The proposal was accepted and on my return to Guyana I entered into negotiations with Secretary General Edwin Carrington. I proposed that the salary and expenses of a suitable journalist selected by us be borne by the Secretariat. I explained what I saw as the potential advantages for the regional movement, namely giving much more extensive coverage than was at present the case of important regional meetings dealing with issues relating to the single market and economy, external relations and so on. Regrettably, I was subsequently informed that no funds were available for this project. It must be noted that in the European Union very large sums of money were initially allocated for educational purposes, that is to tell citizens throughout the union what was sought to be achieved and how it would affect their lives. The project was not pursued.

The people of our region have never been other than superficially involved in the entire enterprise of Caricom. No team of leaders has toured the region explaining what is involved and the likely benefits and advantages. Indeed it was perhaps the West Indian Commission that went furthest in that respect, visiting each country and also West Indians overseas, inviting their testimony and their comments, engaging in dialogue. That is the kind of effort at popularising its significance that Caricom has always so badly needed. It would give life to what has remained for most citizens an abstract project that has never touched their lives except perhaps negatively when they try to travel from one country to another.

The failure of Caricom to progress faster can be attributed to many causes including the lack of real executive power in the secretariat (which would have been at least partly remedied by the creation of the Caricom Commission recommended by the West Indian Com-mission, being an executive authority with competence to initiate proposals, update consensus, mobilise action and secure the expeditious implementation of Caricom decisions) and the sluggishness and even opposition of the local bureaucracies, many of which were out of sympathy with or at least did not share the regional vision. But the political leaders over the years must take most of the blame. Over-whelmed with the problems of their own mini-states and the trappings of office, they would often return from heads-of-government or other meetings without briefing the media adequately or reporting to parliament. The rhetoric of regionalism at these meetings became a ritual, the follow -up was usually negligible.

What can the media do about this? I have to say that the regional media are themselves parochial. How often is there a lead story or an editorial on a regional topic, except perhaps when there is a trade problem between countries? How many regional media lambasted the politicians editorially for failing to set up the Caricom Commission or for not complying with a number of agreed deadlines? Have governments appointed Ministers with special responsibility for Caricom Affairs as recommended by the West Indian Commission? And do the ministers function? If not, have the media berated them for not doing so? Have the media assigned reporters with special responsibility to cover Caricom affairs who are aware of the state of play?

The regional media organisations Caribbean News Agency and the Caribbean Broadcasting Union, now merged in the Caribbean Media Cor-poration, encountered severe problems of financing. The main regional newspapers now take regional news by arrangement from each other. There was a Caribbean Publishing and Broadcasting Association, several of whose meetings I attended in various regional capitals, and which had exposed me to the similarity of our interests and concerns. This is defunct. More recently, annual media conferences in various territories (there was one in Guyana in 2001) have been keeping media persons in touch, but only just. The two men who had done most to promote a spirit of regionalism in the media were Ken Gordon and Oliver Clarke. Ken Gordon was at one stage exploring the possibility of regional television news broadcasts using private stations in various countries but this did not materialise.

If the media are serious about pushing the single market and economy and promoting Caricom they must do more than they are doing now. There is work to be done in every area from explaining the Protocols, to the work of the Carib-bean Development Bank, to Cacom trade, to the Caribbean Court of Justice, to intra-Caricom tourism, to air and sea transportation in the region, to environmental issues (the conveyance of nuclear waste in the region), to education (the universities and the law schools), to culture, to sport, to external relations. There is so much work to be done. In truth there is no regional media vision, partly due to a lack of adequate contact and the absence of a shared dialogue. Even techniques like hard hitting common editorials on the same day on regional issues which can be very effective are not being used. The politicians and the bureaucrats have been getting away with murder due to the lack of a coordinated regional media response that exposes their repeated delays and failures to implement decisions.

In our own case, we have repeatedly addressed Caricom issues editorially and I will take the opportunity to rehash briefly themes that have been dealt with in the editorial columns of Stabroek News on issues which I believe are vital to the future of Caricom and which partly explain why progress to a single market and economy has been so slow.

