(Extract from a speech delivered at the SALISES 50-50 Conference, ‘Critical Reflections in a Time of Uncertainty’, Kingston, 22 August 2012.  In the first part of his speech, Girvan summarizes the Jamaican development experience during its 50 years of independence.  Read the complete text in PDF here)

Recovering policy independence

At the core of the experience I have described is the policy recolonisation of the Jamaican state and the gutting of its capacity to influence economic life except for the most elementary tools of the fiscal budget and central bank operations.   One must go further, and ask whether, given the nature of the ‘Independence Pact’, the system that was inherited was not programmed in a way that caused it to revert to external patrons; once its reproduction was disrupted by political and economic shocks of the kind that occurred in the 70s and 80s. This external reversion went beyond the securing of material and political support to a form of intellectual ‘recolonisation by invitation’(1), manifested by an increasingly ready acceptance by policy elites of the diagnostic and prescriptive frameworks handed down by those with the money and the power. However, the system may now have entered a phase of more or less permanent crisis, whose most powerful manifestations are the on-going fiscal crisis of the Jamaican state; and inability to staunch the continued hemorrhage of the educated cadre.

One is tempted to compare the present historical conjuncture with the situation as it obtained in the 1930s, a century after Emancipation. Emancipation had generated enormous expectations within the population, which were soon frustrated by the persistence of the planter-colonial order, the frustration being partially relieved by the internal and external migrations of the 19^th century. By the turn of the century this form of relief has been exhausted; but it took the internal and international consequences of the capitalist crisis of the 1930s to effect a rupture in the established order.

We cannot rule out the possibility of another rupture of this kind, as we are in the midst of a prolonged world capitalist crisis similar to that of the 1930s, at a time when the national project appears to have run its course. However, emigration continues to be the wild card in the pack: in the 1930s, returning migrants swelled the ranks of the disaffected at home; today, it is different. The Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street seem to have had no traction in Jamaica, or for that matter in the rest of the English-speaking Caribbean; and I would guess that one reason for this is that the social strata that predominantly drive these protests elsewhere, have already left and are leaving in large numbers. There is also no certainty as to what would be the ultimate result of a rupture, or even a revolutionary upheaval; as history offers numerous examples of the operation of the Law of Unintended Consequences.

If the ruling elites in this country are to have a chance of rescuing the national project however—and in its broadest sense the ruling elites include the intelligentsia such as those attending this Conference, including myself—then they—we—have some big responsibilities to shoulder. A fundamental step is self-recognition that we ourselves are amongst the principal beneficiaries of the current order, and that we will need to be prepared to give up many of our accumulated class privileges in order to dismantle the deeply entrenched structures of social and economic exclusion, to create a society based on equity and social justice, and to fully liberate the huge creative potential that evidently resides in the mass of the Jamaican population.

Another need is to recover, nurture, foster and encourage the habit of what Lloyd Best called Independent Thought.  Reading the policy discourse in the Jamaican media, one sometimes gets the feeling that elites are caught in a kind of neo-liberal time-warp. The mantra that the less regulation the better; and that the private sector are by definition the good guys and the state are the bad guys; has been blown away by the global financial crisis. Think of CLICO, Stanford, Madoff, Enron and the rest; think of the huge cost to the Jamaican taxpayer of Air Jamaica after privatisation; think of the egregious corruption on a massive scale on Wall Street costing trillions of dollars and throwing millions of persons into poverty all over the world; of Iceland after the banks were privatised and finance was liberalised. The idea that you can fix an economy by draconian austerity has been disproved by Greece, Spain, the UK, by IMF programmes in Eastern Europe and by the on-going Euro zone crisis.  Internationally, the extreme form of neoliberalism that seems to be accepted here is under fire and in retreat.

