RICKEY SINGH
WHETHER at the level of its government or private business interests, Taiwan seems to be creating problems for some of the member states of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) as it continues its long, arduous battle for international recognition to secure membership of the United Nations as a sovereign state.
In our Caribbean region, Taiwan -- which the Chinese officially view as a 'renegade province' of the People's Republic of China — has been investing in what came to be known as "dollar diplomacy" to influence support among political parties.
Since the dawning of political independence 48 years ago in the English-speaking Caribbean, first in Jamaica, Taiwan's effort to win friends and influence votes on its behalf has proven to be a dismal failure.
The present count of converts is a mere four of the 14 independent countries of Caricom -- Belize, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Lucia -- as more and more community partners walked away from diplomatic ties.
That's despite the financial generosity displayed by the Government in Taipei towards parties across the political divide in this region -- at times dealing with both ruling and opposition parties in the same country. St Vincent and the Grenadines has long been such an example.
While it suffered losses in once-firm relations with countries like The Bahamas, Dominica and Grenada, it is in St Lucia that Taiwan was to secure a very surprising return with a change in government in Castries at the December 2006 general election after the defeat of the then two-term St Lucia Labour Party (SLP) by the United Workers Party (UWP).
$$ diplomacy
And it is in that Windward Island state that Taiwanese-style 'dollar diplomacy' was to manifest itself in a most aggressive and contemptuous manner in political financing which reportedly contributed significantly to the return of the UWP to power and subsequent severing of relations with China.
The daughter of the late founder-leader of the UWP and once long-serving prime minister, Sir John Compton, was to show courage and honesty in post-election financial accountability.
Shortly after the UWP's return to power, Taiwan succeeded in replacing China in diplomatic ties, against the advice of the then seriously ill Sir John.
Following the death of her father, and amid open political controversies over Taipei's diplomatic replacement of Beijing, Jannine Compton was to disclose in Parliament how she had spent some EC $1 million, made available from Taiwanese funding, for projects in her Micoud North constituency.
As of this September, and with some 15 months more before a constitutionally due new general election -- though expected earlier -- none of the other 10 Government MPs of Prime Minister Stephen King's administration has yet accounted for expenditures in their respective constituencies as allocated directly by Taiwan through its embassy in Castries.
At this period in regional and international politics, when there are growing demands for accountability of election campaign financing -- an issue currently seriously engaging politicians and parties in Jamaica, for instance -- the Tawain/UWP $$ connection appears headed for a decisive phase in the electoral politics of that Caricom member state.
The Opposition SLP of former Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony, which -- like the ruling UWP -- is currently actively preparing for new general elections, has already made clear its anxiety for the expulsion of the Taiwanese ambassador to Castries for what it claims is his "arrogant and contemptuous" involvement in St Lucia's domestic affairs.
Embarrassing deal
Meanwhile, in Grenada, there is a different kind of problem for the Government of Prime Minister Tilman Thomas involving a deal with a Taiwanese group of investors that seems to have gone terribly wrong.
It has resulted from a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that Prime Minister Thomas signed in May this year with a Taiwanese company known as Sewang One World (SOW) for development financing of well over US$2 billion on various projects.
However, there came the sensational disclosure last month that primary figures of SOW had been arrested by the Taiwanese authorities for bank fraud and linked to the establishment of dummy companies in Taiwan, South Korea and the USA.
By September 3, the Grenada Government was ready to publicly confess its error in signing the MOU with the Taiwanese company without first undertaking an appropriate due diligence exercise.
Finance Minister Nazim Burke has stated that it was wrong to enter into the MOU without careful scrutiny of SOW. He has also disclosed to the media in St George's that it was "regrettable" that Prime Minister Thomas and his office were "exposed to the (Taiwanese) company without required due diligence". According to Burke, the entire business deal with SOW has now been abandoned.
News of the charges against the SOW representatives were first learnt of in Grenada from an August 24 report in the China Times of Taiwan.
Interestingly, this same Taiwanese company had first established business contact in 2004 with the then Government of former Prime Minister Keith Mitchell during the diplomatic romance between Taipei and St George's.
Later came the ditching of Grenada's diplomatic relations with Taiwan by the Mitchell Government in favour of China, which has been maintained by the current administration of Prime Minister Thomas.
What next, I wonder, in the saga of Taiwanese politics and business deals in the Caribbean?
September 12, 2010
jamaicaobserver
