The walk-out of the opposition from Parliament on March 27 was an ominous augury for members of the public who were looking to the assembly for decisive and cohesive steps to address crime.
As we had feared, the stalemate in Parliament will not be dissolved by window dressing compliments of an assortment of groups presenting themselves under the rubric of civil society. Any parliamentary engagement between the government and opposition that requires mature compromise will suffer from the inflexibility of the PPP/C benches and the inability of the opposition to change this. It was no doubt in recognition of this that following the January 26 slaughter at Lusignan and accelerated by the February 17 massacre at Bartica that an ad hoc group of civil society members was invited to the Office of the President with representatives of the government, governing party and opposition parties. The civil society members were clearly to act as a leavening and help facilitate important agreements in the presence of the President.