During their annual summit in Antigua last week, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders went back to Dickenson Bay, on the island's north coast, to issue a declaration about the importance of, and their dedication to CARICOM.

The trek was symbolic for it was a declaration of intent from the same venue, 43 years earlier, by Vere Bird Sr, Errol Barrow and Forbes Burnham, the late leaders of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Guyana, that led to the creation of the Caribbean Free Trade Area, which has morphed into this still-emerging community. But for all the symbolism of last week's gesture, we are left to wonder why leaders bothered. Which, of course, is not to question our own commitment to regional integration, but rather, how seriously the leaders take theirs.

'Distinct benefits'

We agree, of course, with the sentiment of Mr Baldwin Spencer, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, that if CARICOM did not exist, "we would have had to invent it". For, as Mr Spencer said, CARICOM, in its 35 years, has delivered "distinct benefits". It has also proved the logic of conglomeration: That the sum of 15 small states can be greater than their combined product as single entities.

Yet the failure of CARICOM, even as it attempts to emerge into a single market and perhaps seamless economy, is its inability to deliver the promised economic breakthrough. That, however, is no indictment of the concept of integration, or the intellectual frame upon which CARICOM was conceived. It is a failure of governance, highlighted by what the leaders failed to do at Dickenson Bay: action to advance the community.

The problem is the dark shadow still cast by the failure of the West Indies Federation nearly half a century ago, more than the lifetimes of significant portions of the populations of CARICOM member states. It bequeathed a fear that has tethered the region to a limiting notion of sovereignty.

Comfortable position

So, Mr Bruce Golding, our own prime minister, despite himself having grown in ideas regional, tacked close to the line that his party finds reasonably comfortable: CARICOM as a community of sovereign nations. Except that effective management of an advanced functional cooperation and single-market group is difficult in the absence of acceptance, and full embrace, of the idea of shared sovereignty. A more apt definition of CARICOM in this regard is a sovereign community of nations.

It is within such a framework that there can be clear decision making - rather than the meandering that characterises the community - required by CARICOM to get along with the collective tackling of matters, such as food security, crime and economic development. But this demands bold leadership - a leadership willing to stare history in the face and see, in the context of the region's size, strength and experience, the limitation of this concept of 'variable geometry'.

Leaders must accept that the governance process they have so far used to manage the community's affairs has long showed shortcomings. And the problem will not be rectified with an overhaul of the bureau or of the 'Cabinet'. Common sense dictates the need for a quasi-executive to translate pooled sovereignty into effective implementation of community decisions.

The need is urgent if, as Mr Golding says, "we are to pilot the way through the storm".