I am a Jamaican-born Caribbean man. Have always been. Two of my brothers were born in Barbados, so I had little choice. I’ve often said that I was so grateful to have attended the University of the West Indies (UWI) when I did in the 1970s. It was a time when so many of the rather parochial visionless political leaders in the region started demanding local branches of the University.
This pretty much marked the end of this august institution of higher learning being one of the last bastions of regionalism we had (along with cricket). There was no need for students to travel out of their countries to come to Mona or go to St. Augustine or Cave Hill to complete their university education, which was an integral component of the education package to begin with.
It was a sad period for regionalism. No wonder we’ve struggled and continue to struggle with ensuring the viability of regional institutions like Caricom, or even the university. We no longer know, love, and respect each other as one, nor do we celebrate our common struggles.
I am still a Caribbean man. The friendships forged during my three years at The UWI still endure to this day. In fact, for many young people then, it was our only opportunity to meet fellow Caribbean people, unless, of course, we were able to travel into the region as tourists or on business.
To any honest observer of the region’s history, Caribbean unity has always been a challenge.
From the early days of establishing the Caribbean Community- CARIFTA, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), under then leader Alexander Bustamante, was never really on board. That thinking has unfortunately persisted to this day within his party’s DNA. We have come a long way since the 1960s with the original grouping now morphed into CARICOM. We are still struggling with whether to make the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) our final court, so many years after its inception! Sadly, we have yet to see the true potential of CARICOM, largely due to the on again, off again approach of Jamaica’s leadership in the region, which could be translated to periods in our history when either the JLP or PNP is in power here.
Their lukewarm or lack of support for removing the UK Privy Council from our legal system and substituting it with the CCJ is indeed sad, despite the fact that the UK Privy Council is out of the reach (financially) of the vast majority of our people seeking justice.
Indeed, the current Jamaican prime minister and his government have routinely worked at undermining any and everything regional by simply providing lukewarm support. Their approach to governance has been largely opportunistic and transactional. The recent support for former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s attempt to remove and replace the current head of the Commonwealth Secretariat is a vulgar case in point. Many are wondering what was promised to the Jamaicans involved in the ‘attempted coup’. Needless to say, the fact that Jamaica was so comfortable working with the former oppressor, to undermine the institution, has created more division and distrust among the Commonwealth collective.
I remember vividly the days of the non-aligned movement — a movement that helped save Jamaica in the 1970s when so many of our people were prepared to work with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and others to destabilize their own country, Jamaica. Those were sad years. Let’s never forget that. Probably it is time for the visionary few among us in the region to breathe new life into that non-aligned movement yet again. The changing face of the world demands it. How long will it take to accept that the former oppressors couldn’t care a damn about us?
Over the years Jamaica and many other CARICOM countries have benefited immensely from the support of Venezuela. Under the so-called Petrocaribe agreement, Venezuela offered member states oil supplies under a concessionary financial agreement, not to mention the numerous development projects implemented under this agreement regionally.
Recent provocative attacks by America must be taken seriously. America has always used its bullying playbook to get what it wants from other nations. We need to hear the loud voices of the Caribbean people in opposition to the recent American attempts to intimidate the sovereign country of Venezuela — simply for its oil.
Time for Caricom to speak up, and in one united voice against the aggressive posture of the United States, against our valued ally.
