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By Michael D. Roberts |
From Jamaica in the north to Trinidad and Tobago in the south the CARICOM region started the year 2001 with an anxious economic outlook based primarily on the state of global capitalism and the level of development of the productive forces in the Caribbean. High inflation, a rising import bill, falling productivity characterized by sporadic and sustained labor unrest, marked the start of 2001. Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, because of their relative size and socio-economic development, experienced the worst forms of internal political trauma and social upheavals.
Jamaica in particular saw some exceptionally ugly social outbreaks that continued right up to the end of 2001. The constant struggles between the two dominant political parties, the ruling Peoples National Party (PNP) and the opposition Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) filtered down to the grassroots level where they took on particularly vicious forms that resulted in internecine urban violence that claimed many lives. The rise of the dons, a phenomenon of urban and rural poverty, and the encouragement of the lumpen proletariat by both political parties as local representatives, reached a new and dangerous metamorphosis due to the introduction of criminal elements into Jamaican society as a result of the deportation policies of the United States government.
So a combination of systemic poverty, the squabbles within the political class, high levels of unemployment and low productivity levels have all combined and contributed to the economic and socio-political problems that at the start of 2002 still bedevil Jamaica. The government of Prime Minister Percival Patterson has demonstrated remarkable political skill in dealing with these ongoing problems and this attests to the maturity of the Jamaican political system. It is my hope that this beautiful island of talented and hardworking people will continue to face the future with the same level of confidence that they exuded in 2001.
In Guyana the problems there were of a similar and yet different nature. Similar because they were based in the economy and were shaped in part by the same internal and external stimuli that characterized the problems of Jamaica. International competition, the low level of technological development, and the low level of development of the productive forces in Guyana were aggravated by the serious racial divide. Today, Guyana is a nation whose forward movement has been hampered by the exploitative racial political discord between Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese. This debilitating racial climate has been shamelessly exploited by both dominant political parties.
The ruling Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) is firmly rooted in the Indo-Guyanese population whose members now dominate all areas of the country's national life. Indeed, the PPP-Civic that preached the principles of inclusion and of racial harmony has now done exactly what the opposition Peoples National Congress (PNC) has done during the 25-year regime of deceased Forbes Burnham when Afro-Guyanese controlled all aspects of national life. So in essence the PPP-Civic has become the very monster that it hitherto condemned and loathed. The upshot is that today President Bharrat Jagdeo presides over a fractured and torn nation that is now in a constant state of low-level racial warfare that continues to impede the growth and development of Guyana.
Trinidad and Tobago in 2001 was quite literally the sick man of the region. With novel and unprecedented political fights between an autocratic president and prime minister and the growing "racialization" of the community, an island of promise became a place of uncertainty. And to cap it all off the year 2001 ended with a controversial electoral tie breaker the first in CARICOM and the appointment of a prime minister that has drawn serious criticism from both sides of the racial and political divide. Prime Minister Patrick Manning, the leader of the Peoples National Movement (PNM) replaced Basdeo Panday, the leader of the United National Congress (UNC), or what is felt of the UNC, now that its been frazzled by internal dissent and defections. The touchy situation is that both the PNM and the UNC have 18 seats apiece and so any defection from the PNM side could re-plunge the country into yet another crisis.
Indeed, the year 2001 was a crisis-filled once for Trinidad and Tobago as the then ruling UNC moved from crisis to crisis some its own making as the country became further polarized along race lines. Like Guyana, Trinidad's UNC is firmly rooted in the Indo-Trinidad community, while the PNM draws the majority of its support from the Afro-Trinidadian population. As a matter of fact Badeo Panday and his UNC broke the political glass ceiling when he became the first prime minister of East Indian origin. But Panday's leadership style soon caused friction at all levels of the society and was largely responsible for the deepening of the racial divide in Trinidad and Tobago society.
By the end of 2001 the Trinidad and Tobago economy, like those of the rest of CARICOM, was in dire straights and the growing political unrest only helped to make the national climate more uncertain and difficult. All this is not to say that the other Caribbean nations fared any better in 2001. While their domestic problems might have been relatively less intense because of obvious reasons, they also faced serious problems in 2001.
An increase in use and abuse of drugs, trafficking in narcotics accompanied by crime and social stress featured prominently on the radar screens of the Caribbean in 2001. Aggravated by a growing HIV/AIDS epidemic and dwindling resources, the September 11, 2001 terror attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon dealt the Caribbean region a cruel blow since it came just at the start of the winter tourist season. The resulting fear of travel by American tourists the Caribbean's main market helped create a yawning budget deficit in the economies of most CARICOM nations. At the start of 2002 the governments of the Caribbean are still in a state of shock and wonderment and have yet to access and analyze the full impact of the terror attacks on the region.
Corruption continued to be a major problem for the Caribbean region in 2001 and in Trinidad and Tobago it may have cost Basdeo Panday the government. Systemic nepotism, cronyism, and government by favor are still the order of the day in the Caribbean. The results of this kind of ill-advised political approach are governmental and societal corruption at all levels. The major danger for 2002 is that this proclivity towards corruption and the fragile and weak nature of CARICOM governments, especially those in the smaller countries, would make them susceptible to outside manipulation by international crime and drug organizations. This is also particularly important from the standpoint that most CARICOM governments are ill-equipped to fight a sophisticated international crime syndicate and lacks the financial and other resources to combat this evil. There is the real potential for small, vulnerable cash-strapped nations to become in essence narco-states in the Caribbean.
And if anybody wanted a barometer to measure the region's performance in 2001 then all it takes is the dismal record of the once mighty West Indies Cricket Team. It is the epitome of indiscipline, disorganization, lacks proactive and inspiring leadership, and is riddled with internal problems that are made more acute by the myopic and 10th century world outlook of the leaders of the West Indies Cricket Board of Control. Like the region, the West Indies cricket organization is a mirror-image of the disarray that the region is now in, and like the West Indies Cricket Team, the region continues to make suspect decisions and exercises little vision and tactical skills to achieve some measure of victory.
Perhaps readers might consider this analysis a little bit harsh. After all we do have our sea water and sand and when all else fail we came revert to the anesthesia of carnival and rum. Not that there were no bright sports in the region in 2001, but that they were so few and far between that the overall picture of the region was one of deep socio-economic and political crisis. This was made all the more intense by the propensity of the region's leaders to "play ostrich" and bury their heads in the sand. I believe that it is only by highlighting the region's problems, exposing their sources, and forcing the region's leaders to take responsible for the existing state of affairs that some level of change will come. This is important if CARICOM is to come out from under the scourge of HIV/AIDS that has made the region second only to Sub-Saharan Africa in the relative number of cases and intensity of the disease, attack and address the hopelessness and lack of opportunity for the youth that makes them enter the criminal/drug economy, stabilize the political climate, and put the business of the people first on their agendas.
As long as CARICOM continues to remain in a state of denial and keep believing that everything is "no problem, man," than it will continue to suffer from the chronic pneumonia of failed programs and promises. The year 2001 was turbulent and the conditions that spawned that turbulence still remain at the start of 2002. Trouble is, short of a major surprise this trend will continue and get progressively worse in this vulnerable part of the world. The leadership will have to have a change of heart and move from their own narrow political survival to opting for genuine change that benefits all the people. The leadership will have to shock cynics like me and suddenly find the will and cajones to enact deep and sweeping constitutional and electoral reform in the region.
Until that time CARICOM will remain, as it did in 2001, an elitist talk shop that achieves little except a platform for the silly posturings of egotistical leaders that let off hot air, make grandiose promises, and then go back home and plan to be even more grandiose the next year. I know, I'm a political cynic so what the heck do I know? Maybe I'm a bit like the folks who lead CARICOM, only difference is that I know I know nothing much. They are still ga-ga and running around knowing nothing. But that was 2001; let's see what 2002 will bring. Sorry, I'm not too optimistic