Winston Dookeran was lauded by his peers as a stalwart in achieving Caribbean development when his book Caribbean on the Edge: the Political Stress of Stability, Equity and Diplomacy, was launched on Wednesday at Costaatt’s campus in Chaguanas.
The book, rumoured to be his last, has been described as a “timely intervention in the face of the challenges gripping our region.” The book identifies ways for new analytical leadership by confronting and engaging political issues in development, governance, and diplomacy.
Currently a professor of practice at the Institute of International Relations at UWI, Dookeran touched on three areas in his book: human justice, fixing the economy and Caribbean diplomacy.
On the matter of human justice, he said it can solve or try to solve problems of individual or societal life, enact norms, create institutions and design processes to solve actual problems.
Dookeran said, “The anguish and outrage that erupted in my homeland in the aftermath of the brutal murder of Andrea Bharatt and soon after another equally heinous murder of Ashanti Riley, two of our young women, has left our society naked, shaken to the core and exposed to ‘whatever it takes’ solutions to regain freedom and dignity."
“Leaders have been left speechless and those whose duty it is to uphold the constitutional order of the country are clearly stunned and confused. Adhering to the norms of the justice process cannot explain the outcome of that process and it would be a colossal abdication of the public responsibility to simply move on until the next episode occurs.”
The body of Riley, 18, was found in Santa Cruz five days after she went missing in November 2020. Bharatt, 23, got into a taxi in January 2021 after work but never made it to her Arima home. Her body was found days later in the Heights of Aripo.
Dookeran also gave insight into fixing the economy in areas of revising old policies since they do not work and finding new ways where there will be absorbers and buffers for immunity against supply and energy shocks and economic fallouts from global events to be able to maintain purchasing power, wages and production in the TT economy.
[caption id="attachment_951142" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Winston Dookeran presents former media manager and government minister Ken Gordon with a copy of Caribbean on the Edge: the Political Stress of Stability, Equity and Diplomacy. - AYANNA KINSALE[/caption]
The National Insurance Board, Dookeran said, should be considered a social investment rather than an additional public expenditure.
“In a philosophical sense this sort of measure is consistent with the ‘right-based approach’ to development, shaping the new normal that gets to the core of sustainability.
“The cost of the programme can be negotiated into the transaction from proceeds of the Clico proposal.”
Dookeran, 78, has worn many hats in his professional life such as Minister of Planning, Finance, and Foreign Affairs, Central Bank governor, political leader of the Congress of the People, MP and
