BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A recent tough speech by CARICOM’s Chairman, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Keith Mitchell has ruffled the feathers of a few Caribbean leaders.
Dr. Mitchell had lashed out at the leaders on two critical fronts at the Opening Ceremony of the 38th Regular Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government in St. George’s, Grenada.
He chastised them on the topic of Intra-regional Travel, where he pointed out that governments have continued to give support to international carriers while oftentimes neglecting the regional airline, LIAT.
“Colleagues, I have long held the belief that too much political presence on the board of airless, such as LIAT, is not helpful to its proper management and efficiency. LIAT’s sustainability would have benefited properly if it had run more as a private sector operation.
“Governments then subsidized flights to given destinations or rutes that are in the best interest of their respective countries; we do so now with international airlines, we could do so with LIAT.”
But that, among other comments, had drawn a quick response from the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. the Hon. Ralph Gonsalves, who voice his disagreement with the Caribbean Media Cooperation (CMC).
During an interview with CMC, Dr. Gonsalves was quoted as saying: “I think Prime Minister Mitchell's speech last night was unfortunate. Okif course we disagree on LIAT, but to say that the decisions which are made in relation to LIAT at the board level are political, he just doesn't get.”
Like Dr. Mitchell, PM Gonsalves is a vocal critic of the way the Regional Integration Movement is headed. “It is sophistry for my friend Keith to say that if it is owned by the private sector that he will put money in. What is the difference between the private sector and the public sector? We have asked for other governments to come aboard LIAT. It is one thing to stay on the sidelines and criticise it, it is another to put your money where your mouth is.”
The Grenadian PM went further to lash out at the airline for dropping what he described as one of their “lucrative routes” in Barbados to Grenada without consultation.
“Overnight, the decision clearly could not have been based on economics and viability. Colleagues, we have to do better as a region.”
Meanwhile, Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister, the Hon. Gaston Browne also disagreed with his counterpart for the comments he made with respect to the direction of West Indies cricket.
Mitchell is a lover of cricket and he criticized his fellow leaders for the state of the game in the region.
He pointed to the team’s failure to qualify for several major international competitions, describing the current state as a “complete embarrassment to all of us who call ourselves West Indians”.
“So when we get together to discuss the current challenges of the regional game, it is not merely a game of politicians dabbling in some useless pastimes. It is therefore greatly disheartening to me, and I know several other colleague Heads had after we would have taken common positions to assist in addressing the common crisis in West Indies cricket, other members, some members, of government publicly adopted different positions,” he added.
PM Browne told CMC that as a matter of principle, Antigua and Barbuda does not interfere in the internal affairs of institutions and governments that are governed by democratically elected officials.
According to the regional news agency, the Prime Minister left the meeting ahead of schedule due to an emergency.
“This is a universal principle on which my government stands. The core members of the West Indies Cricket Board, to the best of my knowledge, were democratically elected by the territorial boards.
“The board operates independently of governments. Now there is a particular head, who is of the view, and if I may add here, the flawed opinion that with my support and other heads that he could achieve his compulsive, obsessive desire to dissolve the board,” he said in a statement to CMC.
Browne noted that “talk is cheap” and as leaders they should know the their limitations, thus questioning how Mitchells’ plans would have been achieved if the Grenada PM had his support.
“The latter, he fallaciously argued, would automatically resolve the multiplicity of problems facing the West Indies cricket overnight,” Browne said, adding “in the event that he had gotten my support for this fantasy the question would have been how would he have achieved this forced dissolution.”
The meeting wraps up today (Jul. 6) in Grenada, where several Heads of Government are expected to address the media.
