EDITORIAL: Council of Ambassadors not an answer

EVER SINCE it was disclosed a week ago today, there have been expressions of doubts, and worse, about the usefulness of creating a Council of Caribbean Community Ambassadors.The intention, as initially explained by Jamaica’s Prime Minister and current chairman of CARICOM, Bruce Golding, is for the council to help enable improved governance by working on a regular basis to resolve differences as they arise, and also facilitate implementation of decisions unanimously adopted by Heads of Government. Good as this intention may be, the reality is that the proposed mechanism cannot seriously be expected to deliver, with competence and reliability, what the CARICOM Secretariat and, indeed, Heads of Government themselves, failed to achieve with any noted satisfaction. Amid fears that the council could simply end up being another layer in CARICOM’s much criticised management system, it has not escaped attention that the proposed Council of Ambassadors will function out of at least a dozen different capitals of the community with inevitable coordination problems.In the absence of terms of reference and specific mandate for the council, it is a matter of speculation at this stage how this “governance” mechanism could really prove helpful in overcoming frustration with the community’s decision-making and implementation processes. Fears have also arisen that the promise of a new administrative structure at the CARICOM Secretariat for effective governance may now be further affected by the Heads of Government approach in finding a new secretary general to succeed the retiring Edwin Carrington from January 1, 2011.After appointing and thrice extending Carrington’s terms of employment with an accumulated 18 years of service, it is quite surprising that the Heads of Government remain unclear about what they wish to have in a new secretary general in relation to the problems and challenges to achieve the objectives of the region’s economic integration movement. Hence, a “search committee’’.The decision at last Tuesday’s special meeting of a committee of five prime ministers and two foreign ministers (apparently hastily chosen), has resulted in the puzzling creation of a nine-member “search committee” to help shortlist potential suitable candidates as the new secretary general. Question is whether those who may consider themselves eligible to offer their services would gladly wish to be subjected to interviews/consultations by such a large ‘search committee’. Perhaps an official clarification of the process should be offered.  Further if, as reported, the terms of reference and personnel of the search committee are to be determined by Heads of Government next month on the periphery of the new session of the UN General Assembly, then the whole process may have to be fast-track to ensure that a successor to Carrington will be in place from January 2011.