Research undertaken by the United Nations Committee on Development Policy; for instance, on development policies followed by dozens of countries since 1980; concluded that the Washington consensus model ‘had not delivered its promised acceleration in growth’; and on balance ‘seems to have been associated with reductions in growth and worsening income distribution’; and that countries which did the best were those that liberalised selectively, mixing orthodox and unorthodox policies’(2).

Recovering the intellectual and the regulatory capacity to undertake such selective policies must be surely be a strategic objective of the Jamaican state. To this end, one immediate action could be to impose a freeze on further incursions into the space of national policy making—known as ‘policy space’ in the jargon. For example, the Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU gave away far more policy space than was required by the rules of the WTO; and Jamaica is having serious problems in its implementation. It is due for a comprehensive review in 2013 and this is an opportunity to revisit it. We can resist making the same concessions in the Canadian FTA. The same principle of enlarging national policy space might apply to the on-going IMF negotiations.

Economists will recognise that what I am talking about here is the need for A DEVELOPMENTAL STATE. There is an important caveat: this isn’t going to work unless the society has confidence in the technical competence and the incorruptibility of state officials. There have to be muscular mechanisms for transparency and accountability and transparency in policy making. That is one of the lessons of the success of the developmental states of East Asia.

Regionalism and CARICOM

In the final part of my reflections I want to say something about regionalism and linking it to the strategic objective of the recovery of policy independence. 50-odd years ago CLR James said that Federation was the only means by which the West Indies could take its place in the community of modern nations. The Federation failed; but today Jamaica and other Caricom states are experiencing the illusion of insular independence. I think CLR has been vindicated. I am not advocating a new Federation, but I see the need for a much stronger Caricom, to consolidate our collective identity as a Caribbean people and to cope more effectively with the world of the 21^st century; a world which is infinitely more complex, demanding and fast-changing than half a century ago.

Trade preferences are on the way out, aid flows have been cut, the Caribbean doesn’t have the strategic importance it used to have. There is a world food crisis, an energy crisis and an environmental crisis. Transnational criminal organisations commanding huge resources have pushed up our murder rates to be among the highest in the world. Demands on governments are exploding while resources are shrinking and indebtedness has grown. In a recent paper, I spoke of the looming possibility of a ‘perfect storm’ of intersecting developments that could end up profoundly affecting the existence of Caribbean societies as we know them—‘existential threats’(3). The silver lining on these clouds is that the reconfiguration of the global economy has opened up new opportunities in trade, investment and tourism.   Any idea that countries of our size can individually mobilise the critical mass of resources and diplomatic clout to deal with these issues is, quite frankly, delusional.  Much larger countries than ours are forming regional blocs.

Caricom is the natural alliance bloc of Jamaica; by history, size, culture and geography. George Beckford used to say, the people of the Caribbean are already integrated; the only people who don’t know it are the politicians. When Jamaica took 1-2-3 at the London Olympics, the whole region stood up and cheered. When the Reggae Boys went to the Football World Cup, the whole region was behind us. When the mighty West Indian Cricket team regularly vanquished all its adversaries back in the day; who cared which island Viv Richards came from? Or Lara? Or captain Lloyd? If Jamaica has a problem with exporting to Trinidad, there are ways to deal with it.

In Beijing, Jamaica and some other Caricom countries have offices; each with a handful of professionals; to service a vast country of 1.3 billion people. Surely it would be more effective to pool these resources so that specialist expertise can be deployed in particular areas. There is a mind-set of competitiveness  that seems to prevail. At the Shanghai trade fair in 2010, there was a Caricom house, with each country having its own booth; no coherence, no Caribbean brand. If Chinese tourists are going to come all the way across the world to visit the Caribbean, why not promote a Caribbean experience with multiple destinations?

