National self-interest and the absence of vision among CARICOM leaders are pulling the Caribbean apart

CARICOM: It's leadership that's needed
By Sir Ronald Sanders



There should be no doubt that the people of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are well aware that failure of the regional integration project to contribute to solving the urgent problems, which now beset their countries, is a really a failure of leadership.

In a thoughtful – almost despairing - column last week entitled “A new commitment to regionalism”, my friend and colleague, David Jessop, recorded his troubling conversations with “a wide range of Caribbean visitors on where the regional integration process is going”. He reported that “to a person, all were concerned that national self-interest and the absence of vision among leaders were pulling the Caribbean apart and removing any ambition for taking the regional project forwards”.

As I was about to write this commentary, I received an email from a distinguished and learned Caribbean person who has held ministerial office in the region and whose regional contacts are wide and diverse. The email said: ”The real problem is that there is no one among the reigning political class of vision and intellect sufficient to provide the leadership. There is, too, no technician of the calibre of (William) Demas or (Sir Alister) McIntyre. Additionally, the impact of the recession has left the politicians with no time for the integration movement. They are really pushed onto a survival path struggling as they all do with growing unemployment and serious financial problems both on their current and foreign accounts. The virtual abandonment of the integration movement is unfortunate, for a fully functioning, expanded and enriched integration will in the end be the buffer against some of the very problems which we are currently experiencing”.

And, therein lies the rub – there is a lack of understanding that a fully functioning, expanded and enriched integration could help to solve many of the problems that now confront CARICOM countries.

What the region needs now is more not less integration, for not one of its member countries – not even Trinidad and Tobago with its oil and gas resources – can hope to maintain its autonomy in a globalized world in which the rich and powerful are intent upon a new kind of dominance; one which marginalizes small countries whose concerns become important only when they coincide with the interests of the powerful.

The leaders of CARICOM, therefore, should be strengthening and sharpening the regional integration process as a vital instrument in improving the conditions of their countries individually and collectively.

But, the process has to start with a willingness by leaders to talk with each other frankly, openly and with empathy, and it has to be infused with an acknowledgment that they have side tracked the regional integration process, and must put it back on a main track because their countries need it. The conversation has to be underlined by a desire to reach collective decisions which take account of the circumstances of each in trying to achieve benefits for all.

The present media squabble over an announcement by those in Trinidad and Tobago who own and control Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) that it will compete with LIAT in some Eastern Caribbean destinations, and the response of the Prime Minister of St Vincent & the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, epitomizes the absence of dialogue at appropriate levels in the region.

One would hope that if the region now had a strong Secretary-General as the Chief Executive Officer of the regional movement, he or she would have stepped-in long ago not only to diffuse this issue, but to steer the leaders involved to a path of cooperation that could realize mutually beneficial objectives.

But the truth is that the regional movement now needs more than a strong Secretary-General, it requires a complete overhaul of the entire CARICOM machinery, beginning with a renewed commitment to regionalism by leaders. New priorities have to be set for CARICOM and many of its dead-weight issues dropped; both sufficient financial resources and appropriate skills have to employed to accomplish the priorities which must include strategic partnerships with the private sector and with international partners including China, India and Brazil to help crank-up economic growth through investment and employment.

All is not well in CARICOM. Indeed, much of it is ailing, and while the regional project weakens, all of its member countries are being left behind in the global race for betterment.

There are also some stark realities that should be confronted, not to jab accusatory fingers but to see how best these realities can be used to improve national economies and the region as a whole.

Here are some of the realities. Trinidad and Tobago has consistently maintained the smallest percentage of intra-regional imports, as a percentage of total imports, averaging less than 2 percent each year between 2004 and 2009 and valued at its highest point in 2008 at US$121 million. On the flip side, Trinidad and Tobago has enjoyed the largest increase in intra-regional exports from US$859 million in 2004 to US$3.2 billion in 2008 (source: Caricom Secretariat Trade and Investment report 2010). That surplus alone – which many regional producers ascribe to “unfair advantage” due to cheaper sources of energy – should encourage Trinidad and Tobago to work with its CARICOM partners to invest some of that trade surplus not in “give-aways” but in bankable projects that would bring mutual benefits to all.

A further reality is that Jamaica is the largest intra-regional importer, due in part to its larger population size. Jamaican manufacturers cry out about the unfair advantage of Trinidad manufacturers, but the CARICOM treaty allows Jamaican manufacturers to establish a manufacturing presence in Trinidad and to also take advantage of cheaper energy.

