SEVEN BEHIND KAMINA

Foreign Affairs Minister Kamina Johnson Smith’s bid to unseat Baroness Patricia Scotland as Commonwealth secretary general is likely to succeed amid waning support for the incumbent and favourable backchannel canvassing for the challenger, one of Jamaica’s most senior diplomats has said.

The senior official, who requested anonymity because of the fractious diplomatic divide threatening CARICOM, said controversy surrounding the Commonwealth Secretariat’s financial affairs continues to hang over Scotland’s head like the sword of Damocles.

In a Gleaner interview on Monday, days after the Jamaican Government announced Johnson Smith’s candidature, which drew harsh criticism from former CARICOM Chairman Gaston Browne, the diplomat disclosed that at least seven of the bloc’s 15 member states had pledged support for the foreign minister.

Three member states are expected to oppose Johnson Smith’s bid, while two remain on the fence. The other CARICOM states are not members of the Commonwealth.

But the fluidity of the situation means that runjostling could cause shifting loyalties, with Johnson Smith and her backers likely to launch a charm offensive with Africa, which represents 19 member states, or 35 per cent of the 54-nation Commonwealth.

The Holness administration is expected to woo Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who is visiting Jamaica this week, in a bid to potentially corral votes.

Kagame is due to take over as chairman of the Commonwealth when his country hosts the group’s delayed biennial heads of government summit in June, where Scotland’s fate will be decided and Johnson Smith will seek to become the second woman to head the group.

“There’s a very high chance for the candidature of Jamaica to succeed in this contest,” the official said.

“There’s support from the different regions, including CARICOM, which is probably the most difficult, and yet I think she has a much larger support in the CARICOM group than the incumbent.”

Browne, Antigua and Barbuda’s prime minister, called Jamaica’s decision “a monumental error”, insisting that there was overwhelming support for the proposal to allow Scotland, who was born in Dominica but emigrated to England with her family at two years old, to continue as the Caribbean’s representative.

The Jamaican Government has, since its announcement to field a candidate, remained silent on the matter, fuelling further speculation of a deepening rift between the island and its neighbours.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness is expected to speak on that decision today in an address to Parliament amid growing concerns that Jamaica is a pawn in a larger geopolitical plot to oust Scotland.

The secretary general’s leadership has been under the microscope since it was revealed that she had circumvented the customary competitive tendering requirement by awarding a lucrative consultancy contract to a friend’s company.

It was also revealed that procurement rules had been waived in more than 50 instances by the secretariat over three years, resulting in the suspension of discretionary funding from the British, New Zealand, and Australian governments until it got its financial procedures in order.

The three governments are reportedly not in favour of a second term for Scotland, whose four-year stint ended in March 2020, but was extended because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Jamaican diplomat disclosed to The Gleaner that there had long been calls from “various states” for Jamaica to field a candidate.

“It has been declined for quite some time,” he said.

Furthermore, the official said small island states within the Commonwealth, which encompasses almost a third of the world’s population with 2.5 billion people, have repeatedly voiced disappointment over Scotland’s stewardship.

“For some time there have been levels of dissatisfaction expressed by various high commissioners on the handling and management of the finances of the secretariat. There have been many audits done that have not resulted in her favour,” the official said.

The diplomat said that the blowback to Scotland’s stewardship is “hurting” the programmes managed by the Commonwealth Secretariat.

“This has made it very difficult for particular small states that look to the Commonwealth Secretariat for support in different ways. So that’s really part of the problem with the incumbent,” the official said.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com