RICKEY SINGH
search for a new secretary general and an improved governance system for the Caribbean Community (Caricom) have come at a very challenging time for some Heads of Government of the 37-year-old regional economic integration movement.
Here in Jamaica, Prime Minister Bruce Golding, current chairman of the Community until February 2011, felt compelled to go on the offensive against a new wave of sharp criticisms of his Government's earlier involvement with a United States law firm to help ease pressures in Washington for the extradition of the infamous don of Tivoli Gardens, Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.
Faced with an ongoing battle in defence of his credibility as prime minister, Golding has chosen to ignore the call by the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) for an independent commission of enquiry into the Government's involvement in Coke's extradition case and to engage, instead, in country-wide meetings with various communities and stakeholders to correct the misrepresentations.
It is doubtful that having acknowledged mis-steps by the Government in handling the extradition controversy in the first place, Prime Minister Golding can succeed in evading an independent probe into the whole affair. Especially in the wake of recently published e-mail correspondence between Jamaican attorneys and the law firm of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips.
Dominica: Across in the Eastern Caribbean, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and his Education Minister Peter Saint Jean were informed by High Court Judge Errol Thomas that they would each have to face trial on charges claiming why their parliamentary seats won at last December's general election should be declared null and void.
Skerrit is faced with the charge of having contested the December 18 poll in the Vieille Case while holding dual citizenship (with France), which is forbidden by Dominica's constitution.
His education minister, on the other hand, has been advised that the claims made against the results of his election for the La Plaine constituency by the Opposition United Workers Party leader, Ron Greene, "deserve to be heard" in court.
Antiguan scenario
Antigua: As the Dominican prime minister and his Cabinet colleague await a date for their respective court trials, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Baldwin Spencer, and two of his Cabinet ministers remain quite anxious about their own future in government.
In the case of the Antiguan trio, their political fate hangs on a judgement to be delivered by a panel of judges from the Eastern Caribbean Appeal Court.
The judgement will be in response to a ruling on March 12 this year by Justice Louise Blenman to declare vacant the seats of Spencer; his education minister Jacqui Quinn-Leandro, and that of the tourism minister John Maginley.
Judge Blenman's ruling resulted from a series of petitions filed by the Opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP) challenging controversial results of the March 2009 general elections at which Spencer's United Progressive Party (UPP) won nine of the 17 parliamentary seats.
Should Justice Blenman's ruling be upheld by the Eastern Caribbean Appeal Court, there would have to be either three by-elections or, more likely, a new general election.
Barbados: In this community state there continues to be deep national concern over the health of Prime Minister David Thompson. He felt compelled to announce on July 1 a two-month leave from official duties to undergo major surgery in the United States.
Apart from the domestic situation, Thompson's illness is also impacting on progress of Caricom's flagship project -- the Single Market and Economy (CSME) -- for which he shoulders lead responsibility among Heads of Government.
Suriname: Then there is the challenge of dealing with the appointment of a new Caricom secretary general, to succeed the retiring Edwin Carrington.
At the same time, the community is preparing to work in the councils of the community with Suriname's newly inaugurated President Desi Bouterse, a long controversial public figure in the politics and governance of that former Dutch colony.
An immediate concern is whether Suriname's scheduled turn to assume the chairmanship of Caricom in July next year should not be deferred instead to February 2012 to facilitate some perceived needed adjustments for both the incoming new secretary general as well as President Bouterse for the rotating six-month chairmanship.
This issue may be finally determined at the first Caricom Inter-Sessional Meeting for 2012 scheduled for Grenada next February and hosted by Prime Minister Tilman Thomas, who will serve as chairman until the regular annual summit in July 2012.
That, under normal circumstances, would have been Suriname's turn to host and assume chairmanship. It is a matter to be resolved.
Finding new SG
Currently, there remain concerns about the approaches by the community's Heads of Government to find the most suitable successor to replace the 72-year-old Carrington, who has been serving as secretary general for 18 years.
The recent decision to recommend the creation of a nine-member "search committee" to help identify potential candidates, when it is not clear that they have even satisfied themselves about what they are looking for in a new secretary general, is not being viewed as a serious approach.
Questions currently being raised include whether the recent special committee meeting in Grenada on "governance issues" had even a draft outline on a 'job description' for the new secretary general.
Further, there is the more crucial issue of a new administrative structure for effective governance which the Heads continue to avoid like the plague, while they fiddle with band-aid responses.
For instance, the hilarious idea of creating a Council of Community Ambassadors to help improve the governance system in areas such as implementation of decisions.
Since they are part of the 'governance' problems, it is being suggested that the Heads should perhaps consider how best to utilise the vast experience acquired by Carrington, both as secretary general of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states and Caricom, in any serious attempt to significantly change the governance system to respond to the challenges of our time.
August 29, 2010
jamaicaobserver
