News
Challenging year 2012: A year in review in the Caribbean Community
The year 2012 has been a challenging year for the Caribbean Community. Immediate past Premier if the Cayman Islands, McKeeva Bush would have been very familiar with the phrase “annus horribilis” – Latin for horrible year.
Mr. Bush, the 57-year old leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP) became the first head of government in modern Caribbean history to be detained by police on suspicion of theft in connection with financial irregularities relating to the alleged misuse of a government credit card, breach of trust, abuse of office and allegedly importing explosive substances without valid permits on or before February 2012.
Following his detention, the embattled Bush saw his first five-year term as premier come crashing down in mid-December after legislators, including members of his own government, voted in favor of a “no confidence” motion against his administration.
No charges have yet been laid against Bush, who remains out on police bail until February 2013. Bush continues to regard his arrest as nothing short of a “very vindictive political witch-hunt,” insisting on his innocence.
In The Bahamas former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham formally retired from politics after leading his Free National Movement (FNM) into defeat in the general elections in March.
“I shall return to private life from whence I came,” he said, soon after the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), headed by Perry Christie, won what it termed the “most important general elections since 1967”.
Mr. Christie, who previously served as prime minister from 2002 to 2007, would later say the voters “clearly felt that the policies of the FNM were not in their best interest and relegated them to second class citizens.”
In Bermuda, the Progress Labor Party (“other PLP”) was not so fortunate. An 18-month-old One Bermuda Alliance (OBA) led by businessman Craig Cannonier won a decisive victory in the general elections, and in the process sent premier Paula Cox packing. Ms. Cox has since resigned as the leader of the PLP – and by extension politics.
In Belize, Prime Minister Dean Barrow narrowly avoided defeat – his United Democratic Party (UDP) won the March 7 general election by one seat.
Political machinations and survival strategies kept some Caribbean administrations in office.
In Guyana, where the opposition parties control 33 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly, legislators from all sides sought to garner support from the international community during 2012 over what they claimed to be relentless attacks on parliamentary democracy in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country. Frustrated by the opposition’s strategies, the government of President Donald Ramotar went to the courts in a bid to overturn decisions initiated by the opposition and has also called on the international community to monitor and “consider statements and postures it may wish to make in support of the protection of parliamentary democracy and the legitimacy of the democratically elected government in Guyana”.
In Grenada, Prime Minister Tillman Thomas prorogued parliament in the face of a second vote of no confidence in 2012. The first, filed in April, had been brought by the main opposition New National Party (NNP) of Dr. Keith Mitchell and although the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of Prime Minister Thomas closed ranks in defeating the motion, the second in September was brought by Thomas’s former foreign affairs minister Karl Hood.
Like McKeeva Bush, 2012 has turned out to be an “annus horribilis” for Mr. Thomas, who came to power in 2008 leading the NDC to an 11-4 victory at the polls.
In September, Thomas accused several party members including former tourism minister Peter David, Hood and prominent trade unionist Chester Humphrey of working in cohorts with the opposition NNP, resulting in their expulsion from the NDC.
The move further crippled the NDC, which saw its majority in the parliament dwindle to 6 and the subsequent formation of the National United Front (NUF), comprising many of the expelled NDC members, who are now promising to provide an alternative “third way” to the NDC and the NNP parties.
The year 2012 concludes with there not being a parliamentary sitting in Grenada since July – despite calls for Prime Minister Thomas to re-convene parliament. The country’s constitution notes that the parliament must have at least one sitting during a six-month period – failure to do so, could result in the Head of State dissolving parliament and calling for fresh elections.
In St. Kitts & Nevis, Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas is not perturbed at a motion of no confidence filed against him and his government by Opposition Leader Mark Brantley. A confident Dr. Douglas, who was unable to present his 2012-2013 national budget as scheduled in December because two of his senior ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Sam Condor, were not attending budget meetings, said there were many other important matters to come before the parliament.
“There is a procedure that has to be followed here,” he said, adding “and so if there is a motion now to be heard, it will have to wait in line with what is the calendar of the House that is before the Speaker of the House.”
However, Mr. Brantley has written to the Speaker Curtis Martin urging that a date be set for the debate.
“I have been inundated with requests from the press and fellow Commonwealth parliamentarians as to how this motion of no confidence is progressing and I propose to keep them fully advised as to these critical developments in the life of our democracy and our National Parliament,” Brantley said.
