Message from the leader of the opposition on the occasion of CARICOM Day 2021

The Leader of the Opposition extends warm CARICOM Day Greetings to all Guyanese at home and abroad and to all nationals of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

As we commemorate the 48^th year of the oldest existing regional integration movement in the developing world, the Community continues to grapple with the debilitating effects of COVID-19, the worse pandemic in recent history, as well as the negative impacts of global warming, which renders the Region particularly vulnerable to health, environmental and economic challenges.

It is crucial that now more than ever before we redouble our efforts to realise regional integration, as success is only assured through a coordinated and collaborative approach.

In this regard, the admonition issued by the Hon. LFS Burnham on the 14 August 1967 still remains relevant:  “Either we weld ourselves into a regional grouping, serving primarily Caribbean needs, or lacking a common positive policy, have our various territories and nations drawn hither and tither into, and by, other large groupings, where the peculiar problems of the Caribbean are lost or where we become the objects of neocolonist exploitation and achieve the pitiable status of international mendicants… This is the naked truth. Either we integrate or we perish, unwept, unhonoured.”

Further, the APNU/AFC Coalition continues to be concerned at the treatment of our Haitian brothers and sisters and we urge CARICOM Governments to refrain from the implementation of policies that frustrate the free movement of CARICOM Nationals within the Region.

Once again, we extend felicitations to our CARICOM brethren and recommit ourselves towards the achievement of a Community for all.

Sincerely,

Joseph Harmon, MSM, MP