Prime Minister and Leader of Opposition meet to establish a way forward in establishing a National Consensus on Crime Management

I received the following press release today. This could be another talk shop because I cannot seen what will will be different this time. Read the following and let me know what you think:

As many Jamaicans would recall, earlier this year, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition had initial discussions on the matter of the nation’s security and committed to the resumption of the Vale Royal talks. The private sector was pleased to have been invited as an observer when those discussions resumed in early October, as well as to have been a participant in the subsequent working committee that met to coordinate a stakeholder summit.

The initial meeting, held on October 3, 2019, included representation from the private sector and trade unions and affirmed a collective view that the crime problem currently confronting the Country, is its single major challenge and is deserving of priority attention.

The discussions affirmed the need for a national resolve towards agreement on the short-term, medium-term and long-term strategies to respond to the crisis of violent crime, disorder and murders facing Jamaica. We were most particularly pleased that the initial meeting with the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, resulted in the reaffirmation of both parties commitment to work in accord and resulted in agreement between both the Government and the Opposition on the way forward to establishing this national consensus on crime management.

The deliberations of the working group resulted in the determination of a framework for guiding subsequent meetings to arrive at this consensus. The result of these meetings and discussions, was the scheduling of an inaugural summit slated to take place on Thursday, October 17, 2019.  Multisectoral and bipartisan collaboration on crime management is considered to be a fulcrum in attaining complete alignment and in this regard, more than 15 organizations are expected to be represented at this initial summit as we seek to ensure broad stakeholder engagement as a key component in arriving at the anticipated consensus.