AFTER the just-concluded 32nd Heads of Government Conference in St Kitts, neither well-crafted official statements nor expedient public relations journalism can possibly succeed in concealing the evident leadership crisis in which the Caribbean Community (Caricom) is currently gripped.

Four days of summitry politics in Basseterre climaxed with a 13-page communiqué last Monday that makes painful reading of routine approaches to lingering unresolved problems; of decisions again deferred on vital matters (including need for effective governance); and above all, the entire text offers little prospect for new initiatives to arrest the spreading cynicism and disenchantment abroad in the community.

It was surprising as well, to learn that while the community's new chairman, Prime Minister Denzil Douglas, was talking about "moving slowly" on aspects of the Single Economy project (when last did they really move with any haste?), the prime minister of Barbados, Fruendel Stuart, who currently has lead responsibility for CSME-readiness arrangements, was controversially caricaturing Caricom as "a corpse".

Over the next two to three weeks, the new Caricom Bureau — the "management committee" of the community between meetings of Heads of Government — is scheduled to meet in Barbados to further consider the choice of a new secretary general and make recommendations for all Heads of Government to approve the chosen one. A single dissenting voice would be sufficient to torpedo the entire selection process, given the "unanimity" doctrine applicable to key areas of governance.

Question: Why weren't the five shortlisted candidates for the secretary general's job invited to Basseterre to separately be interviewed by the Caricom leaders during their four-day conference and avoid the proposed meeting in Barbados then to communicate separately with the rest of leaders?

It is now more than five months since a "search committee" has been working to identify suitable candidates to replace Edwin Carrington who retired at the end of last year amid conflicting reports that he may have been "pushed" into doing so with two years remaining to complete some 20 years of service.

But this "slowness", or lack of urgency to find a new secretary general could perhaps be excused when considered against the litany of failures for over a decade to seriously address the necessity to transform the community Secretariat in Georgetown into an enlightened and effective administrative institution that's relevant to today's regional and international challenges.

When the Caricom Bureau, chaired by Prime Minister Douglas and including counterparts from Grenada (previous chairman), and Suriname (incoming chairman) meet in Barbados, along with Prime Minister Stuart as host, the mood to make it a productive event would most certainly require a contrast from the negativities that had surfaced during the summit in Basseterre — for instance, Prime Minister Douglas' "move slowly" talk on single economy implementation processes, and the angry mood in which Prime Minister Stuart had reacted to continuing delays in approval for REDJet to operate commercial flights into Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica.

With a verbal swipe at the Trinidad and Tobago Government in particular, Prime Minister Stuart had declared, as reported by the Caribbean Media Corporation: "I say this, I do not intend that Barbados should be in the position of any mortician fighting a corpse called regional integration movement..."

Caricom "a corpse"? Many of us may well regard this as a most unfortunate and quite unjustified remark to be uttered by a Head of Government whose country has held, from the very inception, lead portfolio responsibility for readiness arrangements for the CSME — the officially hailed "flagship project" of the regional integration movement.

So, where do we go from here — after the coming meetings in Barbados on the search for a new Caricom secretary general and, differently, at the bilateral/multilateral level, a resolution to the REDJet controversy? We may not know for sure before next month — if that early!

There continues to be serious doubts over the leaders' readiness to de-emphasise a concept of "sovereignty" that's often expediently summoned to frustrate stated commitment to regional integration, in preference instead to language and positive actions that favour "shared sovereignty", which the immediate past community chairman, Prime Minister Tillman Thomas advocates.

Readers of this column may recall that ahead of the summit in Basseterre I had reported on an initiative by Prime Minister Thomas that resulted in the production of a 'working document' which he circulated for the Heads of Government "special retreat" in Guyana's Mazaruni region to help in overcoming an evident paralysis of spirit in implementation of unanimously adopted decisions.

'Energising' document and advisers

That document, focused on 'Energising Caricom Integration', was prepared in co-operation with a team of knowledgeable and respected West Indians, at Prime Minister Thomas's request. Co-ordinated by Grenada's ambassador to Brussels, Stephen Fletcher, the team included Professor Norman Girvan of the UWI's Institute of International Relations and author of the Community Secretariat-commissioned study on Towards a Single Economy and a Single Development Vision; Professor Havelock Brewster, former regional director of the Inter-American Development Bank and author of Caricom's Strategic Planning for Regional Development.

Also, Marcel Myer, president of the Caribbean Employers' Federation; Lingston Cumberbatch, director of the African Caribbean Pacific Traded ComProgramme and a former ambassador to Brussels; Dr Patrick Gomes, former executive director of the Caribbean Centre for Development (CARICAD) and a current ambassador to Brussels, who was co-leader of the team that produced the 2002 report on the restructuring and functioning of the community Secretariat; and Chantel Munro-Knight of the Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC).

Surprisingly, there was no mention of what attention, if any, this submitted report on Energising Caricom Integration attracted from the Heads, either at their Mazaruni 'special retreat" or at the Basseterre summit.

They chose instead to tell the region's public, via their 13-page communiqué, that they have committed themselves to interviewing the shortlisted candidates for secretary general within two weeks and to make a decision "shortly thereafter".

With respect to the related and more fundamental need for a complete overhaul of the empowerment and functioning of the secretariat, they said they were awaiting a final report from a team of consultants and hope to have this before year end. They avoided providing any information about the UK-based consultancy firm conducting the "review" or to offer some idea of its mandated terms of reference. There is, of course, a wealth of information available to them on this issue.

Foot-dragging politics

So, as the foot-dragging politics on the crucial issue of governance of the community continues to the detriment of advancing the objectives of regional economic integration — based on the Revised Caricom Treaty that's embedded in the laws of all participating member states — the big question remains: Where do we go from here, after a two-day "special retreat" by Heads of Government in Guyana and the just-concluded four-day summit in St Kitts and Nevis?

We know that disagreement over the delay in civil aviation authorities in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago granting permission for the Barbados-based low-fare airline REDJet to operate commercial flights into those countries, has already sparked a "war of words", and has even produced a scathing inference of Caricom as "a corpse called regional integration movement".

Further, that the new Caricom chairman seems unwilling to press the "fast-track" button on implementation of single economy measures but to sustain the preference to retain the "pause" mode. At least this approach, they think, could avoid exposure of the many governments that have so consistently failed to do what they had collectively agreed to in relation to advancing the goals of the "regional integration" — as outlined in the Revised Caricom Treaty and which governments have a legal and moral obligation to honour.

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