CARICOM LEADERS' TOUGH AGENDA

Grand Anse, February 25- Caribbean Community Heads of Government will settle down today to a tough agenda of unresolved issues at their two-day meeting in St George's, Grenada.

Among the challenges they face is how to beat back growing cynicism and frustration over Caricom's persistent failure to implement decisions on a range of critical issues to make a reality.

However, as if guaranteed to face new problems after circulating their draft work agenda, the Caricom leaders will now also have to deal with an unexpected controversy involving Haiti and Jamaica.

That controversy has to do with Jamaica's decision to send back home this past weekend the entire Haitian football team whose members were participating in the current CONCACAF Under-17 tournament, following discovery that three members were infected with the contagious malaria disease.

Since then, feverish efforts have been pursued in Kingston and Port-au-Prince at government level to keep the lid on what threatens to be a serious rupture in diplomatic relations, as angry Haitians have engaged in anti-Jamaica/Caricom protests in the Haitian capital. And, sensationally, they torched the official flag of the 15-member Community -an unprecedented development in the 38-year life of Caricom- amid clamour for a break in diplomatic ties between Kingston and Port-au-Prince.

When the draft work agenda went out for this week's two-day meeting, Caricom leaders were already having to contend with a range of unresolved sensitive and pressing issues.

Among them was finding a new secretary general to succeed Edwin Carrington, who retired last year-end after 18 years in office; and the establishment of a new and relevant governance structure at the community secretariat.

Further, they have to come to grips with complaints about lack of expected progress on a backlog of readiness arrangements for the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME); as well as implementation of provisions of the EPA.

Ahead of today's start of the Inter-Sessional Meeting, which is being chaired by host Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, there was a meeting yesterday of the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on the CSME under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Fruendel Stuart of Barabos, the country with lead responsibility for CSME-readiness arrangements.

Given the growing anxieties, across the community, over an apparent standstill in arrangements to push ahead with the CSME -the so-called "flagship project" of the community, expectations for some positive developments from the St George's Inter-Sessional would be focused on, for example:

- Information on some specific details of progress made since the last Caricom Summit held in Jamaica in 2010, in areas like intra-regional free movement to live and work, consistent with CSME provisions located in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas;

- The related legislation on contingent rights for approved skilled nationals and their families, and the proposed regional health insurance scheme to benefit all community nationals;

- The old issue of the much talked about introduction of a recognised need for an effective governance system -that dates back to the 1992 seminal 'Time for Action' report from The West Indian Commission. The Heads of Government would, hopefully, have been sensitised to informed criticisms across the region that their proposal to establish a Permanent Council of Caricom Ambassadors is NOT the way to go.

The fact that an ill-considered, unwieldly "search committee" has failed to come forward with a shortlist of potential appropriate nominees for appointment as secretary general should be given priority consideration.

This should be done before proceeding any further with the proposed creation of a Permanent Council of Caricom Ambassadors who would be scattered across the community and whose powers to influence change and terms of accountability are yet to be defined for the benefit of the public.

Now that the interviewed five Caricom nationals -from Belize, Jamaica, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and St Lucia- have not been approved, it is reasonable to assume that an entirely new and realistic approach would have to be pursued.

At this time, there is neither commonality on the way forward in determining the choice for appointment of a new secretary general, nor the usefulness of a Permanent Committee of Caricom Ambassadors to help the process of effective governance of the community.

For now, we must await the outcome of this week's meeting in St George's to learn if, indeed, there has been progress in areas that continue to reveal lack of political will, if not outright sloth.

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