WPA slams crime consultation
Says no need for cosmetic exercises
Stabroek News
August 27, 2002
The Working People's Alliance (WPA), flaying the "National Consultation on Crime" held on Thursday at the Ocean View Hotel as being shallow, says what the present situation does not require is more war propaganda and empty cosmetic exercises. The opposition party said in a release yesterday that "the consultation, if it can be called that, fell far short of what WPA has been advocating." The party underscored that it has been calling "for parliamentary parties and representatives of civil society (to) be convened as a matter of urgency to forge a genuinely national approach to the rapidly escalating criminal violence and the general breakdown in law and order." The release said, however, that "notwithstanding the shallowness of the recent exercise organized by the Office of the President, the WPA remains committed to the building of a national consensus to deal with a situation that is becoming more deadly by the day." WPA was represented at the forum by Executive Committee member Desmond Trotman. Home Affairs Minister, Ronald Gajraj, has explained that the consultations on crime, which began last Thursday, would be continued over the next several weeks in Berbice and Essequibo as part of the continuing process which began with the operatives of the security forces. Stabroek News had reported that the police are to implement recommendations made at Thursday's consultation on crime to ensure the integrity of information received and protect the identity of the persons providing the information.