Only a handful of students and staff from the University of Guyana (UG) attended a public consultation on crime on Monday forcing the National Steering Committee to abandon the discussion early.
The committee will be holding 25 public consultations throughout the country, which are intended to inform the public on measures being employed by the state in response to the crime situation, solicit suggestions for the fight against crime and involve stakeholders in a national response. But Monday's event saw only presenters turn up at Turkeyen.
Originally the meeting was scheduled to be held at the Education Lecture Theatre. But when members of the committee along with officers from the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) turned up at the theatre, students were using the classroom and a small room was made available. During the shortened meeting, GDF Commander Gary Best and Assistant Commissioner of Police, Paul Slowe made presentations outlining their organisations' current role in fighting crime along with some of their achievements so far. Both Best and Slowe read from prepared notes and after their presentations, the facilitator of the meeting called upon members of the audience to give their view.
Only Mark Kirton, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences stood up, not to add his views but to lament the lack of communication with the university on the meeting.
He said the meeting was a non-event and the UG administration had never been told about it.
He said he only found out through a newspaper press release and as far as he was aware most of the students and other support staff of the university were not aware either. "What I hope is that this is not seen as a consultation with the university. As the dean of my faculty I am representing some 2,500 students and also the entire university." Kirton said that if advance notice had been given, all arrangements would have been put in place.