CSME makes integration urgent

THE EDITOR: The Department of Government, Sociology and Social Work of the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies should be commended for staging its colloquium on the post-colonial Caribbean state recently.

Although I was keenly interested in the primary focus of the session on December 16 last, Caribbean integration and the region’s march towards globalisation, it is unfortunate that I was unable to attend because it would have been too stressful on my ninety-seven-year old body. I am grateful to the daily newspapers in Barbados for their reports carried in the editions of the following day. 

Prime Minister Owen Arthur seems to be placing renewed urgency on the issue of regional integration. How else can we interpret his statement that: “The Caribbean must either integrate now or perish…We are rapidly approaching that moment in the development of the Caribbean when the very last chance to forge a successful and sustainable future will either be grasped or it will be lost forever”? The Prime Minister ascribes the prevalent non implementation of decisions of Caribbean Community organs by some member states to the structure of governance that the regional movement has chosen for itself, where the region remains a community of sovereign states without a central agency vested with power of execution and implementation.

Since it is unlikely that Caricom heads can be persuaded to introduce a powerful regional executive agency; and given the general consensus that implementation of decisions to give full effect to the CSME must take place faithfully and urgently, other means must be found to exercise moral suasion on the region’s political leadership to do what is clearly necessary. This issue is not new to the region. However, it has now taken on special urgency since the removal of restrictions on the movement of capital, skills, the provision of services and the rights of establishment, which broadly comprise the menu of measures to give effect to the CSME, will be the most visible and profound set of changes in our economic space since the introduction of the Caricom Treaty in 1973.

The Caricom Commission recognised the need to mobilise public opinion behind regional integration, when they proposed the Caribbean Assembly of Parliamentarians as a good mechanism to widen debate on relevant issues. Frankly, I believe that the task of generating public support for the CSME is so great that the forum should now be widened to include regional labour, the private sector, academia and a cross section of the political representatives in all participating states. I remember how effective a debate there was in Barbados when the “under forties” and the “independence advocates” mounted the public platforms to articulate Barbados’ joining the Windward and Leeward Islands in the Little Eight federation on the one hand and full political independence on the other.

Similarly, the late Dr Eric Williams galvanised support for his position on the burning issues of the day — the return of the naval base at Chaguaramas by the Americans and independence for Trinidad and Tobago in his open-air, lunch time sessions of the ‘University of Woodford Square’ in the mid 1950s. This was effective politicking on profoundly important issues. The success of the CSME is no less important an issue. I would like to see the business, labour and civic leaders join past and present political leaders both in government and opposition to mount public platforms in regional states to educate the populations on the mechanics and benefits of regional integration. This series should be coordinated by the Universities of the West Indies, Guyana and Suriname; the Caribbean Congress of Labour and the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce.

As a public service, they should be relayed live on the electronic media. All public media should be encouraged to stimulate constructive debate on the subject. It is only through this type of involvement that the general public will be brought fully on board. By extension, only then will the weight of public opinion influence that group of inertia-bound leaders who traditionally vacillate over the implementation of Caricom decisions, thereby causing great stress on the integration process.

WILTON A ANGOY
Pine Hill, Barbados