Wednesday, November 11 2009

The Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting begins in Port-of-Spain on November 27 and continues for three days.

Fifty-one heads or their representatives will assemble at The Hyatt for the talks.

Two countries have been suspended — the Fiji Islands which was suspended from membership on September 21, 2009 and Nauru, which is in arrears.

We continue today with a daily feature on the Commonwealth and feature the Heads of these States who are expected in Port-of-Spain in November.



Roosevelt Skerrit, now 38, is the Prime Minister of the Dominica as well the Member of Parliament for the Vieille Case constituency. Regionally, he has served as the Chairman of the OECS.

Skerrit attended the Portsmouth Secondary School before transferring to the Dominica Grammar School, where, as a high school senior, he was elected “head boy”, President of the Student Council. He began his college education at New Mexico State University and transferred to the University of Mississippi, from where he graduated with a BA in English and Psychology. While at New Mexico State University he was also president of the Dominica Students Association. He was initially a member of the youth arm of the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP), the Young Freedom Movement, but became a member of the Dominica Labour Party (DLP) when he returned to Dominica from college. He was an English lecturer at the Clifton-Dupigny Community College until he was elected to parliament for the Vieille Case constituency in the February 2000 elections.

He initially served as Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, and upon the death of Roosevelt Douglas he was made Minister of Education, Sports and Youth Affairs. As Minister of Education, he established the Dominica State College. He also led a secret mission to the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Barbados, irrespective of the fact that Dominica already had diplomatic relations with the Republic of China on Taiwan. On the death of Pierre Charles on January 6, 2004 he was nominated to be the country’s prime minister and was sworn in on January 8, aged 31. After becoming prime minister, he was elected as the political leader of the Dominica Labour Party.

In April 2004 Skerrit established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, severing relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan). As part of the move Beijing agreed to give the country an aid package of over US$100,000,000.

In the 2005 General Elections he retained his seat by an even wider margin and his party gained one seat in the Parliament. His party won 12 seats in the parliament and 52 percent of the popular vote. The DLP defeated the Edison James-led opposition United Workers’ Party who won eight seats and 44 percent of the popular vote. The opposition sought to criticise his age and relative inexperience, as well as pointing to the country’s generally poor economic performance since the 2000 elections. The DLP response was that the poor economic performance was due to irresponsible borrowing during the UWP administration. Further, he noted the country’s aid package from China and used his young age to mobilise youth voters. Following the election, he assumed the ministerial portfolios of Finance, Planning, National Security and Overseas Nationals.

Skerrit has forged a close relationship with leftist leaders Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez, which has resulted in Dominica receiving substantial aid from Cuba and Venezuela. Dominica plays a major part in the Petrocaribe initiative; crude oil from Venezuela is stored on the island for distribution to other islands. Further, the Venezuelan government has given Dominica a US$10.1 million grant for the expansion of the Melville Hall Airport and forgiven the island nation’s US$1.5 million debt to Venezuela. On February 16, 2007 Chávez paid a state visit to Roseau, a rare visit by a major head of state to the island, where he inaugurated a fuel storage tank as part of the Petrocaribe initiative. Skerrit’s administration agreed to join the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas. In addition, Skerrit announced that his government had agreed to the construction of a $80,000,000USD refinery on the island.

The proposed refinery has prompted criticism from some environmentalist groups that an oil refinery is inconsistent with the island’s image as an eco-tourist destination.

A Caribbean Development Research Services Inc (CADRES) poll conducted between February 2 and 5 2007 found that Prime Minister Skerrit was the most popular leader in the country with 58 percent of respondents favouring his leadership.

In a cabinet reshuffle announced on October 16, 2007, Skerrit assumed the portfolios of Foreign Affairs and Social Security, while remaining in charge of Finance; he gave up the portfolios of National Security and Economic Planning, which he had previously held. He subsequently relinquished the Foreign Affairs portfolio on November 18, 2008, while again taking over the National Security portfolio.



History

Following World War I, an upsurge of political consciousness throughout the Caribbean led to the formation of the Representative Government Association. Marshalling public frustration with the lack of a voice in the governing of Dominica, this group won one-third of the popularly elected seats of the legislative assembly in 1924 and one-half in 1936. Shortly thereafter, Dominica was transferred from the Leeward Island Administration and was governed as part of the Windwards until 1958, when it joined the short-lived West Indies Federation.

After the federation dissolved, Dominica became an associated state of the United Kingdom in 1967 and formally took responsibility for its internal affairs. On November 3, 1978, the Commonwealth of Dominica was granted independence by the United Kingdom.

Independence did little to solve problems stemming from centuries of economic underdevelopment, and in mid-1979, political discontent led to the formation of an interim government. It was replaced after the 1980 elections by a government led by the Dominica Freedom Party under Prime Minister Eugenia Charles, the Caribbean’s first female prime minister. Chronic economic problems were compounded by the severe impact of hurricanes in 1979 and in 1980.