Get something done

In many ways, the meeting is a repeat of history. A similar meeting took place last year.

And long before the current Government administration, the Office of the Prime Minister has often hosted the Opposition.

Indeed, a similar exercise was undertaken by Persad-Bissessar during her tenure as prime minister.

And before both Rowley and Persad-Bissessar, several prime ministers have held meetings with Opposition legislators to agree on new provisions being passed in Parliament.

Unfortunately, when it comes to Government-Opposition collaboration, the record of achievement has been fairly dismal in recent times. The anti- gang legislation, the rules governing the selection of a Police Commissioner and even the infamous Section 34 law were all passed with bipartisan support, some as a direct result of Government and Opposition meetings.

Former PNM prime minister Patrick Manning famously trashed the laws governing the selection of a police commissioner which had been promulgated during his tenure, saying they represented “compromise” positions having come out of collaboration with the UNC.

The timing of Manning’s reappraisal of the law (his government had just rejected the Police Service Commission’s top choice for commissioner — Stephen Williams) distracted from the truth of its substance: a High Court judge eventually struck down portions of the law years later and today few disagree that it remains unsatisfactory.

Is it really the case that when legislators cooperate the resulting measures are more likely to be defective? In theory, listening to the views of others who do not have to toe your line enhances decision- making. Any government will always have expert advice at its disposal, but the wider its pool of expertise the better.

Still, it is also clear that when the stakes are high and both sides have much to lose, compromises will result in a loss of quality. There is something called objection for objection sake and it is not conductive to good law.

But without an adversarial process, it is also the case that hidden flaws may not come to light. It is the job of Opposition and Independent legislators to be extremely vigilant on behalf of the population as a whole.

What matters most is that the politicians realise there is a time and a place for collaboration as opposed to theatrics. Both sides must also be fully committed and must not, years after the fact, then engage in a revision of history to suit the current political climate.

The agenda for the meeting has given us some encouraging signs. We truly hope progress can be made on campaign finance reform, a matter left in abeyance by the Persad-Bissessar regime after five years. It is also encouraging that the Prime Minister has returned to the fore his plan for a code of conduct for parliamentarians, a matter that is urgently required given the faltering of the Integrity Commission and the matter of the management of constituency office funds and employment practices across the floor.

Crime, however, remains the most pressing matter and should also be on the agenda, whether special majority matter or no.

We need, by 3.30 pm today when this meeting ends, some real results.