Today is CARICOM Day. The peoples of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) mark 50 years of our aspiration for “Unity/Togetherness” and work to deepen and strengthen the integration movement. Half a century ago, four visionary leaders- Guyana’s own Prime Minister Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, Barbados’ Prime Minister Errol Barrow, Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Dr. Eric Williams, and Jamaica’s Prime Minister Michael Manley- signed the “Treaty of Chaguaramas” in Trinidad and Tobago.
They did this not only cognisant of the Cold War era that caused nations to feel they had to take a side with either the Western or Eastern superpowers, but because they knew, as newly independent small states and economies, the survival and development of one was and still is integrally linked to the survival and development of all.
These were men committed to charting an assertive path for small countries as ours, as we navigated the complexities of a global environment, emerging from a plantation economy to expanding our vision, horizon with the utilisation of skills and resources in furtherance of our economic, cultural, social and political development. Small states, though we be, we were and remain determined to chart our course.
Our coming together was not without acknowledgement that as Caribbean peoples we suffered through chattel slavery, indentureship and a system of governance built on divide and rule tactics, which socialised the region’s people to be unappreciative that there is strength in our diversity.
Our Founding Fathers believed we could successfully overcome negative perceptions of self and each other and exploit the indigenous resources at our avail as we establish our social, economic, political and cultural rights to self-determination.
I do believe it was not an accident that the Forbes Burnham administration established the CARICOM Secretariat here, because as a Founding Father of one of most diverse states in the Community, Guyana was to have been that beacon of “Unity/Togetherness.”
Fifty years hence, the aspiration lives within the people, at home and in other member and associate states in CARICOM. I also believe Guyana must continue to be a major standard bearer of integration and unity. And for us to do this, we have to assiduously work against forces, internal and external, that aim at our dream by seeking to divide us.
As Guyanese, let us continue to be the beacon of hope, pride and action of what the region represents by working towards our indigenous aspiration to be “One People One Nation One Destiny.” May this 50th Anniversary of CARICOM find us a people more committed to the ideals of nationhood and that of the Founding Fathers to create a region of “Unity/Togetherness”
Happy 50th Anniversary.
