The unilateral declaration of a deadlock in the local government reform task force by former government minister and longstanding PPP activist Mr Clinton Collymore has not come as a surprise. It affirms the depressing cynicism that the masses have developed for anything described as a committee and anything in which politicians sit, particularly if they include representatives of the PPP/C and the PNCR. Make no mistake about it, the failure is as much the fault of the PNCR as it is the PPP/C’s.
It should be borne in mind that the 2001 local government committee emerged out of the mostly barren dialogue that had been initiated between President Jagdeo and the late PNCR Leader and former President Mr Hoyte. The work of the stalled committee was later revived in another equally exasperating round of dialogue between President Jagdeo and PNCR Leader Mr Corbin. The work has continued in fits and starts and was quite unnecessarily frozen for months so that Mr Collymore could perform his functions at the PPP’s Diamond Congress.
That his declaration of deadlock has surprised the PNCR reveals the extent of disconnect between the two sides at these meetings. It settles into the same mould that drives many of the engagements summoned by the PPP/C government like the one that President Jagdeo opportunistically orchestrated at the Office of the President in the aftermath of the first two massacres this year.
Seven long and hard years have elapsed since this local government task force was formed and it is still to deliver a report that would lubricate the engine of a reformed local government system and set in motion the Local Government Commission. Were there not exceedingly important issues at stake the public could have well asked Mr Collymore and his counterpart Mr Alexander to retire gracefully from this mission. However, this task force is entrusted, on behalf of the public, with devising mechanisms that could improve the lives of people in the smallest communities by making them the shapers if not masters of their own destinies. It is to among other things define the type of electoral system to be set for local government elections which have not been held for 14 years and vitally, the method of fiscal transfers from the centre to local government organs. The latter is the life-blood of the reforms as it should prevent the centre from suffocating local government organs which support different political parties. In essence the local government reforms would deepen and expand democracy, giving it far more texture than the vote at general elections.
This is the scale of the project that Mr Collymore has the gumption to declare has arrived at a deadlock and he is now to refer it to Cabinet. Mr Corbin has now sought a meeting with President Jagdeo on this deadlock declaration. In normal, functioning societies such meetings are most welcome because they tend to be productive. Unfortunately, the engagements between President Jagdeo and Mr Corbin have now come to be characterised by nothingness and barren promises.
What the dialogue between the government and the opposition needs is a hard-nosed mediator/arbitrator who will listen to both sides, press for compromise and when necessary expose those who are being reckless and unflinching. On their own and with their present make up, the two sides are signally incapable of arriving at mature, reasonable compromises. A large group of court appointed mediators is now set to help reduce the case load in the judicial system. Let the two sides in this local government debacle settle on one of these as an arbitrator who can cut to the chase and deliver the compromise that the country badly needs.
The deadlock declaration is particularly troubling as the parliamentary parties will this week begin addressing tendentious bills governing wire-tapping and SIM card registration which will no doubt result in serious divisions. Can there be a reasonable expectation of compromise given the present mood?