Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma
New Delhi
21 October 2008
Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma.
"It's not to be expected that every aspect of every election will be perfect but the point is
that the election as a whole must be seen to be credible and the people must believe in
it," he said, citing the installation of a democratically elected government in Pakistan and
the forthcoming presidential run-off in Maldives.
Mr Sharma, a retired Indian diplomat, became Secretary-General of the 53-nation
grouping on April 1, 2008. He called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here during his
maiden visit to India after his election to the post.
In an interview to this newspaper, Mr Sharma said the electoral process in Maldives met
his criterion of credibility. Commonwealth is an observer for the October 29 presidential
run-off in Maldives.
He said Pakistan's re-induction into the Commonwealth was welcome. "Governance is an
important brand strength of the Commonwealth and South Asia represents about three-
quarters of the population of the Commonwealth, so India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Maldives either having been on it or taking to the democratic path gives
huge credibility to the organisation," he said.
Mr Sharma felt governance should keep pace with the reforms of international
institutions such as International Monetary Fund and World Bank. He recalled that the
Commonwealth was the first international organisation to advocate this in the
Marlborough House Statement adopted by 11 leaders in London in June this year, which
had subsequently been supported by a summit meeting of Commonwealth leaders in
New York.
His remarks come at a time when there is a global financial meltdown and governments
are infusing liquidity in the markets.
Mr Sharma also said some civil society groups in the Commonwealth countries have
voiced their concern over the recent anti-Christian violence in Orissa and Karnataka. His
office receives communications from various sources on internal developments in
member states and as a practice, it passes them on the member-states. "This is what we
have done in [India's case]," he said.
'We do not believe in advertising every single thing we do'
There is a discrepancy today between globalisation and the superstructure for global
governance as the pace of globalisation has moved far ahead but the structures of
governance have remained old, according to Commonwealth Secretary-General
Kamalesh Sharma. Mr Sharma, a retired Indian diplomat, became Commonwealth
Secretary-General on April 1, 2008. He says governments and peoples around the world
have started echoing what the 53-nation grouping said a long time ago: That reform of
international financial institutions should be an inclusive one because in an era of
globalisation, everybody must be embraced in the governance structures. "Governance
is an important brand strength of the Commonwealth," Mr Sharma says in an interview to
RAMESH RAMACHANDRAN. He also feels the good offices of the Secretary-General is an
unadvertised part of the Commonwealth's contribution. Excerpts:
This is your maiden visit to India after your election as Secretary-General. What did you
discuss in your talks with the Indian leadership?
It is I think more or less the tradition now that the Secretary-General tries to visit India as
far as they can once a year and I've been in office for six months and there were many
initiatives that I wanted to brief them on and tell them where we are on the mandates that
were received by us from the Commonwealth Summit. So there was no specific purpose
apart from bringing the government here up to date and also to meet not just the Leader
of Opposition, the Speaker (of the Lok Sabha) but [also to address] the Confederation of
Indian Industry (CII) ... so it's quite a widely based programme.
What are some those initiatives?
Most of these [initiatives] come from directions that the leaders have given but it's my
job as Secretary-General to give them flesh. The one which is being talked about most
now is reform of international institutions in which we had a mini-Summit in London of
leaders that adopted something called the Marlborough House Statement on reform of
international institutions and this was endorsed by all the leaders in New York a few
weeks ago. Basically it covers environmental governance