Damning report into modern relevance of Commonwealth
Updated
The Commonwealth, the once revered body, is being told it is out of touch and should undergo radical reform to regain relevance and clout. The full report published today paints a dim future of the once powerful body which now faces obscurity if it fails to reinvent itself leading up to the Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago.
Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Paola Totaro, Correspondent for Melbourne Age and Sydney Morning Herald in London
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SRISKANDARAJAH: We're a 141 year old NGO that's got its headquarters in London but we have branched and a presence almost all over the Commonwealth. We receive funding from all sorts of different people, charitable donations; we're a registered charity in the UK. This particular project that we've been working on, called the Commonwealth Conversation, has actually been made possible by a grant from the UK government, who are very interested in Commonwealth issues as you can imagine being the biggest funder of the Commonwealth. But we are an independent registered charity in the UK.
COUTTS: Well you're in Trinidad to present the Commonwealth Conversation. What response did it get?
SRISKANDARAJAH: Well I've just literally stepped out from the press conference in which we presented the findings and I think already I can sense that this is causing us a few ripples in the Commonwealth pool here today in Port of Spain. There are a lot of officials who are starting to wonder what all of this means to them, and I suspect because the sort of messages that we're sending are going to be very challenging to the way that the Commonwealth has worked in the last couple of decades. Here's an international association that's sort of got I suspect a little bit sort of caught in old habits, and what we're saying is that it needs a bold new refreshing if it's going to assume its rightful place on the world stage.
COUTTS: Is there a place for it on the world stage these days when you've got countries like Australia for instance talking about becoming a republic? Another one walking away from the Commonwealth?
SRISKANDARAJAH: Yeah I do think that there's an important role for it on the world stage and what the Commonwealth can offer is amazing to world issues. Here's a forum that involves big countries, small countries, rich countries, poor countries. It's got the fabulous sort of informal network of leaders who talk to each other. I mean Malcolm Fraser made a fantastic point when he talked to us as part of this conversation where he said, the best thing about the Commonwealth for a leader like him was the ability to talk to other leaders. So back in the day if he had a problem with Fiji he could pick up the phone and talk to Ratu Mara who was then president and talk to him on a trusted basis, because they'd already built up a bond through going to CHOGM and Commonwealth meetings together. So there is a fantastic role it can play, but we believe it can only get its rightful place if it does look at its public profile and does actively try to capture people's imagination by doing innovative eye-catching work.
COUTTS: Like what?
SRISKANDARAJAH: Well if you take an issue like climate change, which is going to be very high on the agenda here in Trinidad this week. The Commonwealth is not going to be the United Nations and is not going to be able to do international negotiations on a mission target . It's not going to be the World Bank that's going to invest billions of pounds in new technology to fight climate change, but it can be an informal dialogue between big carbon emitters or producers and poor developing countries. It could be a forum for innovation where something truly experimental gets tried out, or it could be a forum for sharing best practice. The Australian government is investing in a new project that's going to be cleaning up coal or whatever else it is, maybe the Zambians might want to learn from that. And the Commonwealth is the perfect vehicle for that. So I mean it doesn't really matter what the Commonwealth focuses on, I think the opportunity here is to come to that and see how it might add value in the international community.
COUTTS: Well as part of the conversation process did you actually talk to members of the existing Commonwealth?
SRISKANDARAJAH: Yes we did, we talked to lots of people in the public.
COUTTS: And did they also see it as outmoded and outdated, I mean the Commonwealth body itself, the officials working there?
SRISKANDARAJAH: Yeah I think there are some officials within, who work for various Commonwealth institutions who recognise that this is an association that's 60 years old this year, that feels a little bit tired, that works some sort of slightly old-fashioned ways and there is an opportunity to reform. And of course the message from the public is much clearer, which is that a lot of people actually have the wrong perception about the Commonwealth. A lot of people still think this is the British Commonwealth. That it's all about the monarchy and relationships with Britain, when in fact it's a very mature international association of equal member states.
COUTTS: Well we're just about out of time unfortunately but there's another question I want to ask you, where do the Commonwealth Games fit into your scheme of things now then?
SRISKANDARAJAH: They're hugely important because it's the single best known brand that the Commonwealth has.
