Transforming CARICOM into an Action Shop
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
July 7, 2003
THE CARIBBEAN Community (CARICOM) is generally defined as a “talk shop,” even by some of its leaders.
The late Dr. Cheddi Jagan, returning to power in 1992 after 28 years in the political wilderness, if you will, hoped to forge a new era of pro-active approach to regional integration. But on his return from a Heads of Government summit, he lamented the resolve of some CARICOM leaders to implement recommendations in a report that declared it was “Time For Action.”
Dr. Jagan’s response, when asked by reporters at a news conference here about the future of CARICOM from his perspective, was that the grouping was little more than “a talk shop.”
Succeeding secretaries general have sought to defend the work of the grouping’s Secretariat to schedule meetings and facilitate the implementation of decisions reached at summits and ministerial forums. But all have conceded slothfulness in reaching goals. Target disorientation has basically been attributed to the preoccupation of some leaders with national agendas - saying and doing whatever is necessary to stay in office - at the expense of regional advancement.
Jamaica’s Prime Minister Percival Patterson reflected the views of many West Indians when, on assuming the leadership of CARICOM at the start of the just-concluded 24th regular session of the heads in Montego Bay, he declared his intention to transform the grouping into an “action shop.”
Information coming out of the summit points to Mr. Patterson and his colleagues having committed themselves to taking a pro-active approach to regional integration.
The Jamaica Observer shares our sentiments about CARICOM. “We have always been supportive of CARICOM, despite its shortcomings,” says the newspaper, “because of the obvious and compelling truth: that going it alone means going nowhere.”
“If we needed any further example of how exposed and fragile we are as individual countries, we need to look no further than the decision of the United States to cut military aid from six Caribbean islands who ratified the International Criminal Court from which the U.S. wants immunity. But our firm support for CARICOM does not mean that we are happy with the progress made in 30 years of functional cooperation.
“CARICOM has been haunted, let us admit it, by its failure to implement many of its undertakings and to provide adequate support, especially financial, for regional institutions. This failure has often been used by critics as the fat in which to fry good ideas, such as the current move towards a Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) and its companion Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). We do not share the pessimism, but at the same time we cannot ignore the missed opportunities and the lack of haste to implement many of the worthwhile proposals of which we have no shortage in this intellectually rich community of nations.”
At their meeting in Barbados today - CARICOM Day - four leaders are discussing new approaches to governance and the possible establishment of a new political union. We’re not sure what that means. St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, one of the four leaders participating in the Barbados meeting, is already heading a five-member CARICOM Heads of Government on governance.
We’re surmising that the meeting will come up with ways to help shape CARICOM into the bloc its inhabitants crave.
We expect it will, and we hope that President Jagdeo’s pro-active efforts to propel the regional integration movement forward, as much as he is eagerly working to move Guyana forward, will be emulated and sustained across the regional divide.