talks a chance. Many of these are persons in a desperate economic situation. In that regard, efforts to get programmes underway to relieve urban unemployment, a traditional casualty of IMF sponsored recovery programmes, should be given top priority. The relief of unemployment would go a long way to relieve tensions in the capital city.

This meeting was a ray of hope and an indication of what can be achieved if the party leaders can establish a productive and even cordial relationship with each other. There is so much to be done, there is so much that can be achieved with cooperation and goodwill. The purveyors of hate on television must not be allowed to shatter the momentum that has been created and the PNC/R could perhaps exercise its good influence in that area as well.

The two leaders were scheduled to meet again yesterday afternoon to settle the mechanisms for moving forward and for dealing with the agreed agenda. Dare we all hope that this could be the beginning of a new era of improved relations all round?