CARICOM and CARIGONE

Jul 04, 2008 Editorial

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Jamaican Prime Minister, Bruce Golding speaking at this year’s regional summit of Heads of Government of CARICOM, made a case for the regionalism. Comparing the countries of the region to a flock of geese, Mr. Golding illustrated how by moving forward in a V-formation, with those at the back urging those in front to move forward, the formation achieve greater efficiency and momentum.

He showed how even geese in flight could find the time to help members who were in trouble. It was an impassioned plea for regional unity using naturalism.

The Region has heard such pleas before. The idea that we are better off together rather than alone has been pounded into our heads by our leaders long before the failed West Indies Federation. It is instructive that our regional leaders should continue to make the point about the importance of regional integration.

It is almost as if they are trying to convince themselves that this long journey of which they have been a part is indeed something worth the wait. Despite however all the heady statements that have come from leaders throughout the years, the pace of regional integration has not been as most think it would have been.

Perhaps, it is because we have been too ambitious. Perhaps we felt that given the common history that we share and the smallness of our economies, that this process would not have been extended as it has been with other regional groupings.

Our common history has proven less than sufficient in bringing us more closely together and along the way we have dropped the idea of a political union and are now struggling to put in place the much more difficult task of a single market and economy.

Since the publication of the much heralded West Indian Report the talk has now been about a community of sovereign nations. Herein, of course, lie much of our problems.

The very idea of regional integration implies the surrendering of our sovereignty to some supranational body that would then be better placed to condition the process of regional integration.

The very idea however of sovereign states in a union implies that each is trying to hold on to its own individuality while seeking to forge greater unity.

The ideal of regional integration has become crippled by a collective failure to act in the interest of the whole even when it means sacrificing some national gain. This is best illustrated by the lack of consensus within the region of making the Caribbean Court of Justice the final court of all the members of the regional grouping.

There is a shocking lack of commitment towards doing so, with only a handful of countries taking the steps necessary to give full recognition within their constitutions to the CCJ as their final court of Appeal.

What therefore is needed is not the glossy speeches about regional integration. What is needed is greater political will to take actions that would move the integration process forward. We all know how much talk there has been about the need for greater regional food security, something that was being touted since the energy crisis of the seventies.

The people of the region are reeling from the effects of high food prices, something that should allow for greater urgency in moving forward with the Jagdeo Initiative.

Yet when the President of Guyana summoned an important regional meeting to discuss investment in the sector, it was poorly attended by the very heads which had not so long ago come to Guyana for an emergency summit on the regional food crisis and who had indicated the importance of the Jagdeo Initiative.

It was therefore something of a relief at this year’s summit in Antigua & Barbuda that after the lofty and visionary speech of the Prime Minister of Jamaica that our own President Bharrat Jagdeo could bring the gathering down from cloud nine by getting down to some of the nitty-gritty issues that continue to plague us, such as the way some countries treat Caribbean nationals at their airports and the controversial issue of the Economic Partnership Agreement which we signed with Europe.

If there is going to be progress in terms of regional integration, what we need is not a V-formation, but substantive action on issues such as those outlined by the President of Guyana. In short, what we need is less talk more action.

The bitter truth, though, is that this very message has been made before by regional leaders with little success. What therefore would cause us to believe that this time around things will be different?
Regional integration is a dream that must sell itself.

Unless the people of the region are convinced that it will work and it is in the interest of all, we will not make much progress in advancing regionalism.

That progress however cannot be assessed in terms of the flight of geese; that progress has to be assessed in terms of how closer ties within the region actually benefit our people.

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