However, the Opposition Leader may have to keep his eyes on the situation unfolding in Nevis, where Premier Joseph Parry has indicated he will call a general election to elect a new government to run the Nevis Island Administration (NIA).
Parry’s move comes in the wake of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Court of Appeal ruling on August 27, which upheld an earlier decision by the High Court that had declared the results of the July 11, 2011 Nevis Island Assembly (NIA) elections in the St John’s seat null and void.
The court has kept Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit in power even as the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP) kept up a relentless legal battle in 2012 to have him removed.
The UWP, through its former leader Ron Green and defeated candidate, Maynard Joseph, have filed an appeal against the January ruling by High Court judge Gertel Thom that they failed to establish a case against Skerrit and his Education Minister Petter Saint Jean. The opposition politicians have been challenging the nomination of the two government ministers who won their seats in the 2009 general election.
In the CARICOM country of Suriname, the courts are also playing a role in whether or not President Desi Bouterse remains in office.
His trial and that of others implicated in the deaths of 15 prominent people who were opposed to the then military government in 1982, has been postponed amid further uncertainty as to whether the court could continue hearing evidence in light of the recent passage of an amnesty law. The trial was due to re-start on December 12, but the Prosecutor’s Office announced that it was awaiting a ruling from the Constitutional Court on the amnesty law resulting in Judge Cynthia Valstein-Montnor having to postpone the matter to a later date.
Former Turks and Caicos Islands Premier Michael Misick was arrested at the Santos Dumont Airport in Rio de Janeiro by Brazilian Federal Police.
INTERPOL had issued an international warrant for Misick, who also found himself the subject of a warrant issued by the Brazilian Supreme Court. His arrest was sought in relation to an ongoing investigation by the Turks and Caicos Islands authorities into issues uncovered during the Sir Robin Auld’s 2008-09 Commission of Inquiry regarding alleged corruption and maladministration.
Mr. Misick was implicated in large-scale corruption in Turks and Caicos that led to the suspension of the democratic government. He faces several “serious charges” relating to corruption and maladministration.
In Barbados, a confident Prime Minister, Freundel Stuart, predicted this year that his ruling Democratic Labor Party (DLP) will be returned to power when it faces the electorate in the 2013 general election.
“We will win the next general election and with your full support we will resolve to do so in a convincing manner,” Stuart told supporters at the party’s 57th annual conference, acknowledging that “although victory may be ours for the taking” he was warning supporters “it is not going to come easy”.
Mr. Stuart, who became party leader and Prime Minister following the death of then prime minister David Thompson in 2010, said that the DLP which came to power in 2008, was quietly getting its election machinery in place and acknowledged that the state of the economy, despite the ongoing global crisis, remains stable.
The DLP’s main challenge will come from the Barbados Labor Party (BLP) headed by former prime minister Owen Arthur, who during 2012, has been critical of the socio-economic policies of the Stuart administration.
In Trinidad & Tobago, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar does not have an election to face until 2015, but for certain, one campaign issue surfaced during 2012, despite pleas from the four-party coalition People’s Partnership government for the country to “move on”. The Persad-Bissessar administration has found it virtually impossible to shake off public criticism led by the main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM), civil society and non-governmental organisations that the decision to proclaim early, Section 34 of the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Act, was to ensure the freedom of two government financiers.
Street demonstrations calling for the dismissal of the Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, the dismissal of justice minister Herbert Volney, a former high court judge over their roles in the ongoing controversy, have done little to appease the critics, who are now supporting a request by President George Maxwell Richards for Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar to furnish him with details leading to the early proclamation of the section.
Ms. Persad-Bissessar has responded but the contents of her letter were not disclosed since she said it had been sent under confidential cover.
In September, parliament repealed the controversial section that had the effect of allowing anyone, whose trial has not started after a 10-year period to walk free and a verdict of not guilty entered against their names. Critics said that the clause was aimed at supporting businessmen Ish Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson, who have been described as financiers of the ruling United National Congress (UNC), the biggest partner in the four-member coalition government.
The two businessmen are facing fraud and laundering charges relating to the re-development of the Piarco International Airport in 2001. They are also wanted in the United States on a number of related charges.