Perhaps because of the still bitter experience of the failed Federation of the West Indies, or perhaps because of the strong underlying insular and parochial attitudes that persist, the leaders of Caricom have consistently refused to discuss seriously any form of political union, even one that falls srt of federation. Mr Manning has recently put another limited initiative on the agenda and it must be hoped this will not abort. As Dr Havelock Brewster has pointed out on more than one occasion, cultural identity is a crucial part of the West Indian reality. Without moving towards some overt political expression of this reality there is a danger that the single market a economy will be overtaken by other events.

Dr Brewster had proposed a Union of West Indian Sates which would provide West Indian citizenship without prejudice to the sovereignty of the individual states.

It is absurd to ignore the political dimension, as the regional political leaders continually insist on doing, and to treat economic integration as essentially an exercise in functional co-operation. There has to be some rationale, some driving force to provide the energy to break the bottlenecks and provide the momentum that has so far been lacking. If the leaders have no broader vision there will be no future. There are those who argue that though there was a common history and culture there are significant variations, particularly in terms of recent historical experience, and that for example Jamaica's geopolitical situation and geographical distance would make this exercise nothing more than a genuflection to a failed idea. But surely the idea should have been fully discussed to see if some compromiscould have been reached to create an ideology for integration.

Seen in this context, the admission of Haiti and Suriname as members was at least very badly timed. This makes any form of political union more difficult and thus more unlikely. Moreover, broadening was obviously going to make deepening more difficult, especially involving as it did other languages and systems. And what are the implications for the appellate jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice; how will the common law we have inherited and developed sit with these other systems? Participation in the Association of Caribbean States also puts a demand on scarce resources.

Guyanese for many years had a jaundiced view of Caricom because of its failure to take on board the lack of electoral democracy in Guyana. That was seen as a fundamental compromise of its integrity, and the scars remain. Partly for that reason, perhaps, the post 1992 government made several mistakes, such as failing to back the candidacy of a Caricom candidate for an international post. It is now more aware of the need for solidarity on some issues. There was disenchantment over the failure of Caricom to condemn Surinamese aggression in the incident with the oil rig. It is true that there is nothing in the Treaty of Chaguaramas that covers an incident like that between two of its members, and of course Suriname was admitted without Guyana insisting on a resolution of the border dispute, surely a serious mistake.

The unanimity rule has been a crippling impediment, forcing the community to progress at the pace of the laggards. Caricom interventions in Guyana and St Vincent were useful precedents in principle of a willingness to get involved in situations where there is internal unrest in member states though they led to the substantial shortening of the lives of two elected governments and in the former case there was inadequate follow up in the process initiated by the Herdmanston Accord. There is no Caricom minister in Guyana, deputed to deal specifically with Caricom related issues and to push its programmes, nor in several other territories. The progress towards free movement in the region has been painfully slow and Guyanese in particular have suffered from this. The Time for Action report of the Commission in 1992 had identified 1994 as the date for the single market and economy.

Dr Vaughan Lewis had noted in a symposium in 1997 that the European political directorate had ceded to the European Commission certain institutionalised rights of initiative that appeared to place the European Commissioners "almost on par with the heads of government as political actors and interveners in the political process." He contrasted this with the situation in Caricom where the politicians retained complete control. As he said, "Nothing like primus inter pares must seem to be institutionalised between the political and the technocratic leadership of the region." He also noted that the majority of the presidents of the European Union had not just been technocrats "manning, implementing or executing institutions, but in one sense or another were what might be called `men of politics', men who had at one time or other played in the political arena at relatively important levels." He referred to Roy Jenkins, Jacques Delors and others. The deliberate institutional weakening of the secretariat explains the refusal to accept and set up the Caribbean Commission recommended by the West Indian Commission.

The leaders do not want any body that can seriously challenge their sovereignty and the similar current proposal is also likely to be sidetracked.

It is time we call a spade a spade and as far as I know Prime Minister Owen Arthur has gone closer to doing this than any other politician in the region. Without political will progress will continue to be slow. Summits have become ritual affairs where important issues are routinely shelved.