“Anything can happen.”
Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas of St?Kitts-Nevis, set to become Caricom’s next chairman, was referring in New York to the important task of selecting a secretary general.
With the integration movement now reduced to a crawl and with a list of five candidates, it shouldn’t come as a surprise if at the end of the meeting no one is chosen to succeed Sir Edwin Carrington.
Until now, the secretary general’s job was seen as a plum for anyone interested in accelerating the drive towards togetherness.
Not any more.
Clearly, the task of selecting a replacement has taken far longer than the region itself had expected when the leaders selected a panel to screen the potential candidates. But despite the urgency of the situation an air of uncertainty is settling over the matter as Douglas, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, of Barbados, and the other Heads of Government get ready to make a decision.
That reality was probably on Douglas’ mind when he warned the final list might not contain “the recommendation put forward to us that we are looking for and as a result we may just have to open (the search) and look again”.
Reopening the process would send a clear message that either the process was deeply flawed or the region’s fortunes are so unattractive that the most qualified people were not interested.
A name not on the list but being widely mentioned is that of a leader who must help make the final selection: Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo.
[But Jagdeo, when informed earlier this month he was being promoted by some for the post, said it was “not a matter of interest to me”].
When it was raised with both Douglas and Grenada’s Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, they indicated they could end up supporting him, even though he hasn’t expressed an interest in it.
“I wouldn’t rule anybody out at all, not just Jagdeo, but anyone else if at the end of this second effort it remains incomplete and no recommendation is made,” said Douglas.
Thomas described Jagdeo as someone he could support for the job, if it came down to it.
“He would be a good candidate but I don’t know he would be interested in that,” he added.
But some disagree.
Retired Brigadier David Granger, the presidential candidate of the People’s National Congress Reform, the major opposition party in Guyana, said: “I think it is an unwritten policy of the organization over the past years that the secretary general should always come from outside of the host country It is an unwritten convention that Guyana would never provide a secretary general and I hope that convention continues.”