First, the correspondence between President Bharrat Jagdeo and People's National Congress/Reform leader, Robert Corbin, and secondly, their meeting in Linden on Friday.

The problems that brought about this very surprising and healthy development have to do with the severe electricity and water shortages afflicting the folks of Linden. In their frustration, they chose to resort to protest actions, some of which may be improper or illegal, but understandable in the circumstances of their dire situation.

For the rest of the Guyanese society, the aggravation of the electricity and water problems at Linden coincided with the very challenging situation the Jagdeo administration has been facing from the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) - management of which it has decided to assume, temporarily, from month end.

Quite unlike the general political behaviour right up to the death of former Opposition Leader, Desmond Hoyte, there came a letter on Wednesday, April 9, from the PNC/R's leader, Corbin to President Jagdeo drawing attention to the "electricity and water crisis facing the Linden Community which is now unbearable..."

The President lost no time in replying that very day. He expressed thanks for Corbin's letter and proceeded to outline in very specific details all actions his government has taken, and also in the process of pursuing, to bring immediate and long-term relief to the people of Linden.

Corbin made a formal request for Jagdeo to meet with him and other stakeholders and residents of Linden to explain what is being done by the Government "to relieve them of their sufferings".

It was a challenge the President seemed most anxious to take on, especially as his administration was already engaged, on various fronts, to bring relief to the people at Linden, while it grapples with the gravity of the electricity outages affecting the wider society by the LPC.

Having enumerated what's being done, and the efforts still underway, President Jagdeo thanked Mr. Corbin for his expressed concern and said he was now looking forward to the PNC/R's "support as we deal with the current (all embracing Linden) situation".

Then followed Jagdeo's Linden visit that coincided with Corbin's and which was preceded by that of Prime Minister Sam Hinds who has portfolio responsibility for electricity services and remains the administration's primary point man for the bauxite mining town.

Not only did Jagdeo and Corbin find time for a face to face meeting at Watooka House, convened by the President. They both shared a podium, according to local media reports, from where they addressed a public meeting of residents, Jagdeo having held meetings also with major stakeholders.

Extend to Buxton
This approach to the problems affecting Linden augurs well for Guyana as a whole. It should immediately be extended to deal with the ugly, threatening criminal challenge posed by well-armed and dangerous bandits operating out of Buxton and its environs for more than a year.

There is, of course, a qualitative difference: The people of Linden made clear that their protest actions had nothing to do with party politics or race, and welcomed the interventions by both the government and the main opposition high-level representatives.

They took care to avoid their protests degenerating into physical violence, or worse, though the blocking of a main bridge remains a source of tremendous discomfort for more than those who live in Linden.

In the case of Buxton, which has been made into a killing field by the criminals at large, and which continues to taunt the evident weaknesses or disinclinations of the police and army, there needs to be a joint showing also of the President and the PNC/R leader.

Since the PNC/R thinks it has a plan to help the villagers in becoming productive and avoid the path of criminality, and with the governing PPP/C in a position to demonstrate what has been done and still to be done for improvement in the welfare of Buxton and neighbouring villages, then Jagdeo and Corbin should together go to Buxton and share a common platform in addressing the concerns of villagers.

However, let the security forces, the army and police, be warned that they would have to come good in ensuring maximum efficiency in ensuring that harm comes to neither the President nor the PNC/R leader by those with sophisticated weapons who have turned a once proud village into their criminal fiefdom.

While empathising with the problems they have had to confront over the past months, the sad truth is there is really nothing particularly commendable about the performances of either the police or army, the moreso the latter, in effectively flushing out the criminals from Buxton and ending their reign of killings, robberies and sheer terror.

From Linden to Buxton then, let the new civil approach in dealing with problems at hand proceed. It may very well make the atmosphere more conducive for that elusive Jagdeo-Corbin meeting.

In the process, the PNC/R's parliamentarians may come to appreciate why they should also end their irrational boycott of the National Assembly while continuing to receive their pay packets as MPs.