Some Caricom Tidying Needed

Caricom and the West Indian Caribbean

Wesley Gibbings

Two things. Firstly, what possessed Caricom leaders at last week’s Inter-Sessional meeting, to contemplate the rebranding of joint tourism as something “West Indian” and not as “Caribbean”, as currently holds?

Secondly, and not unrelatedly, who is there to occupy the soon to be vacated seat of Secretary-General of Caricom?

Dominica PM Roosevelt Skerritt’s precise words at last week’s post-summit press conference were: “We need to create a West Indies brand, as was indicated by the prime minister of Saint Lucia (Allen Chastanet), we are known as the West Indies … University of the West Indies … West Indies cricket … and I think it is important for us to start promoting this definition of ourselves as the West Indies, rather than the Caribbean which extends well beyond the Caricom grouping.”

Who is going to break this news to Martinique, Sint Maarten, Puerto Rico and other members of the Caribbean(!) Tourism Organization to whom neither cricket nor UWI means anything? Who is going to explain to Caricom members such as The Bahamas, Belize, Haiti and Suriname that promotion of the tourism product is about to be reconfigured in keeping with the reputations of two institutions that mean so little to them?

Nobody appears to have recalled how 30 years ago the “West Indian Commission” had proposed the calibration of wider regional identities to embrace a notion of a single Caribbean space to best pursue developmental objectives. The Association of Caribbean States – comprising 25 states (not all “washed by the Caribbean Sea”) was one product of the exercise.

Hopefully the Caricom Secretariat did not have to pay some “expert” to formulate that “West Indies” suggestion last week. If T&T helped pay the bill, as a citizen I wish to apply to get our money back.

Of course, while membership of both Haiti and Suriname was underway, I recall (as a Caricom employee then) the cognitive dissonance - different language groups, bureaucratic practices, and historical habits and systems. That was part of the deal. The then Secretary General Edwin Carrington was preaching a sermon of “open regionalism” and “widening” not only as economic imperatives, but as pillars of the needed socio-cultural dynamism.

So, when the ACS (which, incidentally, administers a sustainable tourism programme) came in 1994, there was at minimum a conceptual framework abroad – via the work of the WI Commission and through Carrington’s aggressive diplomacy on this – that embraced the idea of a “wider Caribbean” – mismatches, administrative pimples and all.

PM Skerritt’s two minutes and 30 seconds at the presser last week raised questions about all of this. I cannot say I wish this proposal the very best.

The second thing is the fact that a replacement for outgoing Caricom Secretary-General, Irwin LaRocque, is due in August. This means that by the time Caricom heads meet again – probably face-to-face in Antigua in July – a single consensus candidate would have already emerged. In that event, the process will not end in acrimony as was recently the case with the Pacific Forum.

Foreign and Caricom affairs minister Amery Browne, when consulted by me on this, recalled that a T&T diplomat has held the post “multiple times” – actually it’s twice. This may or may not suggest that a candidate from T&T will be in the running.

He however added that “for the first time a specific process has been approved by Heads for such a recruitment.” The two names currently being floated are not highly impressive given the urgent requirements of the day.

The member countries should only consider candidates who bring a combination of technical, bureaucratic competence, political savvy, and real leadership to the job.

LaRocque was undoubtedly a superb public servant but was no Carrington, Demas or McIntyre who were charismatic, confident, and capable managers of complex regional political dynamics. By the way, and no Googling, who is the current deputy secretary general of Caricom?

Whoever gets the top job, his/her skill set would need to exceed mere bureaucratic orderliness and faithful reporting. The “West Indies” madness, as just one example, ought not to have reached this far. The Caricom Secretariat needs to be modernised and re-focused. Our regional institutions, as indispensable as they are, need tidying up. Our future hinges on these things. These are special times.

First published in the T&T Guardian on March 3, 2021