TWO QUITE SURPRISING developments at the recent CARICOM Summit have followed the release of the communiqué on the 36th regular Heads of Government Conference that concluded in Barbados on July 4. The surprises are significant in respect of both the sources of expressed disappointment as well as the issues involved.
These are:
• The renewed political hostility between Venezuela and Guyana, resulting from the recent presidential decree issued in Caracas pertaining to Venezuela’s new claim on demarcated Guyanese territorial waters in the Atlantic Ocean and located with potentially rich petroleum resources.
•The lingering disunity among CARICOM governments over endorsement of a common candidate for election as secretary general of the 53-member Commonwealth at the Heads of Government Conference in Malta in November.
Let’s deal with the latter first, considering it’s the region’s turn to assume this significant international position. It was last held by the illustrious Caribbean son, Sir Shridath Ramphal, for a unique successive third term that ended in 1990.
Of the quartet of contesting candidates, one is from Africa – Botswana’s Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwambe, a former deputy secretary general of the Commonwealth – with a trio of Caribbean-born nationals of varying citizenship.
Among them are Britain’s Baroness Scotland, an active member of the British Privy Council, and who has been living in Britain from her childhood years; Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister for Economic Development, Bhoe Tewari, and Antigua and Barbuda’s Sir Ronald Sanders, who continues to be this region’s foremost front-runner with declared overwhelming support among CARICOM Heads of Government.
While consensus is highly desirable, it is not a requirement for campaigning by contestants. However, lingering failure to achieve a consensus seems to have irritated Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne. His government is the official sponsor of Sir Ronald’s candidature. He felt disappointed enough over CARICOM Heads’ failure to squarely address the issue during the summit to send an angry letter to host and chairman of the summit, Prime Minister Fruendel Stuart.
Prime Minister Browne, who copied his letter to all Heads of Government, blamed the summit host for both failing to initiate discussion on the Commonwealth issue during working sessions of the summit, as well as for misleading information located on the Barbados Government’s official website that was subsequently corrected to remove claimed inaccuracies.
Most regrettably, this unfortunate development could well result in further maintaining the elusive consensus for a CARICOM candidate, although at the time of writing, the contest seemed one primarily between Sir Ronald and Botswana’s Masire-Mwambe.
There is also the significant development, for the first time in a very long period as I recall, the expressed unease and open disagreement over the text of a communiqué issued for a regular CARIC0M Heads of Government Conference. It came from a member of Guyana’s governing coalition administration of President David Granger who made his debut appearance as head of state.
The dissenting statement was released by the minor Working People’s Alliance (WPA), one of five coalition partners of President Granger’s dominant A Partner for National Unity (APNU). It strongly objected to what was deemed CARICOM’s “watered down statement” on Venezuela’s declared aggression against Guyana’s territorial integrity in its most recently renewed claim.
The WPA – one of whose founding leaders was the internationally renown assassinated historian, Dr Walter Rodney – declared in a Press statement this past weekend that the CARICOM communiqué was “totally inadequate”. This, it claimed, perhaps related to the relations between some Community member countries and Venezuela in the context of “PetroCaribe and other economic relations with Venezuela”.
Significantly also is that one of the WPA’s better known and articulate officials is Dr Rupert Roopnarine, currently Minister of Education in President Granger’s coalition administration that is governing with a one-seat majority in the 65-member parliament.
In scoffing at the released CARICOM statement, the WPA observed that in the section pertaining to “international treaties and boundaries”, the CARICOM leaders “tamely” referred specifically to Guyana in only two paragraphs.
Of related significance, the WPA’s statement was also critical of both President Granger and his foreign minister, Carl Greenidge, for declaring “their satisfaction with the regional body’s statement on the Guyana situation”.
Perhaps, President Granger is hoping there may be no more in the proverbial mortar than the pestle in relation to this surprising political tango involving CARICOM and a segment of his official delegation to the summit.
Given the nature of the claims, it could well provoke a response from Prime Minister Stuart. However, I will not hold my breath for such an occurrence.
• Rickey Singh is a noted Caribbean journalist.
