The wider implications of the Golding report

There will likely be much written in the coming weeks about the detail contained in the long-awaited Golding Report reviewing Jamaica’s Relations with Caricom and Cariforum.

This is because not since the Ramphal report, ‘Time for Action’, published just over a quarter of a century ago, has such clear and incisive language been used about the failings of the regional integration process, and what is needed by way of remedy.

The report, produced under the Chairmanship of the former Jamaican Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, and finally tabled in the country’s Parliament on February 7, does not pull its punches. It speaks about the region’s historic failure to modernise, to act on its decisions, and the need to take the long overdue steps that are required if Caricom is to become relevant to the way the region and the world now is.