ON THIS third day of this second decade of the 21st century, we can all hope and pray not to be revisited in 2011 by the kind of natural and man-made horrors that were so much a feature of the first decade across continents of the world.
For us in the Caribbean region, rampaging criminalty involving narco-trafficking, gun-running and gang warfare took a heavy toll on lives, disrupted communitries and spread fears.
At the worldwide level it proved to be a decade full of fratricidal and genocidal conflicts; mind-boggling human suffering, particularly in Africa and Asia; in addition to the grave consequences of the United States-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sadly, there remains as well the ongoing blood-letting from Israeli/Palestinian battles with no end in sight.
If the horrific waste of lives, driven by racial, tribal and political conflicts, were not painful enough, natural disasters were to swallow up hundreds of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars in destruction from tsunamis, earthquakes and floods that combined to reduce millions to an agonising, degrading life as refugees.
The international “war on terrorism”, said to have been expanded by the shocking, unprecedented terrorist strikes carried out on the United States by al-Qaeda militants on September 11, 2001, were to be used by the administration of President George W. Bush for the war on Aghanistan a month later.
It was also the decade when Barack Obama wrote his name into history as the first black American to be President in the 2008 elections with his enchanting message of “change” and promise of a new political culture of governance in Washington. As developments are proving, the jury remains out on the extent and quality of “change” in the “land of the free and home of the brave”.
• Jamaica – The same cannot be said for some other leaders in this and other regions, among them Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding. He is evidently quite anxious for a fresh breeze to blow away the stifling political scents that encircled him and his government during 2010 from the haunting extradition saga of Christiopher “Dudus” Coke, the reputedly powerful and wealthy drug lord of Tivoli Gardens, now in a United States prison awaiting trial.
• Guyana – If there are doubts about a snap poll in Jamaica, not so in Guyana. Constitutionally, there will have to be one by the last quarter of this year. Currently, the traditional primary challengers for state power – incumbent People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and main opposition People’s National Congress (PNC) – are engaged in manoeuvres to determine the choice of their respective presidential candidate.
President Bharrat Jagdeo, who has proven successful in spearheading the social and economic progress within this past decade – as recognised by the international financial institutions and the Caribbean Development Bank – is constitutionally debarred from seeking a third consecutive term.
Although no clear signal has yet come from the ruling PPP, the outgoing President is reported to favour the party’s long-serving general secretary and parliamentarian, Donald Ramotar, as first choice as presidential candidate.
But that may prove quite challenging, to judge from a recently advertised decision of Speaker of Parliament, Ralph Ramkarran. A high-profile senior attorney and, more than Ramotar, with long years of service to the party, he has announced his “readiness” to accept the presidential nomination. It would certainly be a testing time for the PPP, which has been accustomed to having a unanimous first choice of one nominee.
• St Vincent – Three-term Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves managed to retain power at the December I3 general election with a cliff-hanging one-seat majority for the I5-member House of Assembly where he previously held a comfortable I2-3 position. The third-term victory has stirred even greater bitterness from the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), whose leader, Arnhim Eustace, has warned of “non-cooperation” and to make life difficult for Gonsalves’ Unity Labour Party (ULP) administration.
• Trinidad & Tobago – In contrast to the ULP”s very narrow victory margin. A massive electoral landslide had swept out of power the incumbent People’s National Movement (PNM) in Trinidad and Tobago. The first-time coalition partnership administration is dominated by the United National Congress (UNC) under the first-time leadership of a woman: Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bisessar. Her eight-month-old People’s Partnership Government (PPG) has had a mix of high and low political points in the areas of political administration and economic management.
However, with a 29-I2 parliamentary majority and a prevailing deep disenchantment with the PNM that is yet to stabilise its new leadership quality, the PPG may find, in 2011, a greater challenge in getting its perceived administrative management style in order.
• Antigua – In Antigua and Barbuda there remains the need for a serious independent assessment, as being increasingly urged by the opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP) of Lester Bird, about real and perceived threats to democratic governance, according to established norms, being endangered by recurring political interferences with state institutions and agencies.
• Haiti – For all their own problems and challenges, the rest of the Caribbean can hardly ignore the immense sufferings of the Haitian people, heightened by last January’s nightmare earthquake disaster and followed by the outbreak of a cholera epidemic.
