…Caricom
For the longest while your Eyewitness has been pointing out that institutions, like canned food, have expiration dates. In the case of institutions, the conditions that demanded their formations have changed so much they’re just irrelevant! And this is the case with Caricom, which had passed its expiration date over five years ago – when it decided to put the CSME process “on hold”.
What do you call an organisation that was formed way back in 1973 – before most Guyanese were born – that set as its goal the formation of a single market and economy announcing it just doesn’t have the mojo to consummate its mission? “Obsolete” is one word that comes to mind! “Parasitic” is another when you consider that rather than folding its tent and retiring in the sun and sand – which at least we have in abundance – Caricom’s bureaucratic machinery and its inhabitants have decided to continue drawing their super salaries as they contemplate the beatitude of “pause”.
Caricom followed Carifta – which was just a free trade zone. It imitated the European Economic Community – a free trade zone – that morphed into the European Union that was basically a CSME writ large. Now if Caricom’s seen its model and ideal falling apart at the seams with the exit of Britain (Brexit) what hope is there for us to expect our politicians will hit the Caricom “reset” button? But then again, hope beats eternal and all that – especially in the hearts (and wallets) of the old boys’ network that Caricom has now become.
Now, this is not to say Caricom hasn’t done some good work: CXC is one. The CDB is another. But these are institutions with specific mandates that can be run even more efficiently if the sarcophagus of Caricom were thrown into the deep blue Caribbean Sea.
For the longest time before the “pause”, the collective wisdom was that Caricom had failed because our parochial politicians couldn’t see past their short noses and concede some power to some central policy executing body for Caricom. With this super executive body, all the wonderful declarations made at the HOGs (!!!) Biennial getaways at exotic resorts, could be implemented. And would solve all the problems of the Region in this globalised world.
Well, the EU model tried that, didn’t they? They even had a Parliament with teeth that passed laws which became the laws of its member state. They even had a unified currency and a European Central Bank. Jeez…they were practically a country!! But Britain exposed the contradictions with its Brexit, didn’t it?
We already did that with Jamaica in 1962. And we don’t need to repeat history, do we?
Bury the carcass of Caricom!!
…view of the Opposition
Your Eyewitness doesn’t easily concede a more succinct statement of a point he wants to make. But dig these quotes from the Indian Supreme Court:
“In a democracy, the political opponents play an important role both inside and outside the House. They are the watchdogs of the Government in power. It will be their effective weapon to counter the misdeeds and mischiefs of the Government in power. They are the mouthpiece to ventilate the grievances of the public at large, if genuinely and unbiasedly projected. In that view of the matter, being a political opponent, the petitioner is vitally interested party in the run of the Government or in the administration of criminal justice in the State.”
And “It is a well-established proposition of law that a criminal prosecution, if otherwise justifiable and based upon adequate evidence does not become vitiated on account of mala-fides or political vendetta.”
Go PPP… Jail them!!
