Equally, it feels that CARICOM's "advancement" can only effectively take place with Jamaica remaining a most valued partner of the 30-year-old regional economic integration movement.

In a `working paper' submitted for yesterday's `Consultation on Options for Governance' in Port-of-Spain, ahead of today's 14th Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM, Barbados has argued in favour of both "the political requirement" of the CSME and wisdom to avoid "the political alienation" of Jamaica.

Heads of government, ministers and leading technocrats of the region as well as representatives of civil society and regional non-government organisations were in attendance at the consultation, which resulted from a request by host Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who told the opening session that the time had come to consider new forms of governance, including political integration, as the Caribbean prepares for the challenges ahead, regionally and internationally.

The Barbados `working paper', titled `Shifting the Rubicon: New Governance and the CARICOM Single Market and Economy', is based on the contributions of the Office of Prime Minister Owen Arthur and the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill Campus).

It was circulated along with an earlier submitted 'working paper' by the UWI (St. Augustine Campus) on "Options and Strategies for CARICOM in the area of Governance for Caribbean Regional Integration", that was prepared at the request of the Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister.

According to the Barbados 'working paper', which was obtained by the `Chronicle', if the CSME is to become a reality, the crossing of CARICOM's Rubicon is an imperative requiring one solution -- a shift in new governance with a "quantum leap" to give "the path forward".

But to include in this "political advance" Jamaica -- where political integration is not on the agenda of either the governing People's National Party or the parliamentary opposition Jamaica Labour Party, the Barbados 'working paper" said: "We must redirect our conception of an advance in the governance of CARICOM".

This calls for confronting "two political realities": first, it must include Jamaica; secondly, it must take into consideration that "Jamaica will not, at this point, countenance political union".

Consequently, the model introduced for consideration by and beyond yesterday's Consultation on Options for Governance, seeks to achieve the two-fold objective of:

*Accomplishing the political requirement for the CSME to be a reality without the political alienation of Jamaica; and secondly it encompasses a political purpose which can simultaneously contribute to "advancing political expectation in Jamaica".

In their `working paper' the team of academics of the UWI St. Augustine campus called for a one-year deadline for the inauguration of the CSME but avoided casting it in the mould of any specific political initiative.

But the authors of the document took a swipe at "leadership" within the community, declaring that CARICOM "will not move forward and regional integration will not deepen, widen and intensify without leadership that is prepared to make a decisive difference."

"Regionally", they said, "integration needs a credible champion who can inspire vital constituencies to believe in the promise of tomorrow..."

The Barbados 'working paper' on the other hand, has urged the creation of a `CARICOM Commission' as "the driving force for integration, taking directives from the Conference of Heads of Government and the Ministerial Councils".

Creation of a 'CARICOM Commission' was a major recommendation of The West Indian Commission of 1992.