MANY people in Trinidad and Tobago today may well wish to be excused for not holding their breaths over news yesterday that once again the leaders of the parties in Parliament plan to meet on issues of national significance.

It is, of course, the current Prime Minister who has seen cause on more than one occasion to remind citizens of the fact that he and the current Leader of the Opposition have been down this road before.

And the country well recalls some of those occasions in the recent past, perhaps the most spectacular event in this series being the famous Crowne Plaza Accord, which ostensibly established a formula for forming a government after the 18-18 electoral deadlock in 2001.

We know only too well how one side responded when the then president made the decision which both sides-consistent with the terms of that accord-called on him to make.

There have also been joint talks before on the issue of crime. And the Prime Minister is on record, again on more than one occasion, drawing the country’s attention to the fact that he thought there had been a commitment from the UNC when it was in government, about Trinidad and Tobago’s participation in the Caribbean Court of Justice.

But with so much in the water on these crucial issues of bipartisan support, the move on Friday by the Prime Minister to resume talks with the Opposition Leader remains welcome.

While many among us will be tempted to remain sceptical if not outright cynical as to the possible outcome, there are equally large numbers of nationals who insist that on crime, Constitution reform and a host of other important issues of the day, the leaders and parties vying for our support must put politics aside.

Solutions to the long and on-going crime menace continue to elude us, the best laid plans, strategies, initiatives and programmes coming up repeatedly short of the mark.

It is a sign of existing maturity, nevertheless, that one side has again proposed, and the other readily agreed, that they should sit down once more, to discuss the list of items deemed to be in the national interest. Mr Panday, for his part, commendably attached no conditions in his swift affirmative response to the Prime Minister’s invitation.

Noteworthy on this occasion as well, is the fact that the Prime Minister’s approach to Mr Panday came while both sides were engaged in a debate in the House of Representatives, characterised by charges and counter-charges of racial bias.

And it comes, also, in the wake of an address by retired media icon Ken Gordon, the former CCN chairman and CEO, himself also a former government minister, on what he sees as the imperatives for nationhood, almost 50 years after independence.