Post by Moses on Mar 27, 2005 6:18:51 GMT -5
UN reform and the Caribbean
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Mr Kofi Annan recently unveiled his proposal for the reform of the United Nations, which, we are told, will be discussed in Barbados sometime next week by Caribbean Community (Caricom) foreign ministers to begin to work towards a regional consensus on the issues.
That is the way it should be.
For when the region acts in concert and speaks with a single voice we become less susceptible to the pressures and blandishments of those with significant power, which is not always exercised with due discretion.
We know the Ben Franklin adage of hanging together or hanging separately.
We suppose that the Jamaican foreign minister, Mr K D Knight, or some other high official from the foreign ministry will lead a Jamaica delegation to that Bridgetown encounter. They will have, at least, some preliminary Jamaican position on Mr Annan's formulae for reform. There will be more studies and analyses until positions are crystalised and we arrive at a consensus.
Again, that is as it should be.
What is not as it should be is the seeming lack of engagement of the Jamaican people.
The assumption may be that this is some arcane and esoteric matter with which the public will not want to be detained. So, at some point down the road, when matters are settled, a document will be tabled in Parliament and there will be a perfunctory debate during which most people will snore.
The fact is, though, that we can no longer assume public disinterest on these issues. And in any event, it is up to policy formulators to make people interested.
For neither the people, nor their government, can any longer adopt a position that these issues are far removed from countries like our own. No longer is there an easy slot within which small, developing countries like Jamaica and the others that comprise Caricom, easily fall.
All that evaporated with the end of the Cold War, the emergence of a single pole of power and the galloping ideals of globalisation. Jamaica and the Caribbean are not immune from these international forces and neither should we want to be. Rather, it is in our interest to want to influence these new, and emerging, global forces.
Indeed, as has been argued in these columns before, it is in the interest of countries like our own that there be a strong and credible system of multilateral governance. In its absence, the only track to rightness will be power, and doctrines such as Preventive Strike and Regime Change will be entrenched and become the overarching currency of global relations.
Should we have been unaware of the global expansion of Mr Munroe's 19th century thesis, it would have come home pellucidly two years ago.
What was significant, and why Jamaica and Jamaicans would have a keen interest in Mr Annan's proposal, isthe role played by countries such as our own in attempting to prevent the corrosion of the system of multilateralism. Jamaica's and the Caribbean's voice was loud and coherent on the need to preserve international law.
Fifteen months ago, this region again made a coherent and sound case in favour of constitutional order and the rule of law, which, unfortunately was eschewed by the Troika of the Powerful to the pain of Haiti.
So how the Security Council of the United Nations is structured is not an academic exercise of no immediate moment. It is an important matter.
Our preference would hardly be an expansion solely on the basis of size and emerging influence. Permanence and veto have not always proven to be a great combination. Countries like Jamaica, mindful of the constituency without the force of might, have articulated positions that are fair and just.
These positions, however, ought not to be only with the purview of the foreign ministry. All of us feel the squeeze of power.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Mr Kofi Annan recently unveiled his proposal for the reform of the United Nations, which, we are told, will be discussed in Barbados sometime next week by Caribbean Community (Caricom) foreign ministers to begin to work towards a regional consensus on the issues.
That is the way it should be.
For when the region acts in concert and speaks with a single voice we become less susceptible to the pressures and blandishments of those with significant power, which is not always exercised with due discretion.
We know the Ben Franklin adage of hanging together or hanging separately.
We suppose that the Jamaican foreign minister, Mr K D Knight, or some other high official from the foreign ministry will lead a Jamaica delegation to that Bridgetown encounter. They will have, at least, some preliminary Jamaican position on Mr Annan's formulae for reform. There will be more studies and analyses until positions are crystalised and we arrive at a consensus.
Again, that is as it should be.
What is not as it should be is the seeming lack of engagement of the Jamaican people.
The assumption may be that this is some arcane and esoteric matter with which the public will not want to be detained. So, at some point down the road, when matters are settled, a document will be tabled in Parliament and there will be a perfunctory debate during which most people will snore.
The fact is, though, that we can no longer assume public disinterest on these issues. And in any event, it is up to policy formulators to make people interested.
For neither the people, nor their government, can any longer adopt a position that these issues are far removed from countries like our own. No longer is there an easy slot within which small, developing countries like Jamaica and the others that comprise Caricom, easily fall.
All that evaporated with the end of the Cold War, the emergence of a single pole of power and the galloping ideals of globalisation. Jamaica and the Caribbean are not immune from these international forces and neither should we want to be. Rather, it is in our interest to want to influence these new, and emerging, global forces.
Indeed, as has been argued in these columns before, it is in the interest of countries like our own that there be a strong and credible system of multilateral governance. In its absence, the only track to rightness will be power, and doctrines such as Preventive Strike and Regime Change will be entrenched and become the overarching currency of global relations.
Should we have been unaware of the global expansion of Mr Munroe's 19th century thesis, it would have come home pellucidly two years ago.
What was significant, and why Jamaica and Jamaicans would have a keen interest in Mr Annan's proposal, isthe role played by countries such as our own in attempting to prevent the corrosion of the system of multilateralism. Jamaica's and the Caribbean's voice was loud and coherent on the need to preserve international law.
Fifteen months ago, this region again made a coherent and sound case in favour of constitutional order and the rule of law, which, unfortunately was eschewed by the Troika of the Powerful to the pain of Haiti.
So how the Security Council of the United Nations is structured is not an academic exercise of no immediate moment. It is an important matter.
Our preference would hardly be an expansion solely on the basis of size and emerging influence. Permanence and veto have not always proven to be a great combination. Countries like Jamaica, mindful of the constituency without the force of might, have articulated positions that are fair and just.
These positions, however, ought not to be only with the purview of the foreign ministry. All of us feel the squeeze of power.