THE GREAT federal debate of September 1961 was a historic passage to Jamaican independence less than a year later in 1962. The argument for and against a West Indian nation led to the decisive referendum in which the people voted 'no'. Withdrawal from the federation thus killed the regional grouping and inspired the famous Eric Williams benediction: 'One from 10 leaves 0'.This cryptic summary of West Indian nationhood is by way of noting Bruce Golding's revival of the argument. The prospective leader of the Opposition has in effect questioned the viability of the impending CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) without what he calls an "overarching supranational authority". In other words, the goals of the CSME cannot be attained without political union, he argues.
There is irony in the fact that the opposition party of the relevant period, led by Sir Alexander Bustamante, spearheaded the demise of federation. And now, the man slated to lead the same opposition party is attempting to revive the federal debate.
We wonder however whether some four decades later an argument about federation can serve any useful purpose. The individual territories of the federation have gone their separate ways. Each has achieved varying degrees of economic and political development while maintaining aspects of social and trading relationships through CARICOM. The CSME is but one aspect of the evolution to closer cooperation which Mr. Golding terms as harmonisation, rather than the unification a single economy warrants. The latter category he sees as needing a single currency and monetary policy and a central bank for the entire region.
Ever since the demise of federation, political spokesmen in the other territories have frequently voiced sentiments aimed at the kind of unification Mr. Golding now wants to be debated anew.
From Jamaica's perspective, however, the older generations, who have seen the transition through some four years of federation and the early years of independence, can attest to the fundamental changes involved. It took great effort to wean minds and hearts from colonial attitudes to the acceptance of a native national anthem, for example, and the other symbols of independence.
Similar processes must have occupied the other new nations to develop their separate identities. Perhaps the single overarching factor that has survived the changes is the game of cricket.
We see no need to turn back the clock at this stage of regional development. The CSME should be made to work as a unifying mechanism in the context of the global market the whole region must deal with and survive in.
Reviving debate on West Indian federation would be a waste of time.
