CARICOM looks for restored unity in Guyana
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, (CANA) -- Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, has expressed the hope that the new presidency of Guyana "will be defined by the restoration of trust, unity and peace in civic life". His comment came in his welcome remarks to heads of government of the 15-member community as they assembled yesterday at the Convention Centre at Chaguaramas for a special two-day meeting on the way forward for the 26-year-old regional integration movement. In his specific welcome to Guyana's new President, 35-year-old economist, Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who is attending his first heads of government conference since succeeding Mrs. Janet Jagan last August, Panday said: "May I also express our hope that your presidency will initiate enduring growth and prosperity commensurate with the vast resources and immense potential of your country". Mr. Jagdeo, who has been the focus of special coverage in the media here as the youngest and newest head of government, was also commended by Panday for his expressed concern for moving CARICOM along at a rapid pace towards a single market and economy. And Panday, observing that the older leaders of the region may well be faced "with a generation that will show no tolerance for the inherent slow pace of progress in the implementation of CARICOM decisions", told the meeting: "Very pertinent to this concern on his arrival in Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday, President Jagdeo spoke of these matters with a candour that is perhaps far too rare among us older heads." "Young people, as we know", said Prime Minister Panday in alluding to Jagdeo's youthfulness, "have a disposition for speaking the truth, often to the great discomfort of society's elders." "President Jagdeo", he added, "minced no words in holding out little hope for the early establishment of either the Caribbean single market and economy or the Caribbean Court Justice". But Panday declared that much as he respected "political pragmatism such as President Jagdeo has demonstrated, how I wish we would move aggressively to prove the President wrong in his belief that full implementation of the single market and the Caribbean Court of Justice is destined for some while yet to be only an aspiration". The CARICOM chairman whose country is to be one of the four initial founding members of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) - the others being Guyana, Jamaica and Barbados - then rhetorically asked: "The question arises, are we any nearer now to realisation of this goal (of a single market and the CCJ) than we were last July 4 when we convened for the 20th Meeting of heads of government of the Community? "If we are not, I strongly urge that this meeting vows to dramatically move that process forward". The conference is due to end today.
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