Last week’s 21st Inter-Sessional Conference of Caribbean Community (Caricom) Heads of Governments in Dominica provided a badly needed shot in the arm for tourism in an island now solely dependent on that industry.

Before the collapse of the banana industry — thanks to Central American action in the World Trade Organisation — bananas used to account for 90 per cent of Dominican exports. That has fallen in GDP terms from 25 per cent in 1988 to one per cent in 2008.

That the meeting was successfully hosted is a tribute to the Government of Dominica. Apart from that success, not much else happened, in our view. The prime ministers of Belize, St Vincent, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago seemed to have known this and didn’t even bother to attend. Nearly all the issues discussed were ‘noted’, no doubt for discussion at the next Heads get-together.

Once again, the Heads decided to review and postpone the schedule of implementation of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME). The new excuse is the global financial crisis, but last time we checked the CSME was supposed to help the region deal with globalisation and economic vulnerability.

The region still has not formulated a plan to cope with the global financial crisis at a time when growth has collapsed. Last year, Barbados contracted by six per cent and The Bahamas by eight per cent. Jamaica signed an International Monetary Fund (IMF) pact to be followed shortly by other Caricom countries.

The global economic crisis, we are sure, will have come and gone before Caricom can decide on a regional response. In the absence of a cogent plan there was a resort to aid-seeking. Instead of first explaining what Caricom is doing to help itself as a basis for soliciting development support, our leaders trotted out the old refrain: we are too small to help ourselves, we suffer hurricanes and earthquakes, we are about to be overwhelmed by climate change, we need money (preferably as grants).

For example, we made a plea to the visiting president of the World Bank for aid for Haiti but immediately after that noble but fleeting moment we said remember us when the climate change funds are being allocated.

It seems ridiculous to us that at a time when Caricom countries are mired in financial paucity, the decision was taken to establish another new regional institution. The Caribbean Public Health Authority will be a phoenix from the ashes of five financially strapped health institutions.

Caricom risks confusing meetings with action, discussions with decisions and the establishment of regional institutions with regional integration. What is needed is a radical rethink of regionalism and the creation of a new form of regionalism appropriate to the needs of the region at this juncture.

We believe there is urgent need for the establishment of a new commission similar to the West Indian Commission of nearly 20 years ago. But it must be a Caribbean Commission, with the task of producing a report to guide the future of Caricom.

The membership cannot be based on rounding up “the usual suspects” or any official who would have a vested interest in defending the existing arrangements and processes.

No head of a regional institution without a proven track record would be included, and certainly not the authors of the puerile reports on the CSME and governance which have nothing new to offer.