A multi-layered fiasco

People who maintain a scornful distance between themselves and the regional process too often appear publicly, and therefore embarrassingly, oblivious to some striking realities of the Caribbean survival project.

The current fiasco involving the belated, proposed nomination of Jamaica’s foreign minister Kamina Johnson-Smith as a candidate for the post of Secretary-General of the Commonwealth highlights this phenomenon through numerous, largely uninformed, public utterances.

That said, there are indeed procedural, political and perceptual (cognitive) layers of the fiasco that remain unexplored and casually dismissed at our collective peril, since they also represent systemic shortcomings.

There was, for instance, the issue of the “languaging” of the March 3 communiqué reflecting the proceedings of the March inter-sessional meeting in Belize.

There is an enormous difference between the contents of a public communiqué and the official report of proceedings. Some of us who keep tabs on the process have been inclined to press for more disclosure to ensure greater precision in the public framing of issues raised and agreements reached.

Had the latter been the case, it would have been known by everyone that when the subject of the candidacy came up there was neither unanimous agreement nor mention of Jamaica’s active interest in the matter.

Knowing more about what actually happened at the meeting, and what was not reflected in the single-sentence statement on the matter, would have better nuanced use of the word “overwhelming” and not “unanimous” support for Scotland.

The statement reads: “Heads of Government expressed their overwhelming support for the re-election of Baroness Patricia Scotland as Secretary-General of The Commonwealth.”

This linguistic sleight-of-hand is among what I see as a (failing) “procedural” feature of the fiasco.

Additionally, had people followed what happened in 2015, the last time Caricom was faced with such a decision, it would have been easy to understand what happened in Belize. This is the “political” layer.

In 2015, T&T was among a Caricom majority supportive of the candidacy of Antigua and Barbuda’s candidate, ambassador Ron Sanders. Dominica had nominated Scotland and maintains this position.

At that time, T&T and others expressed concern about the “Caribbean” bona fides of a candidate who had served in both the UK parliament and government – dual citizenship with Dominica notwithstanding. This appears to be T&T’s continued position.

Reduced to a single sentence in the communiqué, the most recent matter was not rigorously interrogated by anyone in the public space including the press … until Jamaica stated its intentions.

Since then, the “political” layer of the fiasco has sloshed about in a toxic swamp of insults, jingoistic grandstanding, and general ignorance about the role of the regional movement.

For instance, a rather harmless tweet of mine (@wgibbings) about the language of the communiqué generated a sleazily framed reference to the purported uselessness of Caricom.

This is the “perceptual” layer of the fiasco – the self-hating belief that nothing good has come from recognition that none of us, as mini states, has the means to enter the future alone, or the realistic possibility of latching onto a continental destiny of one kind or the other based on mutual respect.

These factors all overlap every time collective self-esteem is demanded, and the option of agreeing to disagree is before us. Think about decision-making at the OAS over Venezuela and the most recent UN vote on the suspension of Russia from the UN Human Rights Council.

The fact though is the vast majority of issues put before Caricom are routinely settled by consensus with relatively little fuss. These are impressive credentials. Look, contrastingly, at integration arrangements in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa.

Also not considered in the assertion of “uselessness” are the institutional arrangements that have emerged since 1973, including close to 30 regional structures to provide pooled support in a wide variety of areas.

In full view of this, when tacitly assigned the task of prospecting an exit strategy for Jamaica out of Caricom four years ago, former Jamaica PM Bruce Golding and his team actually proposed a strengthening of the means to achieve the goals of Caricom.

Since then, there have been numerous references to the status of The Bahamas with one foot decidedly out the door. There has also been gratuitous resort to the cherry-picking of both obligations and benefits.

Some influential folks in Guyana now openly express a desire to explore other options. Yet, last week, some of them boastfully hosted the president of the CCJ – an institution whose role brought peace and resolution to almost two years of tumult there.

There are many things that need fixing. But these are hardly “shambles” or evidence of things in terminal decay.