Guyana should withdraw from CARICOM

May 28, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

No preparations should be made for the hosting of the CARICOM Summit in Guyana. Rather, Guyana should indicate that it no longer wishes to be part of that regional body and should request that within two months the Secretariat of the Caribbean Community close its doors and relocate to Barbados.
CARICOM has not served Guyana’s interest at all. It hardly ever had. The economic benefits that we derive from being part of that regional grouping can easily be replicated with other groupings, which in fact would be far more advantageous to Guyana.
I wish the Guyana Government would conduct a study to confirm what I have long felt, that Guyana derives very little from its membership of the Caribbean Community and that the time and resources that Guyana is deploying to be part of this regional grouping would be better spent in integrating with other groupings in South America where the markets are larger and involves less problems than that which we have encountered within CARICOM.
The free market arrangements with CARICOM are simply not working and when they do, they do so in a way that is frustrating to Guyana’s interests. In many countries, barriers have been established to lock out our agricultural production; in others, rice, which Guyana can provide, has been sourced from outside of the region.
Guyana has signed on to the Caribbean Court of Justice as its final court. Yet most of the countries of CARICOM have not ratified the CCJ as its final Court of Appeal, making a mockery of regional integration.
Guyana, at great cost, also hosted and through this act revived interest in the regional festival of arts, CARIFESTA. The Bahamas will next host this festival but we will have to wait to see who will be the host after that country.
Guyana has, in the main, kept its commitment to CARICOM. It has remained on course in terms of the single market and economy; it is prepared to accommodate the free movement of skills. Yet Guyanese who have stepped in and filled the skills breach in many countries of the region are treated as second-class citizens in Barbados. This is totally unacceptable.
While it is true that Guyanese are forced to seek better opportunities in the islands, it is also true that without the skills of Guyanese, Barbados in particular, would not have been as developed as it is today. Their schools, their hotels, their businesses and thousands of homes in Barbados have been built by Guyanese labour. It is the same in Antigua and it is the same in Trinidad and it is the same in other parts of the Caribbean.
Not all Guyanese who go there are running away from Guyana. Very few are. Most return home after completing their stint.
They find jobs in Barbados and in the other islands in the construction field. In some instances they are recruited to go to these places by contractors because there is need for labour, which cannot be supplied by the Bajans. While there are few rotten eggs, it is unfortunate that the immigration authorities in many of the islands are unfriendly to Guyana.
It is time that we stop complaining. This matter of the ill treatment of Guyanese has been raised over and over again.
At one time there was even an initiative proposed by President Bharrat Jagdeo to have his local immigration authorities work alongside the Barbados immigration authorities. From all accounts that went nowhere.
It is time that Guyana stops complaining and starts acting. But such action cannot involve reprisals against Barbados nationals who are working or visiting Guyana. Action however must be taken to force the entire region to openly condemn what is taking place as regards the treatment of Guyanese in many countries within CARICOM.
It is time we signal our seriousness by canceling the forthcoming Heads of Government Summit to be held in Guyana and to indicate to the member states of CARICOM that Guyana would be withdrawing, once and for all from this grouping .

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Guyana should withdraw from CARICOM

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