By Ian Francis
It is approximately eight months since the summit of CARICOM heads was held in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Since then, Jamaica’s Bruce Golding has passed the torch to a struggling Tillman Thomas of Grenada, who might soon have to face a revolt of his National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Since assuming the chairmanship, Thomas has showed some interest in the organization and it will be interesting to watch how he handles the appointment of the new Secretary General for the Secretariat; appointment of a new Chief Justice for the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and of course his own personal challenge of taking Grenada into the CCJ. These are interesting times and the region is watching closely.
The 56th Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) meeting recently held in Grenada seemed to have had great success. The only grumbling is that Antigua’s Baldwin spent too much time gazing in the skies hoping that the breakfast invitation from Barack and Michelle would arrive after a long pigeon journey from Washington to Mt Obama and then to the Botanical Gardens in Grenada. The pigeon arrived empty handed and a disappointed Baldwin lost interest in the Assembly.
With the growing popular uprisings in the Middle East, North Africa and Iran’s misguided decision to send naval ships through the waters of the Suez Canal, one can only assume that Washington is so engaged and concerned with these fast evolving events that the White House invitation will not arrive in the immediate future.
As Prime Minister Denzil Douglas of St Kitts and Nevis has stated, the leaders at the CARICOM inter sessional meeting that ended in Grenada recently needed to address their time in a process of careful analysis, deep discussions and the development of a strategic plan to guide the organization in future years. As Douglas lamented, he was hopeful that at the inter sessional meeting CARICOM leaders would channel their energy on the many issues facing the region.
While not dismissing Antigua’s concern about the popular uprising in Libya, the Republic of Haiti’s pending return by former president Aristide, who was kidnapped and forced into exile in South Africa, must be addressed by the region’s leaders. The despicable and vulgar action by the United States of America, which resulted in the abandonment of Aristide in a notorious and corrupt nation known as the Central African Republic, should have been strongly criticized by the CARICOM leadership.
Unfortunately, they went into mute mode and, like roosters, it took courage and principled leadership by former Jamaican prime minister; P.J.
Patterson to rescue Aristide from the corrupt African nation until South Africa was able to complete all logistical arrangements to welcome their new guest. PJ, Randy Robinson, Congresswoman Maxine Walters and others must be commended for rescuing Aristide from the Central African Republic.
The CARICOM leadership has no other alternative but to support Aristide’s pending return to his native Haiti. This is not the time to echo or repeat the voice of the United States State Department media frontline man P.J Crowley as to whether Aristide’s return will be helpful. Was Duvalier’s recent return to Haiti helpful? PJ Crawley should also give us a one liner about the State Department’s position on this notorious and repressive dictator whom the United States supported for many years. Aristide’s welcome must be hailed by our leaders to his native birth land and should even go further to ensure that the region becomes part of his security detail. This is the time to show the courage and leadership that Douglas called for and there should be no retreat. Aristide requires the region’s full support.
Since the rigged and shameless elections in Haiti. There are four frequent questions being asked about CARICOM’s Mission in Haiti. These are: (1) what is the specific role and purpose of the CARICOM Mission in Haiti? (2) What specific and concrete outcomes have been achieved by its presence and what specifically has the Georgetown Secretariat benefitted by virtue of their presence in Haiti? (3) Who is funding the CARICOM Mission in Haiti? (4) When will the Mission come to an end? What is the reporting mechanism? Who reports to whom and how are CARICOM governments engaged in this Mission? These questions need to be answered.
As the CARICOM inter sessional assembly became a reality in Grenada last weekend, there are still cries from OECS leaders expressing their concerns about uncontrollable crime and lawlessness in their jurisdiction.
At the Jamaica summit, Skerrit of Dominica and Spencer of Antigua suggested that Jamaica might be in a position to assist, given the nation’s experience with gangs and garrison control. Unfortunately, the suggestion fell on deaf ears. Many of the OECS have since retreated to their old colonial tactics of recruiting foreign sideline retired police officers to manage national security initiatives. The OECS region requires the active assistance and intervention of the More Developed Countries on crime and lawlessness in their jurisdiction.
In conclusion, drug interdiction and the presence of foreign fleets in our waters are important security measures; however, leaders need to identify other mechanisms that will rebuild capacities in our police forces and other security agencies. With a credible vision on crime, our leaders are also urged not to shy away from examining other key and important strategic security issues which include:
-- The role and function of IMPACS. Can this organization seriously contribute to the containment of crime and lawlessness in the CARICOM region or is it just another CARICOM regional organ that has found favour from foreign multilateral friends?
-- What can the Barbados based CEDERA contribute to crime containment and other national security issues? What direct and specific impact will the recent CARICOM agreement generate on crime and lawlessness in the region?
-- What is the current status of the Regional Security Service? Should this organization be re-examined or purged so thus resulting in a new and progressive organizational model that reflects global reality?
-- Can Jamaica assist in the restructuring of the Regional Security Service? How about Jamaica giving a secondment to the region by one of its capable national security team? Someone like Novelette Grant or Glenmore Hinds?
Crime and lawlessness need to be seriously tackled in the region.
Ian Francis resides in Toronto and writes frequently on Caribbean Commonwealth Affairs .He is a former Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Grenada. He can be reached at info@vismincommunications.org
March 2, 2011
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Showing posts with label CARICOM leadership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CARICOM leadership. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
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
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
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