The Caribbean Community held yet another heads of government conference to consider a collective response to the crime crisis. The 13th Special Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government held in Port-of-Spain on 4-5 April was mandated by the 19th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in Nassau on 7-8 March.
The conference’s aim was to fully explore the crime and security issues facing the region and to agree to a strategy and action plan to stem the rising tide of violent criminality.
In Nassau, Heads reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining and strengthening the security systems which had been put in place during last year’s Cricket World Cup competition and requested the drafting of an amendment to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas to give effect to their decision to make security the community’s ‘fourth pillar.’ Although proposals from the Extraordinary Joint Meeting of the Standing Committees of Commissioners of Police and of Military Chiefs; the Security Policy and Advisory Committee; and the Council of Ministers with Responsibility for National Security and Law Enforcement were presented to the conference, the ‘fourth pillar’ is far from being firmly erected.
Scarcely any consideration was given to a proposal to revise the existing treaty of the Regional Security System to facilitate an increase of its membership, the restructuring of its organisation and the expansion of its role to serve as an anti-crime rapid response mechanism. Established in 1982 in the aftermath of the Grenada coup d’état in 1979, the RSS was stunted at birth. It has always been limited to Barbados and the members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and has been regarded with condescending indifference by the larger states – Jamaica, the Bahamas, Belize, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago – while regional security threats have changed and increased. As a result, the RSS has remained a little alliance afloat in the archipelago of the smallest island states.
The RSS has never been embraced fully by other Caricom states despite a specific decision to do so in the aftermath of the Jamaat al Muslimeen insurrection against the administration of Prime Minis-ter ANR Robinson in July 1990. Notwithstanding the Kingston Declaration, which emerged out of the 11th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government, the RSS continued to subsist in splendid isolation from the rest of the community. Had a start been made at the time of the Muslimeen insurrection, the RSS could have been transformed into a comprehensive security system.
Political, organisational and operational ambivalence have led to the current situation. On the political side, the problem is that Belmopan, Georgetown, Kingston, Nassau and Port of Spain never had much use for the RSS’s international architecture that was contrived by the UK, USA and Canada during the Cold War, in which Bridgetown was perceived as a rock of stability and anointed security capital. Yet, the RSS does possess a unique structure and valuable assets and could become the basis for building a robust Caribbean alliance. Caricom needs a proper regional security system to confront the Caribbean’s current security and defence threats.
Given Caricom’s spotty reputation for responding to collective security challenges such as the Anguilla secession; Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force mutiny; Grenada coup d’état and invasion; Belize and Guyana territorial troubles; Trinidad and Tobago Muslimeen insurrection; and the Dominica Bird Island controversy, for example, too much should not be expected from the present round of conferences. Enthusiasm for last year’s international cricketing entertainment event was exceptional and has already started to evaporate.
Clearly, the Caricom summit lost its way in the maze of its meandering, 31-item menu of measures. Heads are weaving a widening web of laws and an ever-expanding assortment of agreements, arms, agencies, bureaus, centres, offices, task forces and teams in search of a unitary system. But transforming the RSS most certainly would have been a more useful endeavour.
National Assemblies should deal with matters of municipal law and national police commissioners can implement improvements without resort to international agreement. Why should it be necessary for sovereign states to sign a statement agreeing to “enforce existing regulations that pertain to the use and storage of firearms and ammunition” or to ensure “timely completion of investigations and improve conditions for speedy prosecution of persons charged” and other minuscule departmental matters, for example?
It is always a dangerous fantasy to think that more laws will provide better security simply by being written. There is no shortage of laws in this country. There is, however, a shortage of conscientious constables and magistrates to enforce and administer them.
How many more conferences will it take for Caricom to move forward to fulfil this urgent mission of creating a viable Caribbean security system? Summits are inclined to mass-produce spokes without fabricating a wheel to put them in. Heads of Government should revisit the 1990 Kingston Declaration and establish a permanent security system to coordinate the growing mass of measures. Conferences are not enough.
