By Don Robotham, Contributor THE PRESENCE of President Thabo Mbeki at the 24th CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Montego Bay presents a golden opportunity for there to be a rethinking and renewal of CARICOM. Call it 'learning from Mbeki'.
This rethinking and renewal is needed not simply at governmental levels. It must be a rethinking by the people as a whole, especially the thinking parts of the Caribbean population. It is full time we abandoned the easy game of blaming everything on our politicians. For the truth is, our problems of leadership are also problems of 'followership'. We desperately need a better informed public opinion in the Caribbean if we are to develop more competitive economies and more democratic governance.
The most important feature of the Mbeki regime in South Africa, which separates it from most past and even present African nationalist regimes, has been its emphasis on maintaining and developing a strong South African economy.
Mbeki has framed this issue as one of the development of a strong black bourgeoisie for South Africa; indeed, for Africa as a whole. Needless to say, this position has got him into great trouble with the populist left in South Africa and, indeed, the world. Last week's contretemps between some sections of the Rastafarian movement and President Mbeki is only a local echo of this conflict, embellished, as was to be expected, with our distinctive Jamaican flair for the melodramatic gesture.
CAPITALIST CLASS
A Black bourgeoisie, President Mbeki's position on the South African economy was most boldly set out in a speech at the Annual National Conference of the Black Management Forum in 1999. Here it is necessary to quote President Mbeki at length.
"This morning, I will speak only to the question of the challenge of the formation of a black capitalist class, a black bourgeoisie. This is, and must be, an important part of the process of the deracialisation of the ownership of productive property in our country. Ours is a capitalist society. It is, therefore, inevitable that, in part and I repeat, in part we must address this goal of deracialisation within the context of the property relations characteristic of a capitalist economy.
"As part of the realisation of the aim to eradicate racism in our country, we must strive to create and strengthen a black capitalist class. Because we come from among the black oppressed, many among us feel embarrassed to state this goal as nakedly as we should.
"... All this frightens and embarrasses all those of us who are black and might be part of the new rich. Accordingly, we walk as far and as fast as we can from the notion that the struggle against racism in our country must include the objective of creating a black bourgeoisie. I would like to urge, very strongly, that we abandon our embarrassment about the possibility of the emergence of successful and therefore prosperous black owners of productive property and think and act in a manner consistent with a realistic response to the real world."
Thus Mbeki. You can hardly get plainer than this. No wonder some Rastas were shocked!
This speech is extremely important for the process of renewing CARICOM and of renewing Jamaica in particular. For, contrary to what some may think, the point that Mbeki was making was not a 'bling-bling' one. The furthest thing from his mind was the championing of a shallow, black-brown-white consumption-mania as has prevailed in Jamaica up to this time and with which South Africa, too, is threatened. That is a name-brand carnival-dance hall caricature of what Mbeki stands for. His emphasis was on production and productive economic activities, not on the conspicuous consumption of Escalade or Lexus!
GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS
Thus, both Mbeki and his Finance Minister, Trevor Manuel, have insisted on the sharp reduction of the South African budget deficit. They have insisted on the vital need to make South African business globally competitive. They have stressed the urgent task of raising the levels of education, training and productivity of the South African labour force. They understand very well that South Africa will sink or swim not by an inward-looking policy which attempts to cut it off from the world but by becoming a world player. Above all, Mbeki and Manuel have understood that the key economically as well as politically and socially is the development of a strong, productive black private sector.
This concept has yet to sink into our heads in CARICOM.
CARICOM was after all conceived for a different time. This was the pre-globalisation era of import substitution and state-led development, driven by a simple black Caribbean nationalism.
It is considered impolite to mention it, but apart from Jamaica, there is practically no black bourgeoisie of any significance in the Caribbean.
Even in Jamaica, this black bourgeoisie is extremely weak with a marked tendency to be parasitic on the state, like the brown and white groups before them. This historic tendency for the Caribbean black middle class to be almost entirely rooted in the public sector is a major source of our economic, political and social weakness.
It is also the basic cause of racial conflict, for example, in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as in Barbados where this conflict, though muted, is unmistakably present. This relative economic stagnation of the Black Caribbean middle class inevitably produces a broad social, political and intellectual stagnation. This is at the core of the resistance to the sharp reduction of the US$830 million annual expenditure on public sector salaries in Jamaica. It is basic in understanding the differences between the PNP and the JLP and the crisis which afflicts both parties. More on this on anon!
DOMINANCE
The CARICOM agenda is still dominated by this kind of public sector thinking, although, to be fair, this is changing. The dominance of the state-led philosophy continues to show itself in the character of the Montego Bay meeting. It is a meeting of politicians, not a meeting of business persons, white, brown or black. Such an approach to Caribbean economic, political and social integration has outlived its usefulness.
We need to make our Caribbean private sectors central to the entire CARICOM process. There will be no real Caribbean Single Market and Economy without this. Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Grenada, St. Vincent and Dominica cannot be prosperous and stable if the Black business sectors continue to be as weak as they currently are. Barbados in particular is a very statist place. A complete rethinking of Black nationalism in Africa, as well as the Caribbean is required. Go back and re-read Marcus Garvey. Mbeki is more important than you think.
How to stimulate the development of a vibrant Black Caribbean bourgeoisie needs to be placed at the top of the agenda. How to make the private sector as a whole the really driving force in Caribbean development has to be the central issue. This cannot be done with the politicians and civil servants in the front seat and business in the back. New seating arrangements are urgently needed. The politicians will never re-arrange the CARICOM chairs. The private sector must seize the initiative and rearrange them.
Before anyone jumps off at the deep end, we should note that the development of a Black bourgeoisie cannot be at the expense of the existing ethnic groups which have strong positions in the private sector. This ethnic diversity of our private sector Black, Indian, Lebanese, Chinese, Jewish, Anglo, French, Hispanic, Dutch in fact, is one of the Caribbean's greatest potential strengths, if only we knew how to develop it. We need to rise above our history and convert weakness into advantage. We need to learn from Mbeki.
NO PANACEA
Of course, the development of a strong Black bourgeoisie and of market forces is not a panacea in either South Africa or the Caribbean. Those seeking rods of correction or financial wizards should look elsewhere.
As writers such as Adam Smith long ago pointed out in Wealth of Nations and Moral Sentiments, the market is the only effective way to assert consumer preference. It, therefore, is not only a mechanism of vulgar commercialism and speculation. Contrary to what many think, it is also a source of democracy and morally positive values. But Adam Smith went to great lengths to point out that the market also fails in critical areas.
Many, very severe social problems (crime, HIV, new social and racial inequalities) persist in South Africa, as they do in the Caribbean. There clearly is the need for a strong state in both regions. But this must be a state which understands and knows how to manage the global and local markets. The development, financing, and efficient implementation of effective social policies for example in housing and health care will remain major challenges, Black bourgeoisie or no.
Issues of economic and social justice must be kept constantly under review. The point is to develop healthy and dynamic societies in which the historic aspirations of our populations can be realised "with a realistic response to the real world".
* Don Robotham is an anthropologist who specialises in development issues in the Caribbean and West Africa.
