A précis of PJ Patterson’s “cri de coeur for Caricom,” his speech to the Rotary Club of Georgetown on Monday, would actually make an excellent editorial, without any need for additional comment. The speech is already resonating beyond the audience of Rotarians who were privileged to hear it and will no doubt be scrutinised and subject to further discussion by those who care about the region. But we would like to focus on a few critical points.
The former Jamaican Foreign Minister and Prime Minister was simply restating – albeit with the level of gravitas and insight of an elder statesman of the Caribbean perhaps otherwise displayed only by Sir Shridath Ramphal, his good friend and fellow labourer in the vineyard of regional integration – what numerous other regional commentators and editorials have been pointing out and what close observers of the regional project, including your average citizen, have known for some time now: there is a crisis of governance and leadership in Caricom and, as Mr Patterson bluntly put it, “Caricom is in danger.”
From his discussion of the origins of Caricom, through the creation of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group and the changing relationship with the European metropoles, to the establishment of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME), to the current challenges of globalisation and the region’s continued vulnerability to external economic shocks, Mr Patterson’s leitmotif is “the advantages of joint and coordinated action” and the value of negotiating “as a single bloc” – coherence, collective strength and unity in other words.
In this respect, he cites as one of Caricom’s signal accomplishments, the fact that “in the fields of international diplomacy and the arenas of global trade and commerce, the Caricom voice has been united, loud and unequivocal.” That voice was perhaps stronger in the past but he, nevertheless, affirms his support for St Lucian Prime Minister Kenny Anthony’s proposal, last July, for Caricom nations to formulate a common foreign economic policy in the context of the changing global landscape.
Indeed, Mr Patterson is of the view that more can be done to develop the vast potential of the connecting Caribbean Sea and our marine and land-based biodiversity, as well as our resource-rich sectors like agriculture and agro-processing, mining, energy and fisheries. To add value, he posits the building of a “knowledge economy” based on a “shift from reliance on physical resources to engendering human resources as the catalyst for our development,” using the example of the region’s world-acclaimed cultural and sporting achievements.
But in arguing that these are “distinct areas where we can all benefit by a collective approach in finding solutions which sustain the regional thrust rather than becoming marooned within each restricted national space,” Mr Patterson also tactfully acknowledges the primacy of domestic problems over “sound regional strategies.” This is precisely why a common strategic approach beyond the incomplete CSME is yet to be developed and implemented by Caricom and it is a pity that he does not expand on this issue.
In fairness to Mr Patterson, he does pinpoint the most serious weaknesses plaguing Caricom, including the lack of “a structure for effective governance” and the implementation deficit; the “delay in re-engineering the machinery” of the Secretariat and other key regional institutions; the sloth in advancing greater freedom of movement; and “the failure of the Community to tackle the burning issues of concern to our people – transportation within the region, energy, food, climate change.”
Perhaps Mr Patterson could have added that the pressing economic difficulties across the region, among which are unsustainable debt burdens, sluggish growth and decreasing competitiveness, as well as the resulting grave social problems, are threatening the very viability of our small nation states and, by extension, the capacity of our leaders to think and act regionally.
But as Mr Patterson says, “integration is not an option; it is an imperative.” Now, more than a new foreign economic policy we need a new regional development policy, aimed at achieving more sustainable and competitive economies, building on the CSME, enhancing regulatory frameworks and physical infrastructure, and moving rapidly towards the integration of production. There is now, more than ever before, a need for coherence, collective strength and unity, if our small countries are to survive and prosper.
