Book Review…  A blueprint for radical change

Jun 11, 2017 Book Review…, Features / Columnists

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Book: Crisis and Promise in the Caribbean
Author: Winston Dookeran
Critic: Dr Glenville Ashby

Economist Winston Dookeran’s Crisis and Promise in the Caribbean is by far one of the most

prodigious works on redefining Caribbean society to meet the multiple challenges faced today. On the heels of his acclaimed ‘Convergence’ thesis, Dookeran leans on his decades-old experience as an influential economist, politician and diplomat to offer a comprehensive blueprint for transformational change.
The ideas presented are not essentially new and revolutionary, but when studied as a ‘gestalt,’ they take on new meaning.
Crisis and Promise in the Caribbean is multilayered, divided into three distinct but interrelated parts: New Politics: A Democratic Society; Inclusive Development: Sustainable Growth; and Caribbean Convergence: Integration without Borders.
While Dookeran’s work has wide appeal among scholars, many may find themselves alienated by its scholastic rigour. For sure, Crisis and Promise is an academician’s draw, but the layperson can still siphon nuggets of identifiable information.
For example, Dookeran reminds us of the role of the media and fundamental responsibility of institutional leaders. He writes, “Political leaders and media persons enjoy enormous power, including the power to withhold information from the public and to distort information.” He argues that such attitudes pose the biggest obstacle to progress and calls for constitutional reform to disentangle the bureaucratic stagnation of the political structure.
On the question of poverty, Dookeran advocates a bottom-up approach where the individual’s worth is groomed at the most pedestrian level. He writes, “Growth is necessary for development, but sustainable development demands equality and equality demands effective social policy.”
He adds. “An effective national social policy gives priority to citizens who are specifically challenged and in need of support, by providing the necessary assistance for the academically challenged, physically challenged, medically challenged and employment challenged; instituting finance, skill development and personal guidance and counseling, and developing poverty eradication strategies in collaboration with NGOs and the private sector implemented within a community framework.”
Using Trinidad, his homeland, he writes of the importance of integrating young people (under 30 years old) in the development of a nation by not “removing barriers to information, education, economic opportunity and youth activism.”
And in discussing economic development and growth, he proposes a Caribbean economy that includes Florida, which he terms, “a new economic geographic arrangement.”
Interestingly, on the issue of Caribbean integration, Dookeran expectedly advances more of an economic as opposed to a political approach. Open regionalism, he argues, must ensure parity and non-discriminatory and inclusionary practices that serve the national interests of all state players. He is unequivocal. “Open regionalism,” he posits, “should contribute to a gradual reduction of intra-regional discrimination to macroeconomic stabilization in each country.”
He goes further, stating that there must be “the establishment of suitable payment and trade promotion mechanisms.”
Dookeran acknowledges that foundational to movement of goods and services, and overall economic viability within the regional context, is sound infrastructure. But for this former Governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, infrastructure reflects more than physical structures. He pens, “A programme where a people can be the driving force of development requires a social and institutional infrastructure. A key element of this infrastructure will be its capacity for networking. At the level of policy, an integrated framework must be designed; at the level of people, new interactions across borders must be fostered; and at the level of strategy, alliances and partnerships that add value must come to the forefront.”
On the subject of convergence Dookeran uses Trinidad and Tobago as a pedagogical model. He notes, “To support convergence, Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean region should be committed to the creation of an agile foreign service that showcases their unique location within the family of nations.”
He adds, “At the international level, government must ensure that our diplomatic missions abroad are seen less as a place for retired politicians elevated to the post of ambassadors sending the wrong message to those with whom we hope to negotiate for the benefit for Trinidad and Tobago.
Instead we must ensure that those who represent us as diplomats abroad are well trained, highly respected and are capable of using their diplomatic skills for the benefit of all sections of the population…i.e. the farmer, the fisherman, the dancer, the singer, the craftsman, the scholars and every citizen, business establishment and organization who has something good to offer the world.”
Crisis and Promise is conceptually progressive and implementable, and should be readily sought by academicians and policy makers throughout the region.
Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States, Alfonso Munera, ably recapitulates Dookeran’s vision when he writes, “This work is an excellent synthesis of four decades of active participation in public life by a brilliant academic who has worked tirelessly to give birth to creative proposals designed to strengthen democracy, economic development and integration in the Caribbean region.”
Feedback; [email protected] or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby
Crisis and Promise in the Caribbean: Politics and Convergence by Winston Dookeran
Publisher: Ashgate, UK
Available at Amazon
Ratings: Highly recommended

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