Joshua Seemungal
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has made public a letter by Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Sean Sobers to Caricom regarding this country’s attendance at any meeting to discuss the reappointment of Secretary General Dr Carla Barnett.
In a post on Facebook yesterday, the Prime Minister said that because the contents of a letter dated April 8 to the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, who is also Caricom chairman, were leaked, she chose to share the details of a letter this country sent to Caricom saying it would not attend any talks. She also called on the regional grouping to provide the relevant documentation on the matter.
She said, “While the documentation is being gathered…can someone in Caricom also speak to the Caricom Secretariat about the communications on the morning of the retreat disinviting Minister Sobers from the meeting.”
The Prime Minister went onto wish everyone a “wonderful weekend” punctuated with a yellow heart and a smiley face.
Her post came hours after T&T’s Ambassador to Caricom, Ralph Maraj, said he has no doubt that the current issue involving Caricom Secretary General Dr Carla Barnett will be resolved and will make the regional grouping stronger.
In a statement yesterday, Maraj said Trinidad and Tobago raised concerns over the reappointment of Barnett, saying it will not participate in meetings of the regional body until it receives documentation related to the process.
Maraj noted that support for Barnett’s reappointment, which ends in August, has been expressed by some Caricom member states, including Guyana and Belize, while most countries have not publicly stated a position.
He said Caricom chairman, Dr Terrance Drew, has sought to convene a special meeting of Heads of Government to address the issue. However, T&T indicated it will not attend any such meeting until the requested information is provided.
While it has yet to be officially confirmed whether Caricom actually met on Friday to discuss the dispute, two political analysts say that Government has more questions to answer than the regional grouping.
Last week, Foreign Affairs Minister Sean Sobers claimed T&T was disinvited from the voting process for Barnett.
Offering his take, political analyst Derek Ramsamooj, who attended the controversial Caricom Heads of Government meeting in St Kitts and Nevis in February, believed the incident suggested there was a lack of understanding about the protocols involved in the decision making process.
“This retreat occurred in Nevis, and a number of Prime Ministers failed to attend because they either left the Caricom Heads of Government Meeting before the prime minister’s retreat or were not there in person. When the Prime Ministers’ retreat was occurring. In the interest of regional integrity, we need to see the disinvitation. We need to understand if there was, in fact, a disinvitation, whether that was verbal or written.”
Meanwhile, political analyst and former University of the West Indies lecturer Dr Winford James believed that the country does not sufficiently understand the Government’s position on Barnett’s reappointment.
He said answers are needed for some important questions.
“Did Caricom break a law or break a rule? It seems from all the information that I have that Caricom did not break any rules. Although Mrs Persad-Bissessar does not want Barnett to return, why she doesn’t want Bennett to be there, not that she’s obligated to give a reason, why she doesn’t want the lady to be there is beyond me. It’s perhaps not the most important question, but it is a question we need to have answered.”
He believes that the Prime Minister’s stance on this matter seemed to be another indication that her posture was resembling that of US President Donald Trump.
