Caribbean Integration Sputters

Not many West Indians remember that CariCom was launched on July 4 (1973). Maybe in Guyana and St Vincent, which commemorate the event as a “CariCom Day” public holiday, the citizens are grateful for another day off. But in their minds there is little connection with CariCom: for the very good reason that for most Caribbean citizens – in including those in the diaspora, CariCom has been a failure.
While not stated in such stark terms, this was the conclusion of the report by an international consulting firm (Landell Mills) which was commissioned by CariCom and delivered in January of this year. The title of the report offered a clue to the thinking of the movers and shakers of CariCom – the political leaders of the fifteen member states: Turning around CARICOM: Proposals to restructure the Secretariat. That twenty years after the seminal “A time for Action” produced by several Caribbean ‘wise men’ including Sir Sridath Ramphal, Caribbean leaders could only think of revitalising Caribbean integration through restructuring the Secretariat, tells us more than anything why CariCom has been such a moribund institution.
The main recommendation of “A time for action” was the governance structure of CariCom needed to be revamped drastically away from the current unwieldy system in which policy-making authority in the hands of the Conference of Heads of Government (C-HoG ). The authors had pointed out that unless some executive authority was ceded to a permanent structure within the Secretariat – a Caribbean Commission – and a PM’s Bureau that would push the decisions between C-HoG meetings – CariCom would remain a paper entity. So said, so done.
The bottom line is that from the inception of CariCom (and its predecessor CARIFTA) Caribbean leaders have shown themselves absolutely lacking the political will to do what is necessary for the success of CariCom. Ironically they all concede that a vibrant integration institution is absolutely necessary  not just for the region’s viability – but actual survival. But the leaders will never take the decision to cede some of their authority to CariCom: we therefore end up with much talk and little action. Even the present financial crisis, which has driven several of its members such as Jamaica into the not too warm embrace of the IMF, does not appear to have made a dent in their short-sighted recalcitrance. The new Report concurred on the need for a governance structure with teeth.
So it was that the C-HoG met in Suriname last March to consider, with the Landell Mills report as the discussion document, “the restructuring of the CARICOM Secretariat… within the context of the Community’s vision, strategic direction and priorities.” As the CariCom Secretariat announced at the time, “The ongoing discussions on this issue, began at last year’s Inter-sessional meeting in Grenada and continued at a Special Retreat last May in Guyana as well as at the 32nd Regular Meeting of the Conference in St Kitts and Nevis last July.” At the Guyana retreat, the leaders decided to retreat by announcing that the ‘pause’ button was now pressed on the Common Single Market and Economy (CSME). Much talk and now reverse action.
The Suriname meeting began with the commitment that “change must be the order of the day” and heartily accepted that the Secretariat must be restructured and funded. Nothing however was said about creating a permanent executive body.  However, the “Heads of Government were of the firm view that the integration movement has continued to make great strides ever since the signing of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.”
The heads of government are presently meeting in St Lucia to consider a five year strategic plan for CariCom. We can only bluntly say we will continue to spin wheels for another twenty years unless there is a leadership structure within CariCom that has the authority commensurate with the responsibility to execute the decisions of the C-HoG.