EDITORIAL - Let’s curb our enthusiasm
This conference will come to be remembered as one in which we laid the footsteps for a number of key decisions…Hon. Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley
We have previously, on more occasions than a few, made “pellucidly” clear our support for the regional experiment of CARICOM. At the same time, we remain cognisant that much elemental work remains to be done, if its intended objective is to be realised. Chief among these agenda is the implementation by member states of the lofty decisions reached in a convivial spirit of goodwill at the regular conferences. We should not therefore conflate the stated resolve with the achievement.
This was our reaction last week on reading the local print media reports on the outcome of recently held thirty-first inter-sessional Heads of Government meeting in Barbados. One such front page report in another section of the press headlined that (the Honourable Prime Minister of Barbados Ms) Mia (Amor Mottley) was “in high spirits”, proclaiming it “one of the most productive meetings to be held by member states”, and deeming it “the required stepping stone to the region’s future”. “Positive results”, this newspaper itself gushed in large print on its front page. The online publication was far more reserved and perhaps more realistic; “Leaders agree to action after talks”, it stated simply.
Without intending to be overly cynical, and admittedly not having had sight of the official communiqué, the reported results of the meeting seem to confirm rather the assessment of the last mentioned publication than that of the others.
We learnt that the PM Mitchell (of Grenada) technical committee to negotiate the regional roaming regime still has to meet with the relevant telecommunications providers; PM Gonsalves of St. Vincent has been asked to pull on technical working groups that might need revisiting again (sic) so CARICOM could guarantee implementation across all member states; PM Skerritt of Dominica has still to see whether there should be an increase in the categories of those guaranteed freedom of movement in the regional space; member states also took note of a very comprehensive report from regional private sector organisations and the Caribbean Congress of Labour; and, in what seems to have been the sole item of substantive as opposed to procedural agreement, the member states agreed to endorse Baroness Patricia Scotland for a second term as Secretary General of the Commonwealth grouping, despite her current seemingly unfavourable status in Britain itself.
Remarkably, there was no mention of the recent allegation of attempted division of the entity by the US.
We reiterate that the critical issue within CARICOM is not the inability to come up with ideas. It is, in our view, the failure to implement and/or to have implemented those ideas by member states. That is why for us the agenda of the Gonsalves technical working group remains perhaps the most urgent item going forward.
As we have argued before, the subsidiarity of notional sovereignty to the joint ideal is indispensable to true regionalism. There ought to be an overarching CARICOM Commission to which member states should be obligated to report periodically on the steps taken by them to implement decisions made at the Conference or to offer explanations as to their failure to do so.
We take this opportunity to commend the CARICOM Secretariat on its establishment of an administrative tribunal to adjudicate on employment disputes within its several organisations. The traditional immunity of these organisations from suit in the ordinary courts has left a bitter taste in the mouths of employees disgruntled by employment decisions that they consider to be out of keeping with good industrial relations practice. The establishment of the tribunal should repair the resultant breach of trust and ensure a smoother work relation.