Climate change dominates Commonwealth leaders' meeting
Updated
Leaders from Commonwealth countries, along with the UN chief Ban Ki-Moon and several European heads of state are in Trinidad for the Commonwealth Head of Government meeting (CHOGM). As with other regional summits and bilateral talks in recent weeks, the meeting is expected to focus on climate change. In the lead up to CHOGM, questions have been asked about the continued relevance of the 53-member organisation, which has its roots in the former British empire and represents two billion people.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Danny Sriskandarajah, director of the Royal Commonwealth Society
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SRISKANDARAJAH: We've been conducting something we're calling the Commonwealth Conversation, which is the largest ever public consultation about the Commonwealth. And we've been talking to tens of thousands of people and I think the message is very clear that this is an association that some people do love and really care for, but the vast majority of people don't really know very much about. This is an organisation which has got a very low profile, and if you scratch the surface people really don't know what the Commonwealth stands for, apart from of course the fact that it grew out of British Empire, which is something that happened 60 years ago.
LAM: So is the subtext then that the Commonwealth has lost direction?
SRISKANDARAJAH: I think there is a case that the Commonwealth needs to refocus itself. It had a pretty good 60 years, but in those 60 years its major achievement have been around decolonisation, looking at questions of a majority rule in Rhodesia, or the success the Commonwealth had in fighting apartheid in South Africa. But that era has come to an end, we basically live in a world of reasonably good functioning states and democracies, and I mean the Commonwealth needs to find a new focus for the 21st century if it's going to thrive.
LAM: But Danny non-Commonwealth leaders are even lobbying CHOGM now on climate change matters this weekend, so the grouping must still have some relevance, some clout?
SRISKANDARAJAH: Well it's a welcome thing that all of these non-Commonwealth leaders are arriving as I'm speaking in Port-of-Spain this evening, but look I think they're here because they want to lobby 50-odd leaders from other countries. They're not here because they want to talk to the collective voice of the Commonwealth. I would much rather the Commonwealth look inwards and rediscover what it is that these 53 countries have in common so that they can then establish a common voice. And my fear is this week with all of these visiting dignitaries that the Commonwealth factor will get diluted and we'll start talking about climate change in Copenhagen, which is an important issue don't get me wrong, but I think the challenge here is to use this opportunity to refresh the Commonwealth.
LAM: And I think one of the remarkable things of your report is the fact that almost a third of the people whom you surveyed can't seem to remember the last significant thing the Commonwealth did?
SRISKANDARAJAH: That's right there are all sorts of shocking statistics about the Commonwealth. I mean in Australia when we polled there it was about a third of people who said they wouldn't be particularly bothered if Australia withdrew from the Commonwealth. And even in countries like Malaysia and India where we found that people were generally more supportive of the Commonwealth, once you scratched the surface very low levels of knowledge. So for example half of the Malaysians we polled in a nationally representative sample said that they could identify something that the Commonwealth does, but four-fifths of those people identified the Commonwealth Games. So all the fabulous work the Commonwealth does on democracy or development doesn't seem to be recognised by the vast majority of people even in countries where the Commonwealth seems to have some support.
LAM: But the Commonwealth Games in themselves are quite useful as a glue, as a bond for the groupings' nations is it not?
SRISKANDARAJAH: Yeah no there's no denying that the Commonwealth Games is a very important brand, but the question is what do we make of the political organisation that the Commonwealth is? We have the opportunity here in Port-of-Spain, you might be even able to hear a helicopter in the background, we've got 53 leaders landing in Port-of-Spain, they're political animals here to do political things, and we need to make the most of that opportunity. If they spend the next couple of days here spending good taxpayers money and come up with some long, bland communiqué, then I think the world will be rather disappointed. Instead they need to come up with a bold vision for how the Commonwealth is going to help solve big global challenges.
