OPPOSITION PARTIES OUT OF STEP ON CARICOM
By Rickey Singh
Guyana Chronicle
May 17, 2004
WITH THE possible exception of Edward Seaga, leader of the Jamaica Labour Party and a former Prime Minister, parliamentary opposition leaders and parties across the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) continue to demonstrate a disappointing lack of interest in matters of significance to the Community.
Regrettably, much of Mr. Seaga's own interventions on CARICOM issues and developments betray a high degree of negativity, including critical initiatives like the creation of a Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and inauguration of a Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).
He, of course, has company among other Opposition party leaders, including here in Guyana.
Before returning to Seaga's positions on CARICOM issues, it is relevant to note that quite a few of his counterparts in the Community, appear to be out of step or disengaged on Community affairs and obsessed with their domestic agenda in isolation from the importance of regional economic integration and foreign policy coordination.
Such political leaders ought to know that in our increasingly inter-dependent, globalised environment, it is simply not kosher to behave as if CARICOM is either irrelevant, or that any particular member state can, in this 21st century, make it on its own without integrated regional involvement.
To follow media coverage of some parliamentary debates or statements made at party or other fora, top representatives of opposition parties speak and behave as if CARICOM and important regional initiatives on matters like crime and security, tourism and air transportation, matter only when they are in government.
It is perhaps fair to note that some of the blame for the disenchantment and cynicism on the part of the parliamentary opposition leaders and their parties may also rest with governments that fail to share relevant information with their domestic opponents on CARICOM issues and developments - especially after meetings of the Community Heads of Government.
Seaga's vexation
Mr. Seaga's own mood of vexation with anything about CARICOM, especially on the CSME and CCJ - certainly on regional political integration - cannot, however, be attributed to lack of information he may need and which the government of Prime Minister P.J. Patterson has failed or refused to make available, either in or out of parliament.
So why, for all his experience and expertise the Jamaica Opposition Leader, waiting anxiously to be back in the Prime Minister's seat, remains so very negative about CARICOM?
The JLP's leader would know that if CARICOM did not exist as the regional economic integration it is, deficient as it may be, an appropriate mechanism would have had to be created to facilitate this region speaking, as much as possible, with one voice in negotiations with an international community that has neither time nor patience for bilateral trade and economic arrangements with small states in sub-regions like ours.
The JLP leader drew a sharp response from the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, for his recent criticisms of the CSME and CARICOM's relevance to Jamaica which, he claimed, was faced declining intra-regional trade.
Seaga was reported as stating in parliament during the recent budget debate that the CSME would be of "minimal benefit" to Jamaica and that the country should regard the CSME "as a wayward journey and set our course to catch a fresh wind for our sails..."
Gonsalves, who happened to be in Jamaica at the time, was reported by the `Observer' as posing the challenging question to Seaga:
"If Jamaica is unable to compete effectively in the CSME," asked the Vincentian Prime Minister, "how is it going to compete effectively in a larger free trade area which includes Canada, USA, Mexico, probably Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Costa Rica?...
"Unless you believe, of course, that the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is going to give you a free ride and that you are not going to have certain reciprocal obligations to prevent penetration of your own economy by countries within the free trade zone".
Five days earlier, on April 23, before Gonsalves' scathing response to what he dismissed as "jaundiced statements of grown and experienced men", the Prime Minister of Barbados, Owen Arthur, was enthusiastically telling a packed audience at the Central Bank building in Bridgetown about the "way forward" for CARICOM with the CSME.
"The creation of the CSME," said Arthur, who has lead responsibility for advancing its arrangements, "is an urgent, inescapable and historic necessity that must be satisfactorily and successfully met, no matter how massive the task appears, no matter how meagre the immediate returns may be, or how numerous may be the obstacles and pitfalls that must be overcome..."
The CSME, said Arthur, "is not a relic of our tortured and crisis-ridden past. It is an expression and an anticipation of a future that can be better and brighter for all..."
I feel, I hope, that as the CARICOM Secretariat educational programme on the CSME and the CCJ in particular gains momentum, even opposition politicians and parties could find ways to cast off some of their cynicism and mood of disenchantment and help enhance efforts at regional economic integration and functional cooperation.
The Community Secretariat should also revisit the decision of the CARICOM Heads of Government for occasional reportings to the parliamentary opposition in member states, and consultations as necessary, on issues and developments of importance to the Community.
It may be hoping for too much, but I look forward to the time when the parliamentary opposition could be represented on official country delegations for at least some meetings of CARICOM Foreign Ministers and plenary sessions of CARICOM Summits.
On their own, if they are really interested in being alternative governments, opposition parties could consider forming a consultative intra-regional grouping that meets from time to time to deal with issues and developments of common concern - national, regional and international.