The Tribune

The Caribbean must settle on one candidate for Commonwealth Secretary-General and show coherence, says Reginald Dumas

In the beginning there were three. Then there were two. Now it’s three again. CARICOM is like West Indies cricket: you never know when or if it’s coming or going. The region increasingly needs a raft of dedicated and experienced psychologists.

This time I’m speaking about candidates for the post of Commonwealth Secretary-General. A successor to the incumbent Kamalesh Sharma will be chosen by the Commonwealth heads at their meeting in Malta later this year. Disdaining the obvious path of coalescing behind one person, and hewing happily to our practiced ways of incoordination, CARICOM heads have come up with three names, and have so far declined to budge. And this, mind you, despite a decision by the same heads at their meeting last July that they “would put forward a candidate for the position (whose name would) be announced shortly”.

A candidate. One, in other words. As for “shortly”, well, any time is Caribbean time. But let’s look at the three individuals before us.

First, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, proposed by Dominica and supported by Barbados. The Baroness has West Indian connections. She was born in Dominica; a sister of her’s lives in Trinidad. She has a formidable CV: the first black woman QC in the UK; the first woman Attorney General in that country (since 1315); currently Alderman for Bishopsgate in the City of London and president of the prestigious Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs), etc. I am in awe; we all should be.

But the Baroness is British: when she was two, she and her family emigrated to the UK, where she has lived since. I have nothing against the British; perish the thought. However, I find it impossible to accept that a Briton, especially one who is a former British minister of government and sitting member of the British House of Lords, can seriously be regarded as a CARICOM candidate for a Commonwealth post. Nor can I envisage either the late Eugenia Charles, of Dominica, or the late Errol Barrow, of Barbados, both of whom I knew personally, disagreeing with me.

Second, Dr Bhoe Tewarie, proposed by Trinidad and Tobago and, so I’m told, supported by no other country. I have known Tewarie for many years. He is a very bright man, and comes across as a conscientious minister - at least, he hasn’t been fired or shuffled. Yet. In my view, he did an excellent job (perhaps after some public prompting) on the recent procurement legislation, and I hope he will see the Greyfriars issue through to a conclusion favourable to all concerned.

But I have not known him to be skilled in international relations, particularly the complex socio-economic, political and cultural facets of the developing – too often, underdeveloping – countries which form so large a part of the Commonwealth. I would be most interested to hear why the Prime Minister chose him, especially since I understand that someone better qualified had previously indicated an interest.

Third, Sir Ronald Sanders, originally proposed by Antigua and Barbuda and supported, I understand, by nine of the 12 CARICOM governments that met in Cuba last December. Shortly after that meeting, however, Antigua and Barbuda withdrew his name from consideration after Sanders, dismayed by his failure to obtain the total support he wanted, intimated he was no longer interested.

But now, in a letter dated February 12, the Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, has, after consultation, written to his CARICOM colleagues re-submitting Sanders’s candidacy. He says that at the CARICOM inter-sessional meeting in Nassau this week he will “seek ... consensus (on the matter and looks) forward in fraternity to (the organisation’s) backing”.

“Fraternity” is an odd word to use to a woman PM, or any woman, but let that pass. I hold no brief for Sanders, but, if only from the viewpoints of professional background and nationality, I consider him the best of the three candidates; CARICOM should support him for the job unless it can find someone better. The governments of Dominica and Trinidad and Tobago should withdraw their proposals. All they have to say, or have the meeting’s chairman announce, is that they “do not insist” on their nominations.

That would send a message, welcome to the region and beyond, of CARICOM coherence and resolve.

Reginald Dumas is a columnist with the

Trinidad Express