THE 21ST Summit of the Caribbean Com-munity and Common Market (CARICOM), which begins Sunday in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, could well prove to be one of the most significant, or most disappointing since the historic 1989 'Declaration of Grand Anse' in Grenada that crafted the path for the Community towards the 21st century.
The 22-item draft agenda points to a range of critical issues that must be addressed. There are, however, disconcerting reasons to suggest that not even enthusiastic supporters of CARICOM should raise expectations too highly for this first regular annual meeting of the heads of government of the now 27-year-old 15-member Community.
These would include advancing arrangements to establish the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), creation of a Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ); France's withdrawal from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the bank's future in terms of a widening membership base and review of its founding Charter.
Also to be addressed will be issues of intra-regional trade disputes; the current serious conflict between Suriname and Guyana; Haiti's continuing political crisis and its full integration into CARICOM; the work programme and future relationship of the Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM) with Ministers responsible for foreign affairs and international trade, as well as party politics and democratic governance.
The 'governance' question could very well provide a most interesting discussion against the background of how two governments Guyana and Summit host, St. Vincent and the Grenadines found themselves having to significantly reduce the life of their electoral mandate to accommodate highly controversial CARICOM 'peace' brokered arrangements in the face of national conflicts organised and sustained by their respective political opposition.
As one who has been generally very supportive of CARICOM, and still feels that if it were not in existence then, for all its deficiencies, we would have had to create something in its place to deal with the wider world, I am not optimistic that our leaders are now ready to take the quantum leap they have been avoiding for so long for the Community to be where it should in the first year of the 21st century - 2001.
What they once pledged, quite seriously, to operationalise at least by the end of 2000 the single market and economy could end up, at best, being nothing more than completion of the legal framework for the CSME at year's end with the integration of the package of some nine Protocols into one document, ratified by all participating member states. So, will the CSME now be an operational reality even before the end of 2001? Possibly, but do not hold your breath! The same seems also the case for the CCJ as a regional institution with original jurisdiction and vital to the operations of the CSME even for those member states that will not be initially involved in having it as a replacement for the Judicial Council of the Privy Council as their final appellate court.
In fact, the prospects for the CCJ are worse. For all the most recent official statements and talk about 'signing' ceremonies, do not expect the CCJ to be a functional regional institution before 2003 at the earliest. How this will affect the functioning of the CSME, for which it is to have original jurisdiction, is another problem.
Nor should the region's people expect for at least another two years, the much promised symbolic common CARICOM passport for intra-regional travel, although this was first mooted some nine years ago.
So far as the agenda on restructuring, roles and functions of the Community Secretariat and important organs of the Community, for instance the Community Council of Ministers, are concerned, there is what one senses as 'promises fatigue'. Promises with reassuring words have been the experience as technocrats and Ministers keep shuffling papers and engage in endless 'reviews' to achieve what all seem to be aware of. The existing arrangements are not functionally geared for the effectiveness and efficiency required for implementation to achieve major objectives.
The Georgetown-based Com-munity Secretariat badly needs a new headquarters complex. But it is equally true that the Secretariat does not have the required skilled manpower resources or the financial base necessary to better serve the Community. Some of its key players often seem tired and frustrated and there is cynicism from even within about how the Secretariat currently functions, with a few at the top not being properly utilised as they probably should be.
There must also be an end to the talk about allocating regional programmes/projects outside of the Secretariat, when there cannot be proper accounting for things not done.
It is left to be seen how the Summit will grapple with the request of the Community Council of Ministers to become more influential in fulfilling its responsibilities under Protocol One of the revised CARICOM Treaty without any more of the emotional verbal blasts that had only recently dramatically impacted on relations between two Prime Ministers.
And what of the roles of civil society, also expected to be discussed at the Summit. Will we witness any significant move, this time around, to meaningfully involve the region's private sector, labour movement and non-governmental organisations in the programmes and activities of CARICOM. Instead, that is, of the ritual annual 'consultation' in caucus between heads of government and delegations representing these sectors of society?
Creativity for the way forward for CARICOM cannot be left primarily, if not solely, any longer to the region's political directorate. There simply has to be much more meaningful involvement across the region.
The recent 'differences' between Prime Ministers Percival Patterson and Owen Arthur that they have reportedly resolved, will surface when the heads discuss matters pertaining to the South Summit in Cuba, the work of the Regional Negotiating Machinery and, specifically the 'relationships between structures and organs of the Community'.
Happily, the heat has gone out of the controversy involving Patterson and Arthur. But a vexed issue, and one that directly concerns the host for the Summit, Prime Minister James Mitchell, incoming chairman of CARICOM, will be the basis, the guidelines for CARICOM's future involvement in national conflict situations.
Altogether, therefore, this 21st CARICOM, promises to be very lively but, hopefully, not too disappointing.
By Rickey Singh
Contributor
