KINGSTON – Former assistant secretary general of CARICOM, Joseph Cox, is raising questions regarding the re-appointment of Dr Carla Barnett as the Secretary General of the 15-member regional integration grouping.
“Can Dr Carla Barnett effectively serve another five year term in the face of open objection, procedural concerns and underlying divergence among member states? Because in CARICOM, and indeed in small state regionalism more broadly, authority is not imposed,” said Cox, who resigned as the assistant secretary general for economic integration, innovation and development in August 2024.
“It is conferred through consensus, reinforced through process and sustained through trust. Remove those pillars and the position may remain legally intact. But operationally, it becomes far more difficult to hold.
“That is the real issue now confronting the community. These are not procedural questions. They are questions of institutional direction and institutional credibility,” Cox said in his weekly Caribbean Business Review (CBR) podcast yesterday.
Last week, in a brief statement, CARICOM chairman and St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr Terrance Drew said Barnett had attained the “required majority” from among regional leaders regarding her re-appointment at last month’s CARICOM summit held in Basseterre.
However, Trinidad and Tobago has insisted that it was “not invited” to the deliberations that led Barnett’s reappointment, with Port of Spain adding that Antigua and Barbuda and The Bahamas were also absent. (CMC)
