Unified party to fight crime

There are three important aspects arising from President Christine Kangaloo’s loud call for the PNM Government and the UNC Opposition “to get together” to deal with crime.

The first aspect is that she has touched the right button in the right manner and in the right place. The second aspect is that the PM will look unduly stubborn and proud if he fails to take up the head of state’s advice, especially since he has put her into President’s House over heavy grumblings from the opposition. It would certainly look bad if he now abandons her advice.

The third aspect is the most important one: how to do it?

In this, the distinguished lady has inevitably left us wondering how to get these two quarrelling parties to “get together” to deal with the hottest political issue of our time – so hot that substantial public opinion believes that it could cause the PNM to lose power, if not handled properly, while large numbers of frightened citizens look to the UNC.

Maybe that’s why she didn’t and couldn’t go further. It would be entering too far into the political arena, the gayelle, as Dr Rowley would say.

Look, to cut a long story short on this third issue, the most practical, respectful and useful way for the government and opposition “to get together” to deal with crime is for Dr Rowley to invite Ms Persad-Bissessar and her team to first discuss and jointly agree on government’s crime plans before bringing them to Parliament. Note, in this proposed pre-Parliament consultation, the Opposition itself may have crime plans of its own to share.

Why is this early step so necessary? Because in the current political circumstances, if the government brings its crime plans to the adversarial Parliament with the Opposition hearing them for the first time, this will likely create for both another “party before country” face-off. On the other hand, it would be so noble, so inspiring, so consoling and exemplary if both the government and the opposition should walk into Parliament, announce agreement on the crime plans and shake hands in public – something to celebrate in a frustrated country.

This would also make the President smile. This is going beyond the usual personal ambitions and party pride.

It is called, in our desperate circumstances, a practical and necessary compromise. Not just “joining” or “coming together.”

You see, the Constitution, in spite of its preamble, sits on an adversarial system, encouraging politicians to put party first. Political compromise, where necessary in the public interest, depends on the generosity and humility on both sides. As TV6 host Marlan Hopkinson recently told me, this compromise is “a golden opportunity” for both parties to show some love for this beleaguered country. The parties could afterwards return to business as usual.

There are so many friendly appeals and calls for both political parties to “join and unite” on this crime problem, it leaves one to wonder if there is really a subconscious rejection of the warlike political-party system which now has the country so ethnically and uneasily divided. There seems to be a creeping public desire for an alternative way – a system that obliges more friendly unity than hostile disunity. There seems to be a growing movement of “unifiers,” one that dares to think about having one unified political party and a system that serves as a model for similar societies.

But of course, old habits die hard, especially when they benefit some.

Columnist Tony Fraser wondered if our parties have degenerated into “cults” rather than public-service entities. A cult is selfish, identity-obsessed and even predatory.

Our political system keeps this small country perpetually in a state of war with itself. It is time to think deeply about this. The evidence shows that the multi-party system is the greatest threat to socio-economic equity in a multi-ethnic society.

Surely our politicians cannot be genuinely comfortable with the present political system? If not, what are they prepared to do about it?

How they deal with the “compromise” proposed above will give us an idea.