CATEGORY:EDITORIAL
-----------------------

THE RECENTLY ELECTED Prime Minister of St. Lucia, Sir John Campton, has expressed concerns about the political involvement of Prime Ministers / political leaders from other Caribbean countries (during the build-up to elections) in sister states to seemingly try and influence the outcome of elections.

These sentiments have also been shared by a number of other politicians and concerned individuals throughout the region. According to a BBC Caribbean report, Dominica’s opposition leader, Edison James, has criticized Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerritt for campaigning last week in St.Lucia for the Labour Party - of Dr. Kenny Anthony – which lost Monday’s elections. He has subsequently made a call for CARICOM to block government leaders from campaigning for politicians in other countries.

In addition to Mr. James and Sir Campton, Richard Frederick of the United Workers’ Party (which won last week’s election in St.Lucia), also believes that P M Skerritt should have stayed away from the election campaigning in his country. He is of the view that a Caribbean politicians may have excellent fraternal relations with political leaders from sister countries, but that should not mean that he/she should enter these sister states and find himself /herself on their political platforms.

The Dominica scenario has not been the only case of such alleged interference in the internal political affairs of sister Caribbean states. Vincentian Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, was sometime ago criticized in some quarters for appearing on a political platform in Jamaica and Timothy Harris, a government minister from St. Kitts was also castigated for statements he allegedly made on the platform of a sister political party in Dominica.

It would seem strange that political leaders would go into another country and assist their friends / affiliates in campaigning against other politician there. Given the nature of Caribbean democracies, the person they campaign against might just become Prime Minister of that country and then these leaders would have to sit and work with each other at the Heads of Government level (as is the case in St. Lucia).
Our political institution in this part of the world is still going through an excruciatingly slow evolutionary process, and there is a feeling among many persons in the region (which could be incorrect) that there might just be some ‘bad blood’ bottled up inside. So, why should our Caribbean leaders run the risk of embittering relations among CARICOM member states? Wouldn’t such actions contribute towards a further deterioration in the ‘fraternal relationship’ among our independent Caribbean territories?

Over the decades, people from all over the Caribbean have complained about the noticeable lack of unity that existed in the region and the apparent inability of our Caribbean leaders to harmonize and build durable relationships among our people.

One thinks back as far as the abortive attempt at building a durable West Indies Federation in 1958 and its sad demise in 1962. Again, attempts are underway to try and create some sort of genuine integration in the region – with the coming on-stream of CSM(E) and the establishment of the CCJ among other initiatives. This recent trend of alleged extra-territorial political interference by our politicians can adversely affect the unity and harmony that these initiatives are inherently designed to bring about.

Our leaders at the regional level need to come together and address this growing concern. It does not seem to make much sense to be coming together and drafting policies to achieve set objectives and then have members allegedly engaging in activities that would make it difficult to attain those same goals.

Our politicians need to stay out of the internal political affairs of member states, unless some unusual event or circumstance occurs, which would necessitate an intervention. Even then, the decision to intervene should be a collective one, based on what is best for that sovereign country and the region as a whole, and not a unilateral one based on friendship ties or other partisan reasons.