CariCom: Old Bottle, Old Wine

Jul 25, 2011 Editorial

The heads of government of CariCom have decided on a new Secretary General for the organisation’s Secretariat. Irwin LaRocque of Dominica, the assistant secretary general for trade and economic integration since 2005 now succeeds T&T’s Edwin Carrington, who occupied the post for the last eighteen years. What does this portend for the beleaguered regional grouping?
Most significantly, by placing the very raison d’etre of CariCom – the CariCom Single Market and Economy (CSME) – on “hold” just before the appointment, the leaders were literally degutting the organisation. But this backsliding on the essential goal of regional integration was a consequence of a more fundamental problem of leadership. Two months ago we proposed that most of the CariCom leaders suffered from a “Little Caesar Syndrome”.
They would rather strut on the world stage like toothless poodles but refuse to give teeth to the organisation. We suggested that “they must cede some of their so-called “sovereignty” – which they merrily sign away to any country that doles out some handouts – to a governance body of CariCom, which will then have the wherewithal to move the integration process forward.”
Not long after Carrington had demitted office, the then Chairman of CariCom PM Tillman Thomas of Grenada, prior to the May Bartica “Retreat of Heads of Government on re-energising CariCom” , had suggested four initiatives for consideration. The first (in order and priority) was “Governance Reform for Effective Implementation”. He proposed that CariCom: (i) Create a legal basis for implementation of decisions of the Conference by the delegation of competence in specific elements in four areas of our (i) Common Market/Free Trade Area, (ii) External Trade Policy, (iii) Regional Security and (iv) Environment and Climate Change Policy. And (ii) Conclude the appointment of a Secretary General with a mandate to negotiate and oversee the reform of Community Governance in its legal and administrative aspects.
Regretfully, on the CSME, which should have gone into effect by 2015, the leaders in attendance (only ten out of fifteen) weakly conceded that it would now “take longer than anticipated”. On the crucial issue of governance, they just as feebly “reaffirmed the decision taken at their Inter-Sessional Meeting in Grenada in February to await the completion of the current review of the CARICOM Secretariat, before taking any firm decisions towards the establishment of the Permanent Committee of CARICOM Ambassadors (PCCA).” In other words, more foot dragging.
Against this background, we can only view the appointment of a quintessential bureaucratic insider as a harbinger of the “same old, same old.” LaRocque might be most eminently qualified as the CariCom Secretariat’s press release pointed out but he is still only qualified as a bureaucrat. The new Secretary General was there as the organisation was allowed to drift and without a change in the remit of CariCom, he can only repeat its history. The problem, paraphrasing Marx, is that if first time was a tragedy then we are in for a farce.
Jamaica, T&T and Barbados are at best, lukewarm to the idea, much less the reality of a stronger and more integrated CariCom. In point of fact PM Stuart of Barbados has actually pronounced the regional body to be a “corpse”. These leaders all believe that they can achieve (and in the case of Barbados, maintain) first world status on their own. Even their forced recourse to the IMF has not disabused them of this fantasy.
It is indeed an irony of history that the party adjudged to be most sceptical of regional integration – the PPP – has produced the government that has been most supportive of reforms to empower CariCom to fulfil its goals. It was probably recognition of this reality that prompted the trial balloon that was floated earlier this month to have Bharat Jagdeo become the new Secretary General of the institution.
While Jagdeo demurred for personal reasons, the proposal was solid on its premises. The Secretary General ought to have been an individual from the region that had not only demonstrated commitment to the ideal of regional integration, but had the stature to push other leaders for governance reform.

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CariCom: Old Bottle, Old Wine

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