Members of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) were yesterday encouraged to count their blessings rather than wallow in a sense of pessimism at the failures of the integration movement.
This call was made by Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves, who used his speech at the opening of the 37th Caricom Heads of Government Conference to address the many critics of the integration movement.
According to Gonsalves, those writers who consistently speak negatively of Caricom, claiming among other things, that it is comatose, have failed to acknowledge the tremendous progress the organization has made over the years.
“Those writers do not take into account what the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas is about and the tremendous progress that has been made in the integration movement despite the weaknesses and limitations and they fail to acknowledge the strength and possibilities therein,” Gonsalves said.
He reminded that Caricom is a community of independent sovereign states with only one institution with multilateral authority and as such there is no single governing body. “Caricom is not a federation. Caricom is not a unitary state. It is not even a confederation. It is a community of independent sovereign states. The only supranational authoritative institution created under the treaty is the CCJ in its original jurisdiction,” Gonsalves stressed noting that these same critics would resist any attempts to have deeper political or economic integration.
“Ask those same writers if they would like a federation or a unitary state they would tell you no. Ask if we should have a single currency they would laugh, a common currency they would say no,” he said.
The community, he reminded, is constructed around four purposes; the establishment in stages of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), the establishment of effective functional cooperation, the coordination of foreign policy and security.
He stressed that though there are some problems they should not be dwelt on but solved.
“We have some problems with immigration officers that is a problem to be solved not to say that there is not freedom of movement for up to six months,” he said highlighting what he termed the immense progress of skilled nationals being able to work in any Caricom state and of businessmen being able to establish business across borders.
“There are things we still need to do to deepen the integration process but let us not put on sackcloth and ashes and renounce our immense achievements over the last many years. We have a way of beating up on ourselves too much and then we find ourselves going to church singing ‘Great is thy faithfulness…’ Many of the very critics do not want to put in a good day’s work and engage in pushing our agenda. Rather than look to the politicians for miracles, what we should do is that when we go to work is that we must produce and we must not allow the work place to become a war zone. We need to work harder or smarter,” Gonsalves advised.
He further advised that we do not buy into the hysteria surrounding Brexit nor bemoan it as such behaviour will get us nowhere but rather we must look at the opportunities it presents.
