Defend collective Caribbean interests

THE PRESENTATION and consequent debate on the 2020 Budget have been postponed to permit for the funeral of Sir Frederick Ballantyne, our longest-serving Governor General.

I therefore take the liberty this week to focus on some external issues which nevertheless have influence on our lives and the development prospects of our country.

First though, I must formally pay my respects to the late Governor General and convey my condolences to his family. So much has been said over the past week in tribute to him, that I ask myself, what more can I add? I can only re-emphasize the points raised by so many about Sir Frederick’s humility, a quality that is becoming rarer in today’s world and the dignity he brought to the office of the Head of State. I particularly remember that when efforts were made by some ill-meaning persons to drag him into the cut-andthrust of partisan politics, he refused to be drawn in, even when some damaging allegations were being circulated locally. He stood in dignified presence above it all and set standards for his successors to follow and maintain. He will long be remembered.

The international context of the Budget One of my constant criticism about successive budget debates and indeed local political discourse, is the lack of an international dimension.

Yet so much depends on the international context. It is all the more refreshing to note the contributions of a contributor to the mid-week SEARCHLIGHT (online only, so do subscribe), Mr Joel Richards. In his last two columns he brought the subject of geopolitics and the Caribbean to the forefront.

It is an issue not only very relevant to our times but also rooted in Caribbean history. Ever since the coming of colonialism to our region, we have been dragged into the competition between world powers for hegemony and forced to take sides. I remember as a young schoolboy reading the Nelson’s Readers, our “reading book” of those times, and learning of the battles fought in Caribbean waters between European colonial powers for control of our region. Naturally, since we were then under British control, we automatically swallowed the hook line and sinker in support of Britain, taught to sing “rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves; Britons never, ever ever will be slaves”. But we were colonial slaves!

It continued in the 20th century. In the First World War, we supported Britain’s war effort, even donating the princely sum of 2000 pounds(sterling) from arrowroot sales towards the war effort. We gave support and lives in both World Wars but the vast majority of our citizens were not permitted to vote. When the “hot war” ended in 1945, the Caribbean was drawn into the Cold War, strongly anti-communist and so supportive of the West that we tolerated

the shameful intervention in Guyana in 1953 and the US-organized split in the labour movement from which we have never recovered.

A direct extension of this was our region’s complicity with the isolation of Cuba, only broken in 1972. That opening towards Cuba now is being threatened with closure as the USA seeks to line us up in its efforts to strangle both Cuba and Venezuela. It brings out the worst in some of our leaders, shamelessly and slavishly allowing the Trump administration to divide us, inviting some and ignoring others of our CARICOM leaders to meet and plot.

However it also brought out the best and noblest in us as exemplified by the dignified refusal of CARICOM’s chair, Hon. Mia Mottley of Barbados in refusing to be drawn into the trap to meet Pompeo, the US secretary of State. She was not willing to be one of the proverbial “Trojan horses”. Our lone female leader is standing up when the men have shown that they lack backbone!

It is essential not only for political reasons but also for economics and trade that the Caribbean holds one head. We are still too trusting, too complacent, and too dependent on promises of others to defend our interests. On January 31, Britain leaves the European Union, its so-called Brexit, but it has a year to negotiate a trade agreement with the EU.

Last year it signed a rollover deal with the Caribbean to preserve the trade arrangements now in place with the whole EU. But the sweeping victory of Boris Johnson’s Conservative party is now threatening those measures put in place when the party was unsure of its standing. Powerful circles within it are pushing, in a review of trade tariffs to begin in February, for a revisiting of that position.

Angling for a trade deal with the USA and influenced by the Trump administration, these forces are even considering a zero tariff arrangement which will be disastrous for Caribbean bananas. It affects St Lucia directly now but both SVG and Dominica are still interested in future exports.

We cannot twiddle our thumbs. Our Ministries of Trade and Foreign Affairs must get proactive and send memoranda to the UK Departments on International Trade and Development, defending our interests. We need to hold one head at the upcoming Heads of Government Conference in Barbados in February. If we don’t defend our interests, who will?

● Renwick Rose is a community activist and social commentator.