March 31, 2021
Nothing
like a pandemic to expose brittle institutions, shatter developmental delusion,
and test the mettle of leadership at all levels.
We’ve been
here before. But not as independent states attempting to make our own way in
the world, employing our own structures of governance.
Prof. David
Killingray’s 1994 paper on The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 in the British
Caribbean captures the nature and scale of the tragedy – 100,000 dead between
October 1918 and March 1919.
Despite
relatively centralised colonial rule at the top, the collective regional
response was disparate and reliant on territorial peculiarities and preferences.
Unilateralism prevailed. Uneven application of measures was the norm.
So, as a region we have a history of this sort of thing. The
integration movement – even when directed by the colonials – was an attempt to
address fragmented approaches to both issues of life and death and broader developmental
aspirations, while recognising self-interest and individual will.
There is a lot more between this introduction and the
conclusions I offer here, but that’s for the academics. This is a newspaper
column.
So, we as a region have always been challenged by the fact that
we do not represent a political or socio-cultural monolith. Successive reviews
of the integration project have noted the anomalies. Much more than now dated
recognition of MDCs and LDCs, developed and under-developed sectors, have been
important socio-cultural dynamics.
Come now to a collective response to a pandemic, and there
are lessons of 1918-1919 to be learned. As national governments, CARPHA, the
Caricom Secretariat and other institutions realised early that coordinated COVID-19
management is no simple task. The “Caricom Bubble” never materialised, for
example. The Gavi Vaccine Alliance, which informed the COVAX process,
determined a hierarchy.
Not
entirely unrelated to all this, are the co-morbidities of existing institutions
that are expected to take us through a challenging, if not epochal period.
That said,
I for one, consider news of Caricom’s passing to be wildly exaggerated – even
coming from a politician of sturdy pedigree. It is unbelievable hyperbole to
consider the OAS fiasco over Venezuela a matter of terminal significance.
Mr (not Dr)
Gonsalves must have paid insufficient attention to Dr Gonsalves’ vast compendium
of grandiloquent accolades supportive of a “maturation process of … Caribbean
Civilisation.” It would however be tragically ironic if such a conclusion
emerged from pandemic home schooling.
The fact
is, Caricom was not found to be dead upon the arrival of the pandemic. Neither
has it been lifeless against the geo-political challenge of a failed
neighbouring state. It is in the nature of this business to disagree, and
sometimes to even not wish each other well.
The EU
assembles a group comprising people who once killed one another. The AU is
hardly a pillar of internal peace. These arrangements all leave space for infidelity,
separation, and even divorce. The Bahamas, Haiti and Jamaica know that very
well.
All of this, though, is not to diminish Caricom’s
pre-existing institutional ailments. I have contended, to the chagrin of some,
that the Caricom Secretariat needs to substantially up its game. The transition
in August to a new Secretary General provides an opportunity to begin the
process. The required credentials, as I have said before, exceed bureaucratic
competencies. Some potential contestants have emerged. I believe there is room
for more aspirants.
There are also issues associated with two other key
institutions – UWI and CWI. Now, don’t get me wrong. I still think that within
the context of Caricom of 2021, these are two peripheral areas of regional
engagement. More so, cricket, than the university. But they are important to us
in most Caricom states.
It cannot be of comfort to anyone that the imbroglio over
tidying things at UWI is now a hotbed of high-level gossip, rumour, and ad
hominem attack. Lost in the debate is the fact that so many things about this
institution are in desperate need of repair. I, for one, am paying absolutely
no attention to platitude or fancy talk. Neither, I am certain, are most
students, administrative staff, and faculty.
Look now at CWI – as I have said before, of virtually no
significance to at least four of Caricom’s 15 member states, and of rapidly
declining importance to people who never saw Clive Lloyd bat. Same thing.
In these pandemic times, co-morbidities matter. The
institutions for joint action are not all healthy. But death is not an option.
