|
PM Manning dismisses call |
|
|
|
|
Monday, 01 September 2008 |
PORT OF SPAIN – An opposition call for a referendum on regional integration here has been dismissed by Prime Minister Patrick Manning.
The Basdeo Panday-led United National Congress Alliance (UNC-A) made the call last week following news that Trinidad had signed a declaration with a number of Eastern Caribbean states to establish an economic and political union.
"The PNM (People’s National Movement) has never subscribed to referenda and that is unlikely to change, very unlikely," Manning told media. "I could tell you everybody is on board, the OECS (Organization of Eastern Caribbean States) countries...we are trying to avoid misconceptions stepping in all of this."
He said the government would be holding national consultations on the proposal to have Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and St Lucia enter into a Caribbean Single Economy (CSE) by 2011, and to have political integration by 2013.
But the opposition is not just coming from out of Trinidad. A lecturer at the University of the West Indies (UWI) has described this attempt as ludicrous.
Dr. Paul Ashley, who is also a political commentator in Jamaica, further described the initiative as "another wild scheme" and accused the leaders of disregarding the people of the region.
Ashley, a lecturer in the Department of Government at the Mona Campus of the UWI, said that Trinidad and Tobago was using the money derived from its energy sector to have clout in the region.
“This is another wild scheme. They have signed to a political union by 2013? You know how many regime changes are possible? What about the people of the region? You have to deal with the people of the region; leaders can't just come together and significantly alter their constitutions by forming a political union. It shows contempt for the people of the Caribbean," he said.
Manning led a Trinidad delegation to the Bahamas, Belize and Jamaica on Monday, and to Haiti and Suriname on Tuesday to garner support for the new economic and political integration movement.
Jamaica has so far expressed reservation about the proposal which the Bruce Golding government said could undermine the regional integration project.
Manning, however, is insisting that there is no attempt to interfere with the arrangements in CARICOM and therefore no need for a referendum on the way forward for the regional movement.
"The Caribbean is the largest market outside of the United States — there is a symbiotic relationship that exists between these countries and Trinidad and Tobago, and don’t ever believe that we can exist without them, we can’t," he said.
Manning added: "If those countries did not exist, a large percent of our trade would just disappear. CARICOM is as important to us as we are important to them."
The West Indian Federation - the forerunner to the current regional integration movement - collapsed in the late 1950s after Jamaicans voted in a referendum to withdraw from the pact.
|
News 
