PPP/Civic, PNC commit to continued talks in absence of facilitator -agree more could have been accomplished By Patrick Denny Stabroek News December 18, 1999 The significance of the Herdmanston Accord dialogue process cannot be measured in material terms. Nor, according to CARICOM facilitator, Maurice King, QC, should it be expected to solve the problems of Guyana overnight. Speaking with reporters yesterday at the CARICOM Secretariat with the dialogue process at an end for this year, King said that the benefit from the fact that it had made contact possible between the parties at various levels was incalculable. Conceding that in terms of the resolution of individual agenda items of the dialogue not much had been achieved, King, however, observed the process should be viewed in the wider context of the reason for which it was set up. He explained that the whole purpose of setting up the political dialogue by CARICOM was to seek to restore some sort of harmony in political contact between the parties following the upheaval after the 1997 general elections. "The parties have at least sat down and talked to each other," King said, adding that "it has always been cordial; it hasn't always been pleasant; at times it has been quite cantankerous and aggressive on both sides." But the fact is, King said, that "they have sat down and they have talked." "The dialogue has broken down about one or two occasions but the fact is that they are still talking." He stressed that the fact they were still talking was a good sign because in any democracy it was healthy that both sides ... and that parties to the democracy continue talking to each other." King said even if no one returns as the facilitator that "the major political parties in this country and the other political parties will still continue to engage in dialogue." Both the PPP/Civic and the PNC yesterday committed themselves to continue the dialogue even if King did not return or another facilitator was not appointed. Domald Ramotar who leads the PPP/Civic dialogue team said that his party was willing to talk with the PNC with or without a facilitator. Unlike his counterpart on the PNC side, Lance Carberry who felt that not much had been achieved during the process of the dialogue, Ramotar said that he felt that much had been attained. He explained that from a position where there was no contact between the parties, the dialogue process had resulted in a broadening of contact, citing the return of the PNC to the National Assembly as another forum. "I believe that is not insignificant in the political life of any country," Ramotar said explaining that as a result of the contacts "at least we know where each other stand on various issues." Ramotar, observing that for the PPP/Civic good relations with the PNC was very important, stressed that while "at the dialogue we would like to deal with all the knotty and thorny issues that affect our political life ... there are other forums where some of these issues could be raised if they (the PNC) did not want to raise it directly with the Ministers involved, these matters could be raised in the parliament." However, he agreed with Carberry that more could have been achieved, explaining that there were some agreements which unravelled subsequently. Carberry who bemoaned the fact that the dialogue process did not achieve as much as it could, accepted that it did allow the parties to speak to each other. He pointed out that in his opinion the work of the facilitator would be more effective if the dialogue is fitted to a time-bound process. "Without that the level of frustration which any facilitator will suffer, perhaps, will not be worth it from his point of view." Carberry said a good example of this was the approach by the two parties to the discussion on the Ethnic Relations Commission. "The fact is that the commitment and the will which resulted in us making progress on the Ethnic Relations Commission could have been applied to all the other issues which we had on the table." He noted that the PNC was not always sure that the PPP/Civic was as committed as it was to the dialogue process and lacked the political will to resolve the issues. About his continued involvement in the dialogue process, King said that it depended, among other things, upon decisions that would have to be made about his legal practice in his native Barbados and the need for the CARICOM Secretariat to have adequate financial arrangements in place. King's contract ends on December 31, and the CARICOM Heads are to review the process to determine their continued involvement. The meeting of the CARICOM Bureau in Port-of-Spain at which this would have been done this weekend was postponed. A © page from: Guyana: Land of Six Peoples