Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s disclosure that he wants another leaders’ review of the reappointment of CARICOM Secretary General Dr Carla Barnett appears to send a clear signal that her continued leadership of the regional secretariat may no longer be tenable.
The issue now seems to have moved beyond whether the procedures and voting methods used by heads of government present at the meeting that reappointed Dr Barnett were consistent with the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and therefore legally sound. It has clearly crossed into the political realm – specifically, whether Dr Barnett still enjoys the confidence of all the leaders who initially endorsed her continued tenure.
Dr Holness’s current posture suggests that such support can no longer be guaranteed. If so, this lends encouragement to Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who has mounted a sustained campaign against both Dr Barnett and the process by which her five-year term was extended.
Speaking to Trinidad’s CNC3 television station, Dr Holness said: “I think the solution really lies in assembling another heads meeting to have the matter addressed. That’s something I’ve been pushing for quietly behind the scenes. I think it is distressing for many people within the region what is being said in the public domain, but I know all the heads are working behind the scenes to resolve the matter.”
In light of these developments, Dr Barnett should – beyond her legal entitlement – consider announcing her intention to demit office when her current term expires in August. Doing so would avoid the embarrassment of a possible reversal of her reappointment and help ease the disquiet now unsettling the Caribbean integration movement.
For many advocates of regional integration, the perception that her departure would represent a “victory” for Ms Persad-Bissessar would be bitter medicine to swallow, particularly given the Trinidadian leader’s recent excoriation of CARICOM and her mockery of member states affected by US visa restrictions. She has framed those sanctions as deserved punishment for allegedly “bad-mouthing” the United States.
OPPORTUNITY FOR RESET
Nevertheless, the episode – and Dr Barnett’s eventual departure – could be leveraged as an opportunity for a reset of CARICOM. That reset should include appointing a secretary general with a broader and more imaginative interpretation of the office, someone prepared to take risks rather than adhere to the kind of formulaic bureaucracy that appears to have characterised Dr Barnett’s tenure and which may have been preferred by a majority of CARICOM leaders.
Even setting aside questions of leadership style, Dr Barnett’s continuation was always likely to be difficult once Ms Persad-Bissessar returned to office after a decade in opposition. That is not necessarily Dr Barnett’s fault so much as it reflects Ms Persad-Bissessar’s enduring sense of grievance and wounded political pride.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when Ms Persad-Bissessar was in opposition, a Trinidad and Tobago businessman suspected of criminal activity was detained in Barbados at the request of Port of Spain. Because of pandemic-related travel restrictions, he was held for an extended period. His supporters – along with Ms Persad-Bissessar’s party – characterised the detention as a kidnapping. A Trinidadian court later ruled the detention illegal, in part because of the absence of a formal extradition agreement between the two countries.
Ms Persad-Bissessar subsequently wrote to the CARICOM Secretariat about the incident and has complained publicly that she received no response from Dr Barnett. The matter has since formed a central plank of her narrative portraying CARICOM as a failing institution in need of overhaul, notwithstanding that the issue was fundamentally a bilateral legal dispute between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, rather than a CARICOM responsibility.
GROWING UNEASE
This dispute was followed by Port of Spain’s objections to the procedure used by CARICOM leaders at a retreat during their February summit – which Trinidad and Tobago did not attend – to reappoint Dr Barnett. Ms Persad-Bissessar left the summit early, and Port of Spain claims that acting head of delegation, Foreign Affairs Minister Sean Sobers, was disinvited from the retreat. CARICOM officials have countered that Mr Sobers declined attendance, citing fears of seasickness during the boat crossing to the venue.
All of this unfolds against the backdrop of Ms Persad-Bissessar’s enthusiastic embrace of former US president Donald Trump’s controversial Caribbean policies, as well as growing unease among CARICOM states that her posture poses serious challenges to regional integration – from which Trinidad and Tobago is a major beneficiary. The country accounts for more than 70 per cent of intra-CARICOM exports but only about 15 per cent of imports, and the regional market absorbs the bulk of its non-oil and mineral exports.
Trinidad and Tobago could have sought a ruling from the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on whether CARICOM heads correctly applied the treaty’s decision-making provisions in reappointing Dr Barnett, or the Secretariat itself could have sought an advisory opinion. Dr Holness’s intervention now appears to foreclose those options unless Dr Barnett chooses to assert any implied contractual rights and contest the matter – an outcome that seems unlikely.
Any meeting convened on the Barnett issue – which would be the third – should not focus solely on the secretary general’s tenure. It must address the broader future of CARICOM itself, and Trinidad and Tobago’s place within it.
