Another signpost

For me the August 1st, 1838, Emancipation Day for which we had been granted a holiday, remains the beginning of a journey that our ancestors undertook to take control of their lives and to carve out a better way of life for themselves. We are now beginning to go beyond August 1st and to think of the month as Emancipation Month. Let us hope that meaningful activities are built into the month, bearing in mind the significance it has for us. I repeatedly make the point that on that journey there are many signposts and the anniversary of our National Independence which we will commemorate on October 27 is one such. When that journey began, we were still colonies of Britain and remained in the throes of Colonialism for another hundred and forty one years. By then some African and Caribbean countries were breaking the colonial bonds. Ghana started it in 1957 and for the Caribbean, Jamaica and Trinidad, after destroying the Federation, went on their own in 1962.

After many political fist fights, we opted for 1979, the year when the Country suffered the eruption of the Soufriere volcano, the first since 1902. Before the country had settled itself and gotten back to a situation of normalcy, those who controlled state power, or in fact, wanted to control state power decided to go ahead, and faced after the election the reality of an ‘uprising’ so called, in Union Island, one of the islands of the Grenadines. Unfortunately, no serious study has been done on what transpired there. But of course, we were still on our journey. Despite the political gymnastics being played out when it was decided to continue with the date that had been previously selected, the population generally with a sense of pride joined the bacchanal.

Having given ourselves a flag and national anthem we seemed not to have thought about the way ahead. One of the boasts and the advantages of being independent widely discussed was that we would gain membership of international bodies including the United Nations; all of this in our best interest. One of the things drilled into the minds of the people was that the Prime Minister to be, Milton Cato, had fought in the Canadian army and that was expected to bring big rewards to our country. No one was sure about the vision held by those who held the realm of power. We stuck with the Privy Council as if we were afraid of judicial management being put in the hands of our own people. There was a lot to do as we stepped into a post-colonial world.

Before we began to understand that post-colonial environment, we found ourselves in the clutches of a global environment that was expected to serve our best interests. Our efforts to navigate that environment could best be seen in the context of an African proverb about elephants. “When elephants fight the grass gets trampled”. What was to be added was that when elephants make love the grass also gets trampled. The super powers control that global environment/village. Our task, a difficult one indeed, is to utilise in the best way we can any space that is offered to us in this global village. And that is of course a major concern. But we have to remember what was said by Henry Kissinger, US National Security Adviser and Secretary of State, “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests”. That view however was first voiced by mid- Victorian statesman and Anglo- Irish politician, Lord Palmerston who stated “We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual “.” These are profound statements made by powerful American and British political figures. We should always reflect on those statements when we undertake foreign excursions.

SVG became independent while the Cold War was still in progress, a period from 1947 to 1991. Guyana and Jamaica which had gained their independence in 1962 choose under Forbes Burnham and Michael Manley to be part of the non-aligned movement that was started in 1961. The idea behind it was that members were not to join or follow any major power group. But the global village had grown so complex to satisfy these ambitions. SVG’s space should have been focused among other things, on constitutional reform or rather, creating a new constitution. This we know was attempted in 2009 but failed, in my view, because it was handled badly. Both sides in contention had agreed with most of the clauses of the proposed new constitution and should have made an effort to focus on areas where there were disagreements. But constitution reform needs to be on the books again, especially in light of efforts to challenge the victories of PM Friday and Fitz Bramble, representative for East Kingstown. But serious thought must be given to how this should be done. Unfortunately, at this time, differences within the Caribbean Court of Justice will prohibit any effort to move away from the Privy Council. There are many other things that need to be done, among them introducing a system of national honours. Having said all of this the main fact is that we are part of a global environment where the major financial institutions are led by the major powers; in fact, by the world’s super power. We cannot continue our navigation as single, minute entities. We have to continue to build CARICOM and we are seeing an interest in becoming part of this body by the French Caribbean colonies and even by Bermuda, but all is not well as is seen with the issue of the appointment or reappointment of the current Secretary General and divisions with Trinidad in a common approach to the US Super Power. CARICOM is our best means of navigating the global economy despite its minor size, even including Haiti. Individual countries need to continue to work on the space they have but greater attention needs to be given to restructuring CARICOM.

• Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian