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West Indians Asked to Map out their Future

by Derek Ingram
A unique exercise in democracy is being carried out in the Caribbean. A nongovernment commission financed from outside the region is touring the islands asking the people to plan their future. At public meetings up and down 13 countries people are invited to speak their minds.
AN experiment In openness that could produce a form of long-dreamt regional unity is taking place in the Caribbean. Leading ft is Shridath Ramphal. the Guyanese diplomat who retired last year as Commonwealth Secretary-General.
Ramphal heads a commission of prominent West Indians who are touring the region and talking not to the governments. but to the people. In towns and villages throughout the 13 territories of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) from St Kitts and Dominica to Guyana and Jamaica. they are asking everyone to tell them frankly what they want
They have urged the people "to respond In great numbers, and share with us your concerns. your fears, your hopes and your aspirations for the future of our community of West Indian peoples."
West Indians have never been shy to speak out and everywhere the Commission has gone—and It is only half way through its task—people are doing just that. They have responded because they say that in 30 years of independence the politicians have never really asked them to open their hearts.
A booklet introducing the commission admits: "Over the period since Caribbean countries achieved political independence. it has become evident that small states, on their own, lack the capacity to develop to the full their natural and human resources."
The last time any public consultation of this kind took place was in 1938 when the British set up a Royal Commission under Lord Moyne following civil disturbances in their then colonies.
The current Commission is quite Independent of Caribbean .governments, although it has their blessing. The idea for It came from Prime Minister Arthur Robinson of Trinidad and Tobago. He had warned that "the Caribbean could be in danger of becoming a backwater."
The cost is being borne by Sweden, the Netherlands. Canada. Britain and international bodies like the Latin American Development Bank, United Nations Development programme (UNDP) and the Caricom secretariat.
The 15 Commission members include Alister McIntyre. Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and a former UN Under Secretary-General. Professor Rex Nettleford. the Pip Vice-Chancellor. William Dcmas. former president of the Caribbean Development Bank, and Frank Ram-persad, Co-ordinator of the 1990 Caribbean Economic Conference.
The aim yf the commission is the highlight a common identity and to move the Caribbean away from the petty bickering and the clinging to every vestige of sovereignty that, has plagued the region for so long. The hearings so far have shown that the people are ahead of most governments.
They want less hassle from officialdom in a variety of ways, such as freer movement between islands. Just to travel from one island to another to do business you must often get passports or permits. People want a common currency— raising questions of monetary union and a centra] bank that are echoes of the arguments going on in the European Community.
Time and again, people are voicing their disenchantment with government. They arc complaining, says Ramphal. that governance is flawed. In some small island states parliament hardly meets—in St Kitts and Nevis (population 43.000) the commission found it had not met for nine months.
Press freedom is a concern. Although the Caribbean press is freer than in many areas of the world, there are weak spots.
The commission is looking at matters of health care, poverty, the widespread threat of drugs, humans rights, women's rights, education, sport and cultural links, as well as relations with the non-English speaking Caribbean. Latin and Central America.
Economic prospects are a priority. The idea of the commission was largely prompted by widespread fears that the Caribbean economy is about to be squeezed by the abolition of the European Community's internal trade barriers on January 1 1993 and the free trade area between Canada and the United States and probably Mexico. Unless the Caribbean can get its act together and raise production and exports, its future is bleak.
At the same time people are deeply concerned about retaining their cultural identity. The Caribbean is bombarded by US satellite television. It needs to respond by putting out more Caribbean material and acquiring satellite time for regional programmes. It needs better regional radio and TV machinery to produce the material.
The commission Is not confining Its hearings to the region. It Is also to hold meetings with West Indians abroad. In April it will go to Britain. Later It will talk to people tn New York. Washington and Toronto, as well as to groups of West Indian academics.
Since the US troops went Into Grenada In 1983—led as deputy commander by the man who Is now at the head of the allied forces in the Gulf. General Norman Schwarzkopf—the Caribbean region has received sadly little international attention.
Grenada highlighted the vulnerability of tiny island states to political upheaval and to big-power intervention. Less dramatic but Just as deadly Is the economic vulnerability of the whole region sitting in the shadow of the United States and lacking for decades any real strength through unity.
After an Ill-conceived attempt at federation in the Fifties at a time when most of the islands were still British colonies each went its own way. The formation of the Caribbean Community (Carlcom) produced only limited and sporadic co-operation.
The undemocratic nature of the Forbes Burnham regime in Guyana and the 1979 coup tn Grenada strained relations and prevented Caricom's development. Formation of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) as a result of lessons learned from events In Grenada proved more promising.
For today's world more comprehensive machinery is needed. The commission hopes to come up with answers. It will publish a progress report In July, but the hearings will go on to December. Its full report, likely to be a bulky document, will lx-ready early in 1992. The commission will then travel throughout the West Indies explaining Its findings.
As Ramphal puts it: "We alm to be totally non-doctrlnairc. pragmatic. We are trying consciously to subordinate separatism and when It comes out the report will be presented to the people before It is presented to governments"
— GEMINI NEWS
DEREK INGRAM to Editor of Gemini News Service and was formerly Deputy Editor of the London Dally Mail. He is the author of several books on the Commonwealth .