Rosalea Hamilton | The CARICOM-Commonwealth conundrum

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is again in the throes of a troubling discord surrounding Jamaica’s announcement on April 1 that Kamina Johnson Smith, foreign affairs and foreign trade minister, will challenge the incumbent Patricia Scotland for the post of Commonwealth secretary general. The announcement came after the heads of government expressed their overwhelming support for the re-election of Baroness Scotland for the post in a communiqué on March 3. This most recent discordant conundrum forces us to seriously consider the cohesiveness and survivability of CARICOM in a rapidly changing world, where global forces are realigning and redefining a new world order.

CARICOM’s TROUBLING DISCORD

Discord in the Caribbean is not new. Ever since the 1962 infamous speech by Dr Eric Williams, then premier of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), where he withdrew T&T from the West Indies Federation, declaring that “one from ten leaves nought,” after Jamaica rejected the Federation in a referendum, there has been rivalry and divisive actions between Caribbean countries. In spite of the differences, there seemed to have been an overarching, shared commitment to regionalism, albeit in ebbs and flows, depending on the proclivities of our heads of state. However, over the past few years, something significant has changed.

A decisive blow to regionalism and collective decision-making took place on December 16, 2020, at the Organization of American States Permanent Council meeting. For the first time in its history, CARICOM member states not only declined to assist a member state, the government of T&T, who was falsely blamed for the loss of lives of Venezuelans, but also explicitly voted against it. This breach of the spirit and letter of Article 16 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, among other divisive actions, have weakened the regional status of CARICOM. This was evident in July 2021, when CARICOM’s response to the assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse was completely ignored by a ‘core group’ of international diplomats. They pursued their own actions without any reference to CARICOM’s expressed willingness to play a “lead role” in assisting Haiti.

Prime Minister Rowley’s Facebook response, posted on July 18, 2021, seems to aptly describe the current state of CARICOM: “By our own actions of kowtowing and genuflecting to those who see us as unworthy and irrelevant, we have continuously contributed to our own demise.”

We seem to have lost our way! Instead of introspection and building of our regional arrangements to effectively respond to the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global restructuring taking place, things seem to be rapidly unravelling with this latest discordant development.

Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne, describing Jamaica’s decision as a “monumental error,” perhaps playing into an “engineered plan to divide CARICOM,” noted that “consensus decisions should never be broken without overwhelming cause”. Does this discord around the leadership of the Commonwealth Secretariat rise to the level of an ‘overwhelming cause’? Is it really worth the risk of irreparable damage to CARICOM?

LEADERSHIP

Most of us in the Caribbean know very little about the Commonwealth or can identify any real, tangible benefits to us in addressing our development challenges. The institution of the British Commonwealth of Nations was founded on the fallacy that Britain and its dominions were “equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs”. Established by the Balfour Declaration at the 1926 Imperial Conference, this founding idea of equal status was false then and is still false today. The history of British domination is indisputable.

Though ‘sovereign’ states developed over time, today only two members (UK and Canada) are politically aligned to seven of the strongest economies in the world, the G7 countries. The average standard of living in these two G7 countries, about US$46,000 per capita income, is vastly different from the average standard of living of about US$5,000 per capita income in Jamaica and US$884 per capita income in Rwanda (according to 2019 data). To give real meaning to this founding idea of equal status, and to be relevant to Caribbean people, strategies to achieve a more equitable standard of living across member states ought to be a central objective of the Commonwealth, and a core part of the job description of any secretary general.

In seeking to redefine the post-war Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II expressed her vision of the Commonwealth in her 1953 Christmas Day broadcast as “an entirely new conception – built on the highest qualities of the Spirit of Man: friendship, loyalty, and the desire for freedom and peace”. These and other values, including democracy and human rights, were later incorporated into the 2012 Charter of the Commonwealth. For the majority of Caribbean people, the “desire for freedom and peace” as well as democracy and human rights includes the eradication of systemic racism/colourism/classism, and the dismantling of post-colonial institutions that continue to thwart Caribbean development. Instead of demonstrating real commitment to these ideals, the UK perpetuates institutionalised racism, as recently manifested in the Windrush scandal, and refuses to take responsibility for its inhumane colonial atrocities.

Unless the contested leadership of the Commonwealth Secretariat results in leadership to address these thorny development issues, the Commonwealth will continue to be irrelevant to the lives of Caribbean people. With declining resources, such leadership prospect seems impossible. Ransford Smith, former deputy Commonwealth secretary general, recently pointed to the “acute and constrictive effect” of the resources, needs, and priorities bedevilling the Commonwealth Secretariat. This is underscored by the Commonwealth Secretariat Strategic Plan (2021-22 – 2024-25), which acknowledged “a smaller envelope of programme” that “will constrain the Secretariat’s capacity to deliver services to members”.

I, therefore, see no ‘overwhelming cause’ to further fracture our very fragile CARICOM partnership over the leadership of an archaic, declining institution led by a Monarch unwilling to take responsibility for centuries of crimes against humanity. Sadly, this CARICOM-Commonwealth conundrum is rooted in CARICOM’s inability to purge itself from its divisive colonial past and to establish relevant national and regional governance arrangements that can truly understand and give meaning to the will of Caribbean people. Ultimately, it is we, the people of the Caribbean, who will decide our future and that of CARICOM. Will we choose to remain mired in old, colonial institutional arrangements with mindsets that foster divisiveness, or will be choose to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery and liberate ourselves through new, participatory governance arrangements that will empower us to shape the future we want?

Rosalea Hamilton, PhD, is the founding director, Institute of Law & Economics. Send feedback to rosaleahamilton@gmail.com.