Peter Espeut | The dismantling of CARICOM

I guess if you ask Prime Minister Holness he might say that Jamaica already held a referendum on the issue on September 19, 1961 and the people decided. Sixty-five years ago, Norman Manley – premier of Jamaica – asked the Jamaican people to choose: Federation or Independence? Continue to deepen the Federation of the West Indies – the political and economic union among ten Caribbean confreres who had been British colonies together – or go it alone as Independent Jamaica?

Regional territories had already invested in Caribbean unity, symbolized by ‘the Windies’ (the West Indies Cricket team) and UWI (the University of the West Indies). Several of the mainline Christian churches had aggregated into regional entities: the Anglican Province of the West Indies, the Catholic Antilles Episcopal Conference, the Caribbean Baptist Federation, to name a few. It seems that Caribbean people were sold on the idea of regional integration.

Yet the people chose Independence.

The party led by Alexander Bustamante pooh-poohed the idea that ‘big island’ Jamaica should ever unite with a bunch of ‘small islands’, who would only drag us down. And we rankled that the Capital of the West Indies Federation was in Port-of-Spain and not Kingston. The rivalry between Jamaica and T&T intensified.

And when it was put to the vote in 1961, 46 percent of the Jamaican electorate said ‘Federation’, and 54 per cent said ‘Independence’, and the rest is regional mathematics: 10 – 1 = 0.

Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago began the avalanche of independent micro-states in 1962; and then in 1965 along came CARIFTA (The Caribbean Free Trade Area). Economics dragged Jamaica into the hard reality that she was a small island after all, with a very small economy, and could not survive on her own. We needed the smaller islands as markets for our goods. Even our former colonial masters – the United Kingdom – feeling their smallness, joined the European Union in 1973.

Caribbean regional unity deepened in 1973 when the Caribbean Free Trade Area (CARIFTA) became the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), much as the European Economic Community (EEC) had morphed into the European Union (EU). The value of Caribbean nations speaking with one voice gained traction.

OUT PERFORMED

Here we are in 2026 and those ‘small islands’ have out-performed Jamaica on many fronts. In terms of per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) according to the World Bank on average in 2024 each Jamaican man, woman and child earned US$12,890 per annum, whereas on average each Bahamian earned US$41,198, each Trini earned US$36,329, each Kittician earned US$34,847, each Antiguan earned US$33,386, each Lucian earned US$27,567, each Bajan earned US$24,823, each Grenadian earned US$20,178, and each Vincie earned US$21.272.

Soon Jamaicans will be seeking reparations from the JLP and the PNP for hijacking our political Independence!

In 2023, T&T exported US$227M to Jamaica, while Jamaica exported US $35.8M to T&T. Barbados exported US$91,725M to Jamaica and imported US$27,907M from Jamaica. And the trade deficit goes on.

Jamaica’s adult literacy rate is given as 88.1 per cent (I don’t believe it), Barbados 99.6 per cent, Antigua 98.9 per cent, Grenada is 98.6 per cent, T&T 96.9 per cent, SVG 95.6 per cent.

We are dragging them down!

But the party of Bustamante (under Seaga) always warned that CARICOM must not become a strategy to drag Jamaica into a new West Indies Federation ‘through the back door’. Maybe the reality is that if we associated with them more, they might drag us up!

Dateline: February 26. The Gleaner carries a report of Prime Minister Holness at the CARICOM summit in Basseterre, St. Kitts, speechifying last Tuesday (so the US can hear):

“For decades, an idealised narrative around Caribbean integration while well-intentioned, has framed, perhaps, unrealistic expectations within our respective populations. It has also, perhaps, unintentionally, diminished the genuine strengths of our existing arrangement – an association of independent states, bound, not by uniformity, but by sheer purpose, neutral regard, and a deep history of collaboration.”

HAD EXPECTATIONS

I certainly had expectations that Jamaica would do at least as well – if not better – than our CARICOM brothers and sisters. Now PM Holness advises that those expectations were ‘unrealistic’. I think I agree with him. Most of our CARICOM cousins – those ‘small island’ people – have done more than twice as well as we have.

The Gleaner reported that PM Holness “pressed for a move away from the belief that the Caribbean must speak with one voice, framing his position as a ‘spectrum of strategic options’ and a tool for global leverage. Holness argued that by allowing states to pursue different diplomatic paths, the region, as a whole, becomes more adaptable to a hostile global environment.”

My translation: CARICOM must not speak with one voice. Each country must be allowed to forge its own links with hostile governments (read the US), arrangements that work for its national advantage. Gone are the days of working for regional advantage. It’s now every man for himself!

The Gleaner quoted PM Holness: “CARICOM is not, and has never claimed to be, a political union. Our treaty does not mandate a singular foreign policy or a supranational authority. And because we are sovereign states, each accountable to our own electorates, we will, at times, assess risks differently, sequence priorities differently, or interpret geopolitical opportunities differently. That is not evidence of the weakness of our association. This is the natural expression of sovereign democracies, navigating an increasingly turbulent global environment,” he said.

Goodbye CARICOM! Maybe we are more like the UK than we like to think!

Left up to PM Holness, all we will have left are the Windies and The UWI.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com