In the backdrop of a bleak report on the future of Caricom, the intersessional Heads of Government meeting got underway yesterday in Paramaribo with ringing calls for fundamental change underlined by Suriname President Desi Bouterse’s appeal for a “new beginning”.
The two-day meeting opened with speeches by current chairman, Bouterse; immediate past Chairman, Dr. Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis and Caricom Secretary-General, Irwin LaRocque.
A recent damning external review highlighted Caricom’s plight and made recommendations on what needs to be done.
That report by a UK consulting firm Landell Mills Ltd entitled ‘Turning Around Caricom: Proposals to Restructure the Secretariat’, said that the Caribbean Community had too many mandates, institutional weaknesses and a lack of implementation at the level of member states as some of the internal problems that have retarded the community.
It also warned that if the financial situation worsens, it could bring the community to its knees, leading to the possibility of member states walking away over the movement’s slow progress. The review said longstanding frustrations at Caricom’s progress rate, a serious weakening in its structure and operation over the years and continued economic retrenchment since the 2008 global financial crisis are blamed for the dire situation.
The report said that in order for Caricom to survive and eventually prosper, there must be full and unequivocal support from member states; a focus on delivering a narrow range of specific, practical and achievable benefits over a reasonably short time span; and a credible reorganisation and strengthening of the movement, including the Secretariat and regional institutions.
Speaking yesterday, Bouterse called for a new beginning to the regional movement, saying that it was at a rare historic moment.
The Chairman said the Region should undertake with renewed vigour this new beginning. “We must not only take account of our failures, but permit new energy to infuse our possibilities,” he added.
President Bouterse advised, “We should welcome our peoples’ conviction that their lives can be made better within the Region, and not force our talent to migrate beyond.”
The Chairman argued that the obstacles hindering the people of the Community were not of their making.
Further, invoking Bob Marley’s `emancipate ourselves from mental slavery’ he also urged his colleagues that they must not merely commit to paper rights but be bold enough to find new ways of working together and nurture interdependence to cut the ties of dependency. The President said that the Region needed to make self-sufficiency the cornerstone of regional development.
“We have no reason to be poor. Look at what we have amongst us: oil, gas, gold, diamonds, bauxite, forests, sea, sun, sugar, rice, spice, coffee, water, and so much more,” he said. Bouterse said that the region can not only survive but also thrive.
“Caricom integration, the full realization of the Treaty of Chaguaramas must not be about paper —agreements and protocols—it must live. And it must live most vibrantly in our sons and daughters,” the Chairman said.
Drawing an allegorical reference to yesterday’s Phag-wah’s celebration, Bouterse said “Phagwah and the burning of the (Holika) is about new beginnings, about the time for planting of the new seed. I therefore call on all my fellow leaders to join me in the renewed commitment to the region —badly in need of a new seed— that must begin with the recognition of the role, realities and just aspirations of our sisters, especially those we see so little of on such occasions, our sisters who live removed from the coast in our hinterland and in our indigenous and traditional communities.”
He also hailed women on the same day that was celebrated as International Women’s Day and recognised the Trinidadian and Jamaican Prime Ministers Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Portia Simpson-Miller.
“We in this region know that it is the women who stood firm through all our trials from slavery and indentureship, and through our independence struggles. They continue to be mostly responsible for the transmission of knowledge in the home, in the community and in the classroom. They are still the foundation of all care given, whether this work is paid for or not. And were we to truly count and value their labour, we would recognize how much the women of this region contribute to our well being, and how much they are owed and deserve”, Bouterse declared.
From the top
In delivering his opening remarks, Caricom Secretary General LaRocque said that change must start and be led from the top.
“The Office of the Secretary-General has been given particular attention by the authors of the Report and the recommendations are deserving of serious consideration. The buck, as it were, starts here,” Ambassador LaRocque emphasised.
He said he welcomed the review and the decisions that the Heads make on the recommendations of the Report would provide him with the basis for addressing the challenges that the Secretariat faces in its efforts to fulfil the role and function that the leaders envisage.
LaRocque said that in the new dispensation, the Secretariat must become more strategic in its approach to its tasks and its advice to the Organs and bodies of the Community and he would seek to inculcate that approach in the work of the organisation.
The Secretary-General said that in recent times the Com-munity had been engaged in deep introspection at all levels. This, he said, was sparked by a desire to transform the way the community does business.”
Critical juncture
Immediate past Chairman of Caricom Douglas, who had a special word of welcome for Guyana’s President Donald Ramotar at his first gathering of Heads, said that this meeting is being convened “at a critical juncture in our integration movement when we appreciate the need to move from the crossroads where we stood at the beginning of this century and reiterate firmly from the caption of the Report of the West Indian Commis-sion to enunciate our own expectation that ‘the time for action is now’.”
He said that if the thrust of that seminal report on the way forward with the Caricom Community held relevance then, “our deliberations today on the current Report submitted by the consultants that treat with the restructuring of the Caricom Secretariat is of even greater significance almost two decades later.”
Douglas, who also recognised the “long and distinguished service” of former President Bharrat Jagdeo, underscored the need for optimism, saying, “In light of our goals for efficiency and a strengthened governance mechanism, this meeting will see us more steadfast in our resolve to move beyond the enunciation of our priority in this regard and to see the realization of our vision. This requires all hands on deck, if the ship of this Community is to sail safely through the turbulent waters.”
He made the point that because geo-political, socio-economic and other global stresses have caused the region’s operational landscape to be ever changing, Caricom must continue to adapt and reinvent itself.
“Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, I remind you that these are not easy times. The global uncertainties, the genesis of which for the most part is external, still pose significant challenges to our region, we are on the edge,” he said.
“As outgoing chairman, I wish to underscore the need for optimism and to highlight some of our achievements over the past months. These include but are by no means limited to our ongoing efforts to inject new vigour into the advancement of the process to set the region on a path of renewed focus,” he said.
“Caricom must position itself to become more meaningfully engaged, though not subsumed, into other regional groupings. However, we must continue to forge strategic alliances recognising that their respective strengths and resources can assist the Community in propelling itself towards a platform for strengthened functional cooperation,” he said.