In Antigua & Barbuda, for the first time in its 66-year history, the main opposition Antigua Labor Party (ALP) does not have a Bird at its helm. Gaston Browne defeated former prime minister and Opposition Leader Lester Bird by a 213-180 margin but the leadership is not far off from the Bird family circle, as Browne also announced he will marry on April 24, next year, Maria Bird – the niece of the now defeated leader.
Brown also said he intends making the 74 year-old leader (Lester Bird), emeritus of the ALP.
Politics aside, the Caribbean Community continued to feel the impact of the ongoing global and economic crisis in 2012.
Jamaica had hoped to sign a new Stand By Agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by year end with the government insisting that it is committed to completing the accord that will be “in the best interest of the country”.
Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller said the government’s draft Letter of Intent would embody its commitments under a new agreement with the Washington-based financial institution.
“The timetable is, therefore, not ours alone to set. The process is a very difficult and complex one. The negotiation requires us to do the best we can to ensure that we get an agreement that is in the best interest of Jamaica”.
“An agreement is very important for addressing the critical economic and social problems that the country now faces,” she said, adding “the agreement must ensure that we not only carry out strategic reforms, but also lay the foundation for sustainable growth.”
An IMF delegation visited the island in late September for talks with government on the new accord but Finance Minister Dr. Peter Phillips later indicated that an agreement is yet to be reached. But the main opposition Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) has already called on the government to lay on the table all the details regarding the discussions to the public so confidence can be increased.
Phillips said the IMF mission has broadly accepted the medium term program which will underpin any deal.
The trade union movement has also called for full disclosure from the government on the fate of public sector workers under the proposed IMF deal.
Belize feared a bit better, with the government indicating in December it had reached an agreement with its creditors on restructuring the country’s US$544 million foreign debt, also known as the super bond. “This agreement is comprehensive, it is sustainable, and it will provide well in excess of US$150 million in relief to Belize,” a relieved Prime Minister Barrow said, after bondholders had earlier rejected an offer from the government on restructuring the debt and said they had hired lawyers after the expiry of a reprieve on legal action.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves aware of opposition criticisms that the local economy had gone into recession, said despite the slow recovery of the international economy, his administration was making efforts to ensure that “we have as much enterprise in the economic system to hasten the growth but we are also dependent very much on the vagaries of the international economy.”
In St. Lucia, the government of Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony launched a multi-million dollar stimulus package in a bid to turn around a sluggish economy. Dr. Anthony said the construction stimulus program would help address some of the worst financial conditions now being experienced in recent years and praised the private sector for contributing towards the reality of the fiscal package.
Prime Minister Douglas, despite opposition criticism, maintained that the controversial Land for Debt Swap involving 1, 200 acres of State land in St. Kitts & Nevis would help ease the EC$900 million (US$333 million) owed to the National Bank.
“I want to emphasize that the Debt for Land Swap will reduce the Debt to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) ratio even further to well under 100 percent, and create even more fiscal space so that we can accelerate growth-related development initiatives while modernizing and strengthening our social safety net programs.”
The US-based rating agencies, Standards & Poor’s (S&P) and Moody’s, downgraded several Caribbean countries including Barbados and the Bahamas during 2012, with S&P also downgrading the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) long term rating to AA with a warning that the ratings could plunge even lower if a regional government borrower fails to “clear its arrears” with the financial institution.
The S&P said that the decision to lower the ratings from AA+ to AA reflects “embedded credit risks in CDB’s loan portfolio.”
“Our view of the treatment of CDB as a preferred creditor by its borrowing member shareholders, which is established by practice, is a pivotal component of this analysis,” it added.
The Caribbean tourism industry continued to show signs of recovery during 2012 fuelled by improvements in the American and Canadian markets.
However, the Secretary General of the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), Hugh Riley warned that the region continued to face challenges in Europe, particularly the United Kingdom market from which the numbers have been falling. He said visitor spending has also been sluggish.
Additionally, the region continued its unsuccessful lobby against the Air Passenger Duty (APD), instituted in 1994 as a British environmental tax aimed at offsetting aviation’s carbon footprint. The Caribbean argues the tax makes travel to the region expensive for any family.
While the Caribbean was spared the widespread devastation of hurricanes in the past, in 2012, Hurricane Sandy and Tropical Storm Isaac brought death and destruction to Haiti, Jamaica and several other regional countries. (CMC)