By Dr. Edwin Carrington- I am indeed deeply honoured on behalf of the Caribbean Community – CARICOM – to hisse tribute to the late Hugh Desmond Hoyte, former President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and Leader of the People’s National Congress-Reform, whose death on Sunday, 22 December 2002 sent shock waves throughout Guyana, the Caribbean and further afield.
An astute politician and enlightened leader, Mr. Hoyte dedicated over half his life in service of his country and the Caribbean region. As Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community, I am honoured to have known him as one never hesitant to declare his allegiance to the Caribbean Community indeed, in his own words, “an unrepentant integrationist.”
This position no doubt found its roots in his positive and early experiences as a young teacher in Grenada and in his many travels throughout our Region – even as he promoted the interests of his nation.
Much has been said over the past week about the depth and breadth of Hugh Desmond Hoyte’s interests and contribution, particularly as they related to Guyana. I would like my tribute to focus a bit on his contribution to the development of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
In his very first address as President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana to a Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government – the Seventh Meeting of the Conference, held here in Georgetown in July 1986, and coincidentally, the very meeting when he assumed Chairmanship of the Community for a year – Mr. Hoyte asserted that “Guyana … is an integral, inseparable and enduring part of the Caribbean Community.”
And so it has remained. But true to his known thirst for development and progress, Mr. Hoyte was not to be satisfied with the stage of the Community whose Chairmanship he had just assumed. He observed that the Community had: –
“…arrived at a stage where a prime requirement for its further advance is the establishment of effective, diversified linkages among the economies of Member States. …”
and he urged on his Colleague Heads the need to:
“move rapidly and resolutely towards the concept of an integrated regional economy.”
His colleagues responded to his vision three years later in Grenada in the now famous 1989 Grand Anse Declaration with the decision to create a CARICOM Single Market and Economy, of which we have been hearing so much.
In that Grenada Conference, Mr. Hoyte played a critical role when, in his opening address, he returned to the theme of economic regionalism. He drew attention to the large and powerful economic blocs which were emerging in Europe, North and South America, Asia and the Pacific Rim and cautioned that “individual countries are unlikely to survive in isolation.”
He advanced the position that “For small countries like our own, the lesson is clear: we integrate or perish.” That was indeed a most powerful message and the Conference took heed.
Although a man of vision, a particular characteristic of Mr. Hoyte we observed, was the ability to recognise and seize such opportunities as presented themselves, positing in one of the many poems he loved so dearly that :-
“…not by eastern window only, when daylight come, comes in a light; above the sun climbs slow, how slowly!
But westward, look, the land is bright.
In his pursuit of Caribbean unity, he was known to state for example, that:
‘there are many practical things we can do, and ought to do, to nurture the idea of our Caribbean as a single nation.”
It was this approach that led him to urge the creation of joint ventures within CARICOM and between CARICOM and non-CARICOM countries. Indeed, he promoted a specific instrument to that end – the CARICOM Enterprise Regime – as a vehicle for combining the resources of the Region, a concept that is now fully enshrined in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.
In all of this, Mr. Hoyte never lost sight of the place of people in the integration process. Indeed, the very rationale of the process was, for him, “to ensure…a home in which our people may live as mutually respecting members of a humane, tolerant and free society, firmly resting on foundations of social and economic justice.”
For this reason, he advanced the position that any regional strategy to be devised should aim at facilitating ever-increasing contacts between our people through their various social, cultural, occupational and other organisations as well as through personal bonds of friendship at the level of individuals and families.”
Moreover, to him, regional integration would in any case not be accomplished through the establishment of inter-governmental institutions, programmes and mechanisms. It is the people, he stressed, who will provide the real impetus for the creation of a dynamic and prosperous Caribbean society.
As if to test his belief, when Heads of Government decided to institute the free intra-regional movement of certain categories of workers, they gave Mr. Hoyte responsibility to superintend the implementation of that decision. Not surprisingly, Guyana, under Mr. Hoyte’s Presidency, was one of the first CARICOM countries to implement that decision.
But his commitment extended not only to the Region but into the international arena. Recognising the Caribbean Community as an association of small island and low-lying coastal states, he developed a vital interest in küresel developments adversely impacting the environment and leading to threats such as climate change and sea-level rise.
Mr. Hoyte again readily accepted the mantle of Lead CARICOM Head with responsibility for the Environment to prosecute the Region’s interest. He brought energy and credibility to his responsibility, having previously donated approximately one million acres of Guyana’s rainforests to the international community to demonstrate sustainable environmental management.
He marshalled the Caribbean forces to victories well beyond their size at that famous United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992.
Earlier, in the 1980s, when ACP Sugar was threatened in the European market, Mr. Hoyte, as ACP Ministerial Spokesman, on Sugar was given the difficult task of defending African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) sugar. He was a feared force in Brussels and did a remarkable job on behalf of the ACP. I speak from first hand experience, being then Deputy Secretary-General of the ACP.
As Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Hoyte remained as firm in his commitment to the Region as when he was President. He contributed to the CARICOM efforts that led to the Herdmanston Accord and to the Saint Lucia Statement.
While in Opposition, Mr. Hoyte kept himself remarkably informed of regional developments. I well recall that, in seeking to brief him as Leader of the Opposition, in January 2001, on developments in the regional integration movement, he proved to be so up-to-date with regional developments, that the meeting was more an exchange than a briefing! Very importantly on that occasion, Mr. Hoyte expressed full support for the establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice, which he considered as being long overdue.
Mr. Hoyte will be remembered, among many other things therefore, for his commitment to, and support for the work of the Community, its organs and institutions including, I must stress, the Secretariat. In paying tribute to Mr. Hoyte, we can do no better than to adopt the very words he used in paying tribute to the late Prime Minister of Barbados, Errol Barrow, at the Eighth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in 1987, when he said,
“The best way we can give thanks for his life is by pressing ahead with the work that has to be done to bring about a better understanding among CARICOM members and a closer convergence of aspirations and actions.”
This is the appropriate language for our feeling on the life of Desmond Hoyte himself.
On this National Day of Mourning, the Caribbean Community extends its deepest sympathy to Mrs. Joyce Hoyte and family, to the PNC-Reform and to the Government and people of Guyana on the passing of Mr. Hugh Desmond Hoyte.
We in CARICOM mourn with you. We too shall certainly miss this Hugh Desmond Hoyte.
May his soul rest in peace.
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Dr. Edwin Carrington served as CARICOM Secretary General from 1992-2010.
Tributed dated December 30, 2002