With a single voice
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
July 11, 2003
IF there is any lesson we have or haven’t learned along the way to accomplishing the goal of regional integration, it’s the need for the Caribbean Community’s CARICOM’s) member nations to function as a single unit and approach extra-regional issues of concern with a single voice.
Our concern has always been the failure of CARICOM to address inter-country problems to the satisfaction of the countries involved.
Take Guyana and Barbados. At the leadership level, President Bharrat Jagdeo and Prime Minister Owen Arthur enjoy a cordial relationship. But on the ground, at the grassroots level, that’s not always the case. Guyanese still complain about shabby treatment by Barbadians at that island nation’s International Airport, and, talk as the two leaders or their foreign ministers have, there seems to be little improvement in the attitude of Barbados immigration officials toward Guyanese.
We’re not denying that individuals misbehave and have to be disciplined. That’s to be expected. What we object to is Barbadian immigration personnel treating Guyanese visitors with disdain.
Yet, at the national level, both countries need each other to form a potent force, with the rest of CARICOM, in bloc-bloc negotiations.
Still, with all that yet has to be achieved, we’re hearing that four countries are about to form a sub-regional integration movement.
Here’s how our sister newspaper, the Nation, addresses this move:
“Detractors would immediately wonder whether a region, beset by myriad economic and social problems and an intractable inability to implement agreements on issues involving simple things like a fishing agreement, or the more difficult, but equally important, issue of a Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), should embark on a political alliance within a sub-region at this time.
“It is not our intention to pour cold water on this new effort, but only a few years ago Barbados announced its intention to form an alliance with the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. Little has been heard about it since.
“In the light of the slowdown in the world economy since 2001 and the contraction in regional economies, all energies should now be focused on getting the CSME off and running in order to integrate the regional economies as far and as swiftly as possible.
Moreover, rising unemployment and escalating crime in most states and lack of investment in critical areas like tourism, manufacturing and agriculture, all combine to undermine confidence and make the lives of the poor that much bleaker.
“In the face of these problems, the region’s immediate and overriding task must be to stimulate long-term economic growth and not lose sight of our international trade obligations beginning 2005.
“Of further concern to us is the fact that we are about to put another structure in place at a time when we lack even the capacity and expertise to attend to trade negotiations and adequately man our secretariat in Guyana.”
Whatever the reason for this sub-regional integration initiative, we believe that the region’s overall woes will be adequately addressed only when we resolve to dealing with them as a single grouping with a single voice.