While apparently unwilling, if not unable, to make a reality of the long promised plan for fundamental restructuring of the governance architecture in the Caribbean Community, there seems to be a language shift in emphasis from “executive authority” to talk of a “change process”.
Consequently, as the Community secretariat advances arrangements for the forthcoming 34th annual CARICOM Heads of Government Conference in Port of Spain in July, there are sketches of a proposed ‘Community Strategic Plan (2014-2019) with references to the intended “change process”.
Towards this end, Heads of Government agreed at their 24th Inter-Sessional Meeting in Haiti this past February to now have within their respective bureaucratic structures a collection of “change drivers”.
According to this fascinating word game out of the secretariat – as approved by Heads of Government – designated senior officials, carrying the name tag, “change driver”, are to be armed with “key deliverables” for coordinating and facilitating the “change process” at the national level (in the first instance), and then as “facilitators of change” following adoption of the proposed five-year “strategic plan”.
The temptation to smirk over the language being used to convey to the public what’s envisaged for the proposed five-year “strategic plan” must be resisted in preference for some quiet, goodwill initiatives to get at least a few of our Heads of Government to end the awful complacency to change the management structure at a time of seeming crisis in the governance of CARICOM.
It is now almost 21 years since the high-level West Indian Commission, under the chairmanship of Sir Shridath Ramphal, offered their visionary report with far-reaching recommendations that included proposals for a new and relevant management infrastructure.
Varying alternative suggestions were to emerge to the commission’s idea of a possible three-member CARICOM Commission, armed with executive authority, and functioning with the Heads of Government as the primary organ of the Community.
Plenty rhetoric about such an idea became the norm while the actual governance of the Community’s affairs kept deteriorating.
We can only hope – rather than despair – that a so-called “change facilitation team”, established to support Secretary General Irwin LaRocque, succeeded in coming forward with some tangible, practical “deliverables” for action when the CARICOM leaders meet for their regular annual summit in Trinidad and Tobago in July.
