Robert Buddan, Contributor
THE PRIVY Council's ruling on Jamaica's CCJ Bills, the postponement of the launch of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy, and Bruce Golding's election as Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader, overshadowed a historic landmark in the life of the Caribbean Community - the inauguration of a permanent Headquarters Building for the CARICOM Secretariat.
This inauguration on February 20 marked both a step towards the future of Caribbean unity and an important stage in the 60-year journey of forging a Caribbean identity out of differences between national and regional aspirations.
A curious thing happened on the way to the political independence of the countries of the region. The national movements for self-government and the regional movement for unity were developing hand-in-hand in complementary fashion. There was no perceived contradiction between the two when Jamaica held its first general elections, and the Caribbean Labour Congress, inclusive of PNP and JLP-affiliated trade unions, attended the first regional meeting to consider a federation of the West Indies in the 1940s. The national and regional movements later synchronised around the goal of achieving both objectives together independence as one Federation.
Then in the 1960s the two movements separated. The Federation collapsed and its member countries went on to independence on their own. Yet, the parting of ways was not permanent. The Caribbean theme was too strong and the bonds among Caribbean people too natural for the vision of integration to fail. It was only the form that needed to be worked out.
FEDERATION
The idea of federation remained alive in the Eastern Caribbean. For other countries, the route was economic and functional integration as an end in itself. Some Caribbean countries formed the Caribbean Free Trade Association in 1965 and others, like Jamaica, joined in 1968. A new stage was reached when CARICOM was formed in 1973, going beyond free trade to foreign policy coordination and functional cooperation. Then in 1989, CARICOM Heads of Government agreed to establish a single market and economy. That should have been achieved on February 19, 2005.
Jamaica's role in Caribbean integration has both helped and hurt this process. Norman Manley led Jamaica into the Federation but Bustamante withdrew Jamaica's membership and brought down the entire project. Since then different leaders have tried to construct a vision of 'Jamaica First' or alternatively, one that sees Jamaica's destiny as part of the wider region's potential.
The Manley-Patterson administrations have worked for a single market and economy while Mr. Seaga's JLP had been reticent, to say the least, and now Mr. Gold-ing's JLP is still unsure about what the role of the CCJ should be.
This is the point at which we are. It is not a stalemate. The Government has introduced new legislation to confine the CCJ to original jurisdiction which the JLP says it prefers. We could have the CSME in 2005 after all. We are therefore at the point of reconnecting the national and regional movements. However, Mr. Seaga remains deeply suspicious about this. He now uses the 'Jamaica First' slogan of the 1980s to make his case against the CSME (Sunday Gleaner, February 27, 2005). He believes there is a contradiction between regionalism and national development.
JAMAICANISATION AND REGIONALISM
Mr. Seaga supports his position with a thesis on 'Jamaicanisation'. However, Jamaicanisation cannot simply be about having a National Anthem, National Flag, National Bird, National Dish, and so on. This is merely symbolic independence. Although symbols of nationhood are important, independence needs more substance than this. Jamaicanisation has failed to promulgate a Jamaican constitution through our own parliament in the language of our own people, and a Charter of Rights that deeply entrench the rights of the Jamaican people.
It was in Mr. Seaga's power to achieve this as leader of the JLP for over 30 years. Yet, the JLP found reason even to criticise changing the Oath of Office so that our leaders could pledge allegiance to the people of Jamaica rather than to the Queen. What kind of Jamaicanisation is it when our political symbols are Jamaican but our political substance is foreign? Mr. Manley, Mr. Patterson and Mr. Golding have a more serious commitment to Jamaicanise the political system and the last two have begun to talk about this very thing.
Furthermore, Jamaicanisation is not separate from but an extension of who we are as a Caribbean people. We look and behave more like other Caribbean people than any other set of people. It follows logically that we should establish common economic and market institutions and a Caribbean court with final appellate jurisdiction.
At his inaugural speech as party leader Mr. Golding came close to this admission when he said, "It is our view that after 40 years of independence, Caribbean countries should be able to establish their own critical institutions to consolidate their sovereignty." Golding defines "Jamaicanisation of our institutions" in terms of the best possible quality of justice that Jamaicans and Caribbean people can enjoy, except that he is not sure that Caribbean people can, if given the chance, provide justice as fairly as any one else can.
Mr. Patterson is more certain that we can. At the opening of the new CARICOM headquarters building the same weekend Mr. Golding was making his speech, Mr. Patterson said, "I remain unrepentant in the view that we cannot perpetuate our reliance on others to interpret for us what our laws mean and our Constitutions require. We are well equipped and more than capable to dispense justice for ourselves, between our countries and among our citizenry."
Jamaican and Caribbean identities are not separate, no more than the Texan and United States identities are. The Texan has his distinct dialect, flag, legislature, history, constitution, food, music, and fashions but the same Texan can, as is the case at present, become President of the United States because he also has an American-wide identity. We can similarly conceive of someone who is Jamaican-Caribbean, Antiguan-Caribbean, Barbadian-Caribbean, etc., without any contradiction in terms.
THE CASE FOR REGIONALISM
Mr. Patterson's speech at the opening of the CARICOM headquarters was important because it makes the case for regionalism on the grounds of globalisation, governance, and civilisation. It is not collective independence that drives regionalism today as much as globalisation and collective survival do. Mr. Patterson said, "We in the Caribbean would vanish without a trace in the waves of globalisation and the tide of hegemony unless we pool together such resources as we possess and strengthen our collective will. Although we remain separate nations, the times demand that we assert our common interests with a clear, distinctive and authoritative voice."
It is not a federation of states that drives Jamaica towards regionalism but the search for better governance among the people of the Caribbean Community. Mr. Patterson therefore charged that "We must press on with the mission of building a people's community that not only supports the people's yearning for good governance and embraces them with the promise and reality of enhanced security, but also provides a nurturing home from which to engage the wider world."
It is not Jamaican nationalism, narrowly conceived, that motivates this drive, but the building of a wider Caribbean civilisation that does. Mr. Patterson explained that, "As newly independent territories imbued with the awesome challenge of nation-building, we understood decades ago that the responsibility of managing our own affairs and shaping a Caribbean civilisation had to be pursued hand in hand with the goal of forging a regional integration process which could stand the test of time." In other words, we must build our nationalism and our regional civilisation hand in hand.
It is this same complementarity that has made European nations unite in a European Union. It is this that must make Caribbean nations converge into a Caribbean union of our own making.
Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, Mona Campus, UWI. You can send your comments to Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm or infocus@gleanerjm.com
