When the Social Partners - the Guyana Bar Association, the Private Sector Commission and the Trades Union Congress - offered their support in breaking the stalemate at the political level there were no illusions among any of the participants about the difficult path that lay ahead.
The depth of the difficulty and the maddening frustration that accompanies any good faith third party effort at political reconciliation has been amply demonstrated by the unsuccessful efforts at getting the parties to sign on to a crime communiqué. Weeks of haranguing since October between the parties under the supervision of the Social Partners, has failed to get the sides to agree. The Social Partners were moved to issue a statement on Friday setting out the areas where there has been agreement, unresolved matters and calling on all of the participants to "urgently continue the search for ways of resolving these outstanding differences".
More than the crime communiqué is at stake here. While their point of entry into these discussions was to try to find a way to activate the provisions of Article 13 of the Constitution to ensure greater citizen participation in decision making, the Social Partners, with the blessings of the rest of society, are hoping to clear a trail for discussion on a far more fundamental matter - shared governance. The partners can hardly hope to inspire confidence in their efforts if after weeks of discussions among the parties agreement on the crime communiqué is yet to be secured. And so the endless talk continues. What could possibly prevent the parties from reaching swift agreement on a communiqué that commits them unswervingly to rooting out crime and supporting the efforts of the law enforcement agencies? In ordinary circumstances it should take less than a day for the various points to be incorporated and for the parties to sign on the dotted line. In this country we have elevated simple political discussions to complexities of epic proportions. Politics and unreasonableness must be getting in the way of the communiqué. That is the only explanation.
Based on the statement from the Social Partners on Friday some significant confidence building measures have been agreed on so it is difficult to understand what is holding up progress. All parties have so far agreed on:
a) the expeditious implementation of a public inquiry into the functions of the police force to ensure that it fulfils its constitutional mandate;
b) the replacement of the controversial police Target Special Squad (TSS) with an emergency response unit led by professional officers;
c) the undertaking of all procedures for the appointing of the new Commissioner of Police, confirmation of outstanding promotions of policemen and the continued addressing of the conditions of service in the police force;
d) discussions among the government, political parties and the social partners on several anti-crime bills recently passed with a view to pursuing amendments;
e) reviewing the functioning of community policing groups to ensure effective networking with police divisions and private security firms.
Several of these - particularly the first two represent significant concessions by the government which had up to this point not entertained any thought of doing away with the discredited TSS. The unresolved areas include measures to ensure safe movement on highways and roads without endangering the lives of citizens, strengthening the security forces to deal with organised crime, the drug trade and kidnappings and police excesses and redress for citizens affected by these excesses. Again these seem very straightforward and should not provide cause for controversy.
The Social Partners will learn a lot from this experience in terms of managing the consultations and meetings it hopes to have in the future on more expansive issues like shared governance. Without firmness and the willingness to censure those participants who are being intractable and uncooperative these fora will degenerate into endless arguments, stalemate and unfulfilled promises.
Perhaps the time has come for the Social Partners to present a communiqué to all sides which it thinks fairly and reasonably represents their concerns and to ask for signatures.