There is a fear of a new Federation, of surrendering our sovereignty. I would make the distinction between de jure sovereignty and de facto sovereignty.  De jure sovereignty is a question of the Constitution and the law; de facto sovereignty is the actual ability to make and execute national policy independent of external constraints. As I see it, the issue for Jamaica and other Caricom members is how to engineer an expansion of their de facto sovereignty by sharing their de jure sovereignty in particular areas. In a paper which I helped to prepare along with Havelock Brewster and others in 2011(4); we proposed four areas for shared sovereignty: the Common Market; external trade policy; regional security; and environment and climate change. We proposed joint action in three sectors where tangible benefits could be realised: agriculture and food security; maritime transport; and renewable energy production. I still believe these proposals offer a way to rescue the regional project.

A Vision

I said earlier that I have never recognised any contradiction between being a Jamaican nationalist and a Caribbean regionalist. I would like to share with you my vision for our Community of Caribbean nations. You might say that it is utopian, but does not our national anthem pray for vision, lest we perish? So here it is:

<<We envision a Caribbean Community in which every citizen has the opportunity to realise his or her human potential and is guaranteed the full enjoyment of their human rights in every sphere; in which social and economic justice is enshrined in law and embedded in practice; a Community from which poverty, unemployment and social exclusion have been banished; in which all citizens willingly accept a responsibility to contribute to the welfare of their fellow citizens and to the common good; and one which serves as a vehicle for the exercise of the collective strength of the Caribbean region, and the affirmation of the collective identity of the Caribbean people, in the world community(5).>>

An Independence wish for Jamaica

Some weeks ago Hope McNish published an Independence Wish for Jamaica(6). I think it should be adopted as a Manifesto for our Second Independence.  It calls in part for

·         a nation is not subject to manipulation by external powers and the dictates of international funding institutions …

·         there is scientific and technological support and guidance to our farmers ensuring that all arable lands are fully utilized for organic farming in order to provide our people with healthy nutrition;

·         there is a strong manufacturing industry utilizing the latest technology and our skills, creativity, ingenuity and entrepreneurial talents to produce high quality goods for the local and export markets;

·         all our natural resources are harnessed and developed for the benefit of the nation;

It goes on with wishes for employment, education, housing; public transport; health care,  public access to all beaches, environmental protection, true rehabilitation of prisoners, accountability for political representatives;  and citizens’ rights. To all of which I say, “Amen”. The cynics will say it cannot happen. I say that if Marcus Garvey had not dreamed, if the leaders of the 1930s had not dreamed, if Usain Bolt had not dreamed, would we be where we are today? I say to Hope for, “Go for it”’.  Without the Hopes of this world, what hope will there be for the future of our island, of our region?

Read the complete speech here:  http://alainet.org/active/57464

- Norman Girvan is Professorial Research Fellow at the UWI Graduate Institute of International Relations at the University of the West Indies in St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. Former Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States.  http://normangirvan.info

Notes:

1 ‘Recolonisation by Invitation’ (a variant of ‘Industrialisation by Invitation’) is a phrase invented by Michael Theodore in another context, referring to developments in legal education in Trinidad and Tobago. http://www.normangirvan.info/theodore-recolonisation-by-invitation/. ,

2 Frances Stewart, Do we need new development models? Impact of neo-liberal policies. Paper prepared for the United Nations Committee on Development Policy. 2011. Also see Giovanni Andrea Cornia and Milica Uvalic, Learning from the past: which of the past/current development models is best suited to deal with the ‘quadruple crisis’? DESA Working Paper No. 116; ST/ESA/2012/DWP/116. Available online.

3 CLR James Memorial Lecture, http://www.normangirvan.info/girvan-clrjames-memorial-revised/

4 Re-Energising Caricom, http://www.normangirvan.info/re-energising-caricom-integration-prime-minister-tillman-thomas/

5 CARICOM: Towards a Single Development Vision and the Role of the Single Economy. http://www.caricom.org/jsp/single_market/single_economy_girvan.pdf

6 Hope McNish, A Jamaica 50 Message. http://www.normangirvan.info/a-jamaica-50-message-hope-mcnish/