Warts and all, this is a most welcome development in the face of the threats posed to national stability and law and order by heavily armed and evidently well-connected criminals. Also, the anxiety to advance implementation of constitutional reform and other measures of national social and economic importance.

However, expectations for achievements must be tempered, knowing as the Guyanese people do, of the political shenanigans of some of the lead actors in the process and their penchant for throwing up roadblocks when they cannot have their way.

That last Wednesday's initial joint consultation, which has set the stage for future structured and, hopefully, meaningful dialogue on the way forward actually took place, is itself a cause for encouragement, given the negative factors that could have wrecked the process.

It is one thing, for instance, for the General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress, Lincoln Lewis - whose political affiliation is known to be as opposite to that of the President of GAWU, Komal Chand - to blandly talk of politicians who cannot stand criticism to “get out of politics”.

But as a trade union official who also happens to be the current President of the Caribbean Congress of Labour, he must also be aware that among his CCL colleagues and other regional trade union officials his most recent verbal blasts against President Bharrat Jagdeo, who he likes to demonise, have not at all gone down well, to say the least.

In the circumstances, it was essential for the other elements of the organising committee for the consultation to save the process from being derailed.

This was a real danger, following the clear threat from Presidential Secretariat spokesman, Roger Luncheon, that Jagdeo may boycott the meeting should Lewis be left to play a key role as facilitator and without the future involvement of representatives of the religious denominations.

As raised in a previous column, it was puzzling why, in the first place, the country's significant religious communities - comprising an identifiable constituency far larger than that of the GTUC, Private Sector Commission and the Guyana Bar Association combined - was excluded from the civil society dialogue/consultation committee.

When it comes to interfacing with the multi-racial, multi-religious communities across this country, only the political parties, and particularly the dominant ones, would perhaps have a better track record than the religious bodies, or equally so at different levels.

All the more surprising, therefore, that the three civil society organisations - PSC, GTUC and GBA - should have been so insensitive in ignoring the importance of including, from the very inception of the process, even a single spokesperson for the religious communities. They simply have to be involved.

The Private Sector Commission's representative, Peter deGroot, who chaired last Wednesday's initial joint consultation meeting, seems to bring a more acceptable credibility to all sides. We shall monitor developments.

Crime Front
While the parties to the consultative process prepare for the "next round", both the head of the Guyana Defence Force, Brigadier Michael Atherly, and Police Commissioner Floyd McDonald should consider their respective responsibility to respond to two separate but related issues:

First, when a former Brigadier of the GDF and adviser to a former President chose to go public with some surprisingly biting criticisms of the role of the army in current efforts to combat crime, and specifically the role played or being carried out in Buxton, does Brigadier Atherly feel he has a moral obligation to respond?

What is at stake, after all, is much more than the questioning of the competence and integrity of the leadership of the GDF, when accusations from the main opposition party are also taken into consideration.

The Guyanese public would want to know whether there is any validity to the criticisms being levelled at the GDF which they expect to be integrally involved in helping to beat back the criminals who are creating mayhem and generating deep fears across the land.

In any other CARICOM state, and certainly in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados, where it is normal for the army to be summoned to help the police at critical moments to ensure law and order, there would have been a rapid response to the criticisms being levelled at the GDF, particularly in view of the timing and inescapable partisan political orientation of the comments.

Surely Brigadier Atherly cannot be oblivious to the discussion in the media and implications of his own silence on the role of the GDF in helping to ensure that this society does not degenerate into a state of lawlessness while, as some blithely say, the army should be otherwise focused.

Police on Defensive
Then there is the shocking situation of police stations being virtually closed down at nights in some areas - including in Georgetown - to the public who need their assistance against criminals.

Latest example of citizens being deprived of the assistance they expect and deserve from the nation's Police Force, came last week, according to media reports, when a family was attacked by criminals at their home on Yarrowdam in South Georgetown.

Having survived the bandits' attack, the victims and their neighbours were to find the nearby Ruimveldt Police Station virtually shut down against any offering of public service.

Not only were the gates locked, so were the windows and doors. In other words, there was no access for the public at a period of crime crisis. Worse, as if the policemen on duty went to sleep after a certain hour, attempts to reach the station by telephone proved useless.

That, from my information, was not the first time members of the public had to endure such a shocking experience of non-availability, non-response from that station. There are reports of similar experiences at police stations in other areas of the country.

Both the Police Commissioner and the Minister of Home Affairs should speedily move to have this very perplexing, if not exactly outrageous situation corrected.

If the virtual shutdown of any police station at night to public access has had no official sanction, then those in authority must know that unless this situation is quickly rectified, only the criminals will remain happy, knowing that they have pushed the police on the defensive.

This is not good, either for the morale of hard working and conscientious policemen, or the public at large.