THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE VISIONARY West Indian Federation effort was terminated by a Jamaica Labour Party-led referendum. That parochial, psuedo-nationalistic approach to development has set the region back by at least half of a century. No other country has suffered more from the balkanisation that aborted that early attempt at regional integration than the country that instigated it.
Is the Caribbean Single Market and Economy, to which the Caribbean Court of Justice is critical, to suffer a similar fate? And is our economic survival in a cut-throat, bigger bark, globalised world to be laid to waste by this political deja vu?
Might I just point out that the arguments for the rejection of the CCJ, and by extension the CSME, are not just symptomatic of gross self-doubt and a deferment of our regional and national sovereignty, it represents a tampering with our development. The vehement opposition to the CCJ is not just opposition to the PNP, it is rejection of the collective wisdom of the entire political leadership in the Caribbean, as well as that of all the regionalising areas of the world. That type of arrogance frightens me.
If there is really any sincerity in the call to get a feedback from the people, why not propose an indicative poll? Or could there be some other hidden agenda? The protesting JLP won the referendum on Federation and formed the government. I wonder if political haste and a delusion of lightning striking twice have anything to do with this contemporary call?
I am, etc.,
STANLEY REDWOOD
stanley_redwood@yahoo.com
Middle Quarters P.O.
St. Elizabeth
Via Go-Jamaica
