Robert BuddanRobert Buddan
SENATOR BRUCE Golding, chairman of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), has said that we need to debate the idea of a West Indian federation. He believes that the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) cannot realise its potential unless there are complementary political structures of unity that can effectively coordinate policy. Mr. Golding has placed federation back on the agenda for the first time in more than 40 years. In effect, he is calling for a radical rethink of the JLP's long-standing opposition to a West Indian federation and a radical departure from Bustamante and Seaga's firm objections. In so doing he is moving closer to the People's National Party's (PNP) position which favours the CSME and structures of political unity (short of federation).
Federation is still a live idea in the Caribbean. The Prime Minister of Barbados, Owen Arthur, and leading Caribbean economist, Havelock Brewster, hold positions similar to Mr. Golding's. However, from the Jamaican and Caribbean perspectives, a number of issues have to be considered.
SMALL STATES AND GLOBALISATION
An argument in favour of federation is unity in numbers. Federation will combine the power of small states in response to globalisation. The truth is that, in another sense, federation will make us weaker. The 15 members of CARICOM have 15 votes in the United Nations and even more tellingly, in the 34-member Organisation of American States (OAS), and the impending 34-member Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). This makes CARICOM, though a region of small states, a region of large numbers of votes, and therefore a very important diplomatic zone. CARICOM has the largest single bloc of votes in the Americas.
It is this voting power that brought the OAS around to CARICOM's insistence that the removal of Mr. Aristide in Haiti be investigated and new elections scheduled. It is the number of CARICOM votes that have made Brazil and the South American countries come to support the region's banana issues with the European Union. Brazil hopes to keep CARICOM on its side in its quest for a seat on the Security Council of the United Nations and in its negotiations with the U.S. on what kind of FTAA we should have.
Furthermore, it is CARICOM's decision to recognise the Republic of China over Taiwan that has made China take the strong
economic interest it has in the region, one that has led to the recent China-Caribbean Economic and Trade Cooperation and Trade Forum and broader China-Caribbean cooperation from which Jamaica and the region are already enjoying benefits.
A federation under one
sovereign state would reduce CARICOM's 15 votes to one vote. In the age of globalisation this would not be a good idea. We are not a military or
economic power like the federal United States is, and which allows it to get its way with only one vote. However, we are a diplomatic power and that power lies in our votes.
Fifteen votes are a lot for the 14 million people of CARICOM. The region has more votes per population than any other in the world. More importantly, the English-speaking core group of CARICOM has 13 votes for its six million people.
JAMAICANS AND FEDERATION
Another issue to consider is how Jamaicans feel about federation. A study by the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Affairs (UWI) in 2003 found that only 37 per cent of Jamaicans favoured Jamaica's participation in a federation. Another 34 per cent were against it. There is evidence, however, that popular support for federation is weak when the government or the main parties do not support it. It might be that if the PNP and/or the JLP were to support federation, the population might be more enthusiastic.
Mr. Golding believes that the country should debate the issue. Considering that the JLP was the party to have campaigned against federation for nearly 50 years that debate should begin in the JLP itself. Because the JLP has been consumed with internal differences, it is unlikely that it has had the opportunity for such a debate. Mr. Golding claims to have been challenging the government to put federation back on the table for public debate. I cannot recall any such challenge and I doubt that Mr. Golding has put the issue on the JLP's own table where he should begin.
It would be interesting to see if this issue became a source of another division in the party. Evidence shows that the older generation of Jamaicans tends to be less favourable to federation because of lingering memories of the failed original experiment. Mr. Golding was speaking at UTech on the CSME to a younger generation among whom the idea of a federation might have resounded well. But can he find common support among generations of JLP supporters and the traditionalist and reformist
sections of the party? Only a debate in the party will tell.
A further consideration is who Jamaica would federate with. Our
nearest CARICOM neighbour is Haiti. Jamaica and Haiti have 10 million of the 14 million people in CARICOM and would form the largest combined market by far. But can two countries with such different cultures, political traditions and at such different levels of social and economic development make common policies? Can we have a single currency, common central bank and monetary
policy with Haiti?
What of the other CARICOM
countries? Mr. Panday in Trinidad and Tobago has expressed the fear that Indians would be marginalised in a federation of mainly Afro-Caribbean states. Indeed, in the West Indies Federation of 1958-62, the 11-man Cabinet was comprised entirely of Afro-Caribbean members. In that federation, the Afro-Trinidadian party of Eric Williams had no reason to fear ethnic domination. Guyana was not a part of that federation but the Indo-Guyanese party now has the ethnic majority to control government for the long-term under the country's system of proportional representation. The government of Guyana might not want to compromise that advantage. Possibly, a federation of Trinidad and Guyana might suit Mr. Panday and Mr. Jagdeo but this would not be compatible with a federation that includes Jamaica.
FEDERATION OR A CONFEDERATION
In the Eastern Caribbean, prime ministers Gonsalves of St. Vincent and Kenny Anthony of St. Lucia are interested in a federation or a confederation of the Windward and Leeward islands but Antigua is not. Since 1995, Prime Minister Arthur of Barbados has argued for a confederation between Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.
Probably a pragmatic basis does exist for Trinidad, Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean to form a political union of some sort, even a federation. Plans are being contemplated for Trinidad to build a 400-mile natural gas pipeline through the Eastern Caribbean which will lower energy costs by as much as 30 per cent. A project like this can involve as many as seven jurisdictions and political union can reduce the political time needed for cooperation on such an important and related matters. The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) already shares a common central bank, a common currency, a common judicial system, and a forum for consultation among Heads of Government.
A CARIBBEAN UNION
Ultimately, the debate about federation cannot take place in Jamaica alone. There is no point agreeing to a federation if at the end of the debate we find that no other country thinks it pragmatic to federate with us. Besides, for any debate in Jamaica to make sense to the rest of the Caribbean Mr. Golding and the JLP must send the right signals to the Caribbean by clarifying their position on the CCJ. On that matter too, the debate needs to begin in the JLP.
I agree with a recent study by UWI scholar Nicole Warmington that
CARICOM must now move beyond being a Community of Sovereign States to being a 'Community of Sovereign States and Peoples' in the framework of a Caribbean Union similar in general to the European Union. This would not require a federation but it would demand greater integration of the structures of political unity such as the CCJ, the CARICOM Charter of Civil Society, the CARICOM Assembly of Parliament
arians, the Council of Ministers, and the executive-type CARICOM Commission along with some new institutions. We should then allow these structures and the integration process to take us where pragmatism leads. We can then have greater political union without giving up our international voting power.
Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. You can send your comments to robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm or infocus@gleanerjm.com
