The Tribune

THE Tribune is pleased that Sir Ronald Sanders, has reconsidered, and is now back in the contest as Caricom’s nominee for the post of Commonwealth Secretary-General.

The decision will be made at Caricom’s inter-sessional heads of state conference to be held in Nassau at the end of next week – February 26-27 – with Prime Minister Perry Christie in the chair.

It is hoped that Mr Christie’s vote will be for Sir Ronald because, next to the other two candidates being offered, there really is no contest.

As David Jessop, managing director for the European-based Caribbean Council has said, Sir Ronald “has by far and away the broadest Commonwealth experience and background, having played a key role in the Commonwealth over many years, including the Eminent Persons Group that reported in 2011 on the future direction and reform of the organisation.”

Added Mr Jessop, of the three candidates now running, “Sir Ronald is the only one that has the largest consensus of Commonwealth support.”

According to Kayode Soyinka, publisher/editor of “Africa Today”, Sir Ronald “is the candidate that, if put forward as a consensus candidate by the Caribbean, has the best chance of getting the support of Africa to add to its own 14 votes, assuming the Africa and the Caribbean votes remain solid and not divided by Britain.”

At the end of last year, although put forward by his own Prime Minister as Antigua and Barbuda’s nominee for the post, his name was withdrawn after Sir Ronald himself declined to go forward.

Sir Ronald decided to step aside as there was no unanimity among the Caribbean countries as they squabbled over two other candidates – Baroness Scotland, put up by Dominica, and Dr Bhoe Tewarie, nominated by Trinidad. Dr Tewarie is not well known in the Caribbean, and Baroness Scotland, who left Dominica at the age of two, can hardly consider herself a true Caribbean representative.

On the other hand Sir Ronald lives and breathes the Caribbean. He is concerned that its voice has little impact among the nations of the world despite the fact that it makes up at least one-third of the United Nation’s membership. But, failing unity, it is almost voiceless. However, as Tribune readers to his weekly column must realise by now that if Sir Ronald becomes Commonwealth secretary general, his voice will not only be heard, but it will be respected.

This is the reason, as he saw the date nearing for a candidate to be put forward and the bickering over a candidate continuing, he wrote Prime Minister Gaston Browne expressing his gratitude to his country for selecting him, but letting his anguish be known. He was distressed because “despite majority support for me, the Region must have a single candidate and should not delay any longer its entry into a campaign that has already started by others…”.

Prime Minister Brown agreed with Sir Ronald’s “principled position” and withdrew his candidacy only to return five days ago, with Sir Ronald’s consent to return to the contest. The Prime Minister made it clear that he wanted Sir Ronald to be the Caribbean’s “consensus candidate.”

Said Prime Minister Brown in a letter to the Heads of the Commonwealth Caribbean states:

“Since writing to you on 10 December 2014 regarding my withdrawal of Antigua and Barbuda’s nomination of Sir Ronald Sanders for the upcoming position of Commonwealth Secretary-General, I have been overwhelmed by messages of regret and requests for reconsideration from within and beyond the Caribbean, including from some of you. The burden of those messages was that the Commonwealth has been deprived, at a time of crisis, of the candidate manifestly most suitable and most likely to be chosen given his Commonwealth-wide network and diplomatic experience. The latter concern is the principal motivation of this message.

“It has been impressed on me that Sir Ronald had the declared support of 9 of the 12 Commonwealth Caribbean governments at our December 8th meeting, and that it is still open to me to put him forward as the candidate of Antigua and Barbuda for the post of Commonwealth Secretary-General. I have been reminded that in Cuba no other candidate mustered more than 2 votes, and that quite recently CARICOM Heads of Government did not apply any consensus requirement to candidates for the posts of Secretary-General of the ACP Group and the Deputy Secretary-General of the OAS. Nonetheless, in the interest of Caribbean unity among ourselves and in the projection of our unity to the Commonwealth I am still anxious that we proceed by consensus if we possibly can. I have, therefore, strongly urged Sir Ronald to withdraw his intimation of standing down his candidacy despite his earlier decision in what he considered to be the interest of our Region. He, too, would still prefer the Region to go forward as one, and has told me of the great sense of honour he felt at receiving the backing of so many Heads of Government.”

We hope that next week Prime Minister Christie’s name on behalf of the Bahamas will be added to this list of supporters.

Sir Ronald’s resumé is indeed impressive – but much too long for this column.

Academically he has a Master of Arts degree in International Relations from Sussex University and a little over a week ago became a Senior Fellow of Canada’s Massey College – Canada’s equivalent of Oxford’s All Soul’s College. His occupation is Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. His weekly columns are published in every Commonwealth Caribbean country.

Not only is Sir Ronald the best man for the post, but he also has the best man behind him who, described as the “quintessential Caribbean man”, was Secretary-General of the Commonwealth for 15 years. As chairman of the West Indian Commission, he was also “the highly regarded draughtsman for the reconstruction and development of Caribbean society”. This distinguished gentleman is none other than Sir Shridath Ramphal, better known in these parts as “Sonny” Ramphal. He is Sir Ronald’s father-in-law.