There are myriad ways in which CARICOM can benefit all its members, if there is a resolve to approach the regional project with a “can do” and not “will not do” attitude. And, there is much that CARICOM should be doing collectively. Tourism – the engine of economic growth for the majority of countries – is struggling and desperately needs combined regional action that it is not getting.

Here again are some facts: Between 1998 and 2008, tourist arrivals in CARICOM grew at an average rate of 2 percent per year while the world average was 6.5 percent per year. Arrivals in CARICOM fell to 5.96 million in 2008 from all time high of 6.16 million in 2007. The years 2009 and 2010 showed no improvement and introduced many new challenges. To revitalize the industry and to make it globally competitive requires regional creativity and regional action.

CARICOM needs strong leadership, a new vision and new and relevant priorities in a more dynamic structure. Only the leaders can begin the process of overhauling it for the benefit of the region’s people.

February 11, 2011

caribbeannewsnow

Bahamas Blog International

Cool Heads and no Crowns: The Caribbean in a storm

By Sir Ronald Sanders


Not for the first time in the history of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), Heads of Government are conveying mixed signals to the people of the region about how they feel about the CARICOM relationship and, indeed, about themselves.

Two incidents brought this reality into sharp focus over the last few days. The first was an inflammatory statement attributed to Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, that she did not make, and the other was the almost complete turn out of CARICOM Heads of Government to the funeral of David Thompson, the late Prime Minister of Barbados, and the genuine sense of “family” that they showed.

The statement that Persad-Bissessar is alleged to have made is, “No free help” for the islands of St Vincent and St Lucia that have been severely battered by Hurricane Tomas with St Lucia getting the worst of it. Earlier, as a tropical storm, Tomas had also sallied through Barbados uprooting trees, dislodging utility poles and wires, and damaging hundreds of mostly low-cost houses throughout the island.

“No free help” were not Persad-Bissessar’s words. They were the headline in the Trinidad Express newspaper on November 1, which did report what the Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister actually said. According to the story and other newspaper reports, the Prime Minister was speaking at a press conference about a request that she had received from the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, for assistance after his country was ravaged by the brutal Tomas.

What all the Trinidad and Tobago media reported her to say, was: "We will have to look at ways in which we would be able to assist. But you would recall my comments earlier this year, when I said there must some way in which Trinidad and Tobago would also benefit. So if we are giving assistance with housing for example, and that is one of the areas that we (Prime Minister of St Vincent and myself ) spoke about, ... then we may be able to use Trinidad and Tobago builders and companies, so that whatever money or assistance is given, redounds back in some measure to the people of Trinidad and Tobago."

She did not say that the Trinidad and Tobago government would not help. Indeed, she is reported as actually saying that her government had already mobilised two containers of foodstuff, and a decision would be made about where to send them but "certainly to St Vincent".

The issue here is not that she refused to provide assistance. If she had done so, I would have joined the chorus of voices that are now condemning her. When she talked earlier this year of Trinidad and Tobago not being “an ATM machine” for the Caribbean, I was one of the first to criticise that statement drawing attention to the fact that Trinidad and Tobago enjoys almost a monopoly market in the Caribbean for its cheaper oil-subsidised goods because of the CARICOM Treaty and that the Petroleum Fund (badly managed though it is) is as much in Trinidad and Tobago’s interest as the rest of the CARICOM countries since it helps to keep those countries as markets for Trinidad and Tobago’s goods.

The real issue with those who now condemn her is the link she drew between her government’s assistance and the use of “builders and companies” from Trinidad and Tobago.

Heat over that issue should be tempered by two realities. First, other countries (not only the former imperialists) link their assistance to their own materials and people. As examples, Cuban projects in many CARICOM countries use Cuban material and Cuban labour, as do several Venezuelan-funded projects. And, China not only insists upon the use of its material and people in aid projects, it does so for commercial projects too. And, it has long been the condition of many donors – either directly or through the agencies they use to finance aid projects – that their money be used for materials and workers from their countries exclusively.

The second reality is that Kamla Persad-Bissessar is the leader of a political party and Prime Minister of a country that, like many others, has become sceptical of CARICOM. It is up to her and her Ministers to demonstrate to a large section of the Trinidad and Tobago population that there is benefit in CARICOM for them.

Of course, they need to demonstrate CARICOM’s benefit to them over a very wide range of issues which includes the fact that CARICOM is a very lucrative market for Trinidad and Tobago’s products and services keeping thousands of its people employed; the country needs the support of CARICOM in fighting drug trafficking and crime, and maintaining security; it needs CARICOM in international bargaining in trade against larger entities such as the European Union; and it would not fulfil its international aspirations in the international system without the full backing of CARICOM.

Trinidad and Tobago, too, must realise that it alone does not wear a crown and it is not an island (not even two) unto itself.

But Persad-Bissessar should not be lynched for what she did not say, or for linking her government’s assistance to use of her country’s material and work force. At no time did she say no help would be forthcoming.

The entire Caribbean is going through what Professor Norman Girvan recently described as “existential threats”. This is a time for cool heads. It is not a time for tit-for-tat statements or for statements whose content sound like “something will not be given for nothing”.

Much of this present controversy is unnecessary and would not happen if CARICOM governments talk to each other on a platform of interdependence and common problems, and with a resolve to solve them collectively, recognising that none of them can go it alone and the task at hand is urgent and huge.

It was significant that at the well-organised and dignified funeral of Barbados David Thompson in the same week of this incident, CARICOM leaders turned out in full force to honour their fallen brother, and CARICOM was given an important role in the proceedings through its Chairman, Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding. It is on that sense of CARICOM “family” that the region needs to go forward in its own vital interest.

November 5, 2010

caribbeannewsnow

Bahamas Blog International

Kamla was the star of the Montego Bay summit... but

by Oscar Ramjeet:


Kamla Persad Bissessar, the new prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago definitely stole the show at the recently concluded summit of CARICOM Heads of State at Montego Bay, Jamaica, not only for her nimble dance moves, and calypso relics, but for her tough, no nonsense talk, and sympathy shown to the unfortunate abandoned, mental and AIDS children at the "Mustard Seed"

The 58-year-old attorney, who spent 14 years of her life in Jamaica as a student and teacher, said that she was a Caribbean woman, but made it quite clear she would not be dishing out money to assist regional countries as was done by her predecessor, Patrick Manning. Issuing the Jamaican politicos with a stern warning, "Move from mi stall, unna think is a ATM machine dis."

Press reports from Kingston state that Kamla, who went on her first tour as prime minister, quickly became the darling of the region by singing and dancing at the "Jamaica night" party, when she swept into the dance floor immediately after her arrival and, minutes after, she grabbed the microphone and sang the lyrics of "One Love", the Bob Marley anthem that had formed part of her campaign repertoire for the May 24 elections.

However, after pointing out the constraints on the economy at home, she made it quite clear at the Summit that the twin island republic will no longer carry the bag with the goodies, but would rather seek relationships with her Caribbean partners that "pull their weight" rather than those who seek handouts.

She told her colleagues that she will withdraw her country's funding for several regional programmes, which include patrol and surveillance in the region to develop stronger and more effective countermeasures to the incursions of the drug trade. She also told businessmen at a luncheon that she would "find amicable solutions" to the issues between business operating in both countries.

She urged Jamaican and Trinidad and Tobago's business leaders to participate in a three-pronged effort to drive innovative improvements, deepen alliances between each nation's business communities and to explore more meaningful partnerships.

The former attorney general also said that there was need to join forces to impact in a sustainable way on the international scenario and added, “So let us not in some ways concentrate on our differences and engage in warfare in the region."

The Guardian newspaper, in an editorial on Sunday, stated, "It is incumbent on the Prime Minister and her Trade Minister to ensure that there is adequate follow through on her promises to defuse the source of those differences and review the complaints of Jamaican manufacturers and exporters in the best interests of developing strong regional trade partners."

Persad Bissesssar made it clear at the Summit that Trinidad and Tobago would be retiring from its role as Caribbean financial godfather in favour of regimes that engaged more co-operative regional efforts at driving the many initiatives of CARICOM that have languished over the years.

But former Caribbean diplomat, business consultant and regional commentator, Sir Ronald Sanders, took issue with Kamla for her ATM machine utterance, contending that "such statements would not endear Trinidad and Tobago to the rest of the CARICOM countries, nor would it encourage citizens of Trinidad and Tobago to regard other CARICOM citizens with anything but contempt."

In fact, Sir Ronald went further to state, "In reality, the relationship between Trinidad and Tobago and other CARICOM countries, particularly the small nations of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is far more beneficial than is conveyed by the analogy of the ‘ATM machine’. Other CARICOM countries are a lucrative protected market for Trinidad and Tobago manufactured products and financial services under CARICOM Treaty. Were it not for the membership of CARICOM, those countries could purchase most of what they buy from Trinidad and Tobago at cheaper prices elsewhere in the world."

July 12, 2010

caribbeannetnews

Bahamas Blog International