6 minute read
Protecting Regional Unity
Replaying voices for collective action
by Rickey Singh
We must continue to believe that our CARICOM Heads of Government will get it right – especially given the life and death circumstances that are forcing us to tap into that inter-reliance that is at the foundation of the Caribbean Community.
“We cannot agree to act together in particular ways and remain free to act as we please or as every passing advantage induces us.” So shared Camillo Gonsalves in an article published by the ‘Jamaica Observer’, dated March 14th, 2021, citing ‘Time for Action: The Report of the West Indian Commission, 1992’. The writer was drawing attention to an unprecedented occurrence in CARICOM's history when three member states voted against Trinidad and Tobago notwithstanding clear evidence of the twin island state’s lack of culpability in the death of Venezuelan migrants in Venezuelan waters a few miles away from Trinidad’s coast line.
The event was a meeting of the OAS – of which Venezuela is no longer a part, and at which Juan Guaidó, who lost his post in the National Assembly, purported to represent the South American country even though CARICOM recognises Nicolas Maduro as the constitutionally elected leader. Chaired by Jamaica, this farcical orchestration of legitimacy saw Antigua, Barbuda, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines objecting to the motion. Not only was the vote not shut down in this comedy of errors, but Jamaica, Haiti and the Bahamas backed the claim putting Trinidad and Tobago at risk for international censure. This flagrant challenge to ‘CARICOM first’, has serious implications for the region, particularly as we try to navigate a post-covid trading space. Of even greater importance, is the potential risk to our people and to lives and livelihoods.
Politics of Integration
Now, as Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) contemplate their next annual summit, they might yet find it useful to familiarise themselves with the very instructive, 2013 critical analysis of the prevailing state of our 15-member regional integration movement. Authored by Terri-Ann GilbertRoberts, the 342-page publication is a most constructive, informative, and clinical examination of what is titled, ‘The Politics of Integration – Caribbean Sovereignty Revisited’.
Gilbert-Roberts’ work provides a useful reference of the prevailing state of regional integration that should merit the objective consideration by our CARICOM leaders as the region deliberates on a post-pandemic recovery. Originally published in Jamaica by Ian Randle publishers, the work is dedicated “To all Caribbean citizens who retain faith and hope that their community will eventually fully engage in a process of regional integration, enabled by an effective governance system, which reflects their common identity, connects them one to another and helps them to meet their development aspirations.”
Contending with Destiny
When considered against the seminal work on ‘Contending with Destiny – The Caribbean in the 21st Century’ by Kenneth Hall and Denis Benn, and which offers various perspectives from a number of regional scholars, the offering by Gilberts-Roberts could well serve as a useful reminder to CARICOM Heads of State of their repeated failures to honour their own decisions, as stated in several communiques, and issued from their varied annual summits.
As Gilbert-Roberts states, “The events that led to the pursuit of sovereign independence of the British West Indian colonies, have been a compelling aspect of Caribbean political history...” Her sentiments are an echo of Dr. Trevor Munroe’s 2000 commentary on the opportunities to further alter the course in the favour of Caribbean peoples across the region. He states , “In much the same way we helped to transform the politics of the 20th century, from political dependence to independence, we can transform the minority of mankind to a regulated, managed globalization with much potential benefit for the majority, if we move beyond talk and begin to act now.” (‘Political Thought and the Caribbean Process”, “Contending with Destiny – The Caribbean the 21st Century” by Kenneth Hall and Denis Benn, 2000)
The Politics of Integration is a valuable expression of public opinion on what exists as our Caribbean Community. The unfortunate observation is that eight years after Gilbert-Roberts examined the dilemma of “West Indian nationalism and the paradox of sovereignty”, and twenty-one years after Hall & Benn’s scholarly commentaries, the question of political integration continues to feel somewhat tenuous. There is instead, a tendency to guard national sovereignty as distinct from a shared governance process for the benefit of the realisation of an economic integration movement that better serves the collective interests of the people of CARICOM.
Finding hope
As plans get underway for the 33rd Intersessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government which is proposed to be held in Belize early next year, readers of Gilbert-Roberts’ work, could be hopeful that they may yet realise the fulfilment of repeated promises by our CARICOM leaders, to experience the empowerment of collective representation and regional “oneness”.
We must continue to believe that our CARICOM Heads of Government will get it right – especially given the life and death circumstances that are forcing us to tap into that inter-reliance that is at the foundation of the Caribbean Community. The positive outlook by Gilbert-Roberts is that “...in the final analysis, it becomes clear that notwithstanding the failures in leadership and the dominance of the personal sovereignty concept in Caribbean politics, the predicted collapse of CARICOM is not inevitable”. (pg. 249). She further states that, “There is potential for the (regional) movement to be better equipped with effective governance institutions under a serious and radical reform process...”
Finally, we must keep faith that our CARICOM leaders will initiate collective action at their forthcoming summit in 2022, and that they will be bold enough to offer the firm assurance and personal commitment to regional policies for reliable healthcare, climate change adaptation, affordable energy, and food security - among identifiable projects that could result in sustainability through diversification, significant reduction of regionwide unemployment and at the same time accelerate progress with a more formidable position on regional integration, and on economic and social development for all member states.
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Rickey Singh is a veteran Caribbean journalist who sees himself as retired. he has a long history in newspaper and wire service journalism, particularly in the areas of politics and social issues across the region, starting in Guyana before moving to Trinidad and Tobago, to Barbados and currently on extended stay in Trinidad and Tobago. he has a broad collection of writings that provide rich insights into the region’s political history – and in particular, the evolution of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
Recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the West Indies for his outstanding contributions as a journalist in regional affairs, he has had the privilege to be a founder and first President, for a decade, of the first-ever regional body to represent journalists in the Commonwealth Caribbean—the now defunct Caribbean Association of Media Workers (CAMWORK). A former contributor to foreign publications in the USA and Britain, as well as to the former BBC Caribbean Report and Caribbean News Agency (CANA), he was a columnist and general contributor for several newspapers, among them, Trinidad Express and Barbados Nation newspapers, Jamaica Observer and Guyana Chronicle.
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