Give us a miracle

THE FAILURE of the Prime Minister and Kamla Persad-Bissessar to advance crime talks far beyond where they have reached demonstrates weakness in the leadership of both.

But it is not too late for them to give the country a miracle.

Everywhere, the signs suggest Dr Rowley and the Opposition Leader should return to the table.

Bodies continue to pile up.

Hundreds of people marched in the capital city on Sunday to lament the murder toll for the year, which approaches 600. The organisers did not attract the numbers they had hoped for, but they did not have to. People are fed up.

A new political party, comprising political figures who formerly played key roles in the PNM and in the UNC’s one-time coalition partner, was launched on Saturday. David Abdulah, the political leader of the MSJ, plans to hold a “civil-society crime summit” in January.

Meanwhile, the churlish and capricious nature of the relationship between the PNM and the UNC on this issue expresses more than just political weakness from the top down. It has real-life repercussions for ordinary citizens who continue to pay in blood.

Dr Rowley’s position that he need not attend talks personally, one of the first of many apparent sticking points in the exercise, has always appeared surly; his desire to limit matters to legislative interventions, overly myopic. Such positions have always seemed inspired by a desire not to have to interact with Gary Griffith, the former commissioner of police with whom Dr Rowley has bad blood.

Equally, Ms Persad-Bissessar’s insistence on Mr Griffith’s inclusion in the talks has reeked of a complete lack of tact and diplomacy. Mr Griffith is not an MP. Voters rejected him outright in the local government elections. And whatever expertise the former commissioner has is qualified by his dramatically mixed record in Ms Persad-Bissessar’s own administration and while serving as commissioner.

These days, the UNC leader is singing Mr Griffith’s praises, but there are many who feel he is only destined to prove a liability. The disproportionate impact he appears to have had on the fate of the crime talks is an apt demonstration of that. Too late has he been removed from the equation.

As prickly as Dr Rowley’s conduct in this whole affair has seemed, there is arguably a degree of calculation at work in his posturing. The failure of these talks succeeds in tarring his opponents as unco-operative and unpatriotic as we approach 2025.

However, the PM is delusional if he thinks this failure does not tarnish him as well.

Stronger politicians than Dr Rowley and Ms Persad-Bissessar would have met by now. The PM has long returned from abroad. The Parliament agenda is clear.

There is nothing standing in their way except grinch-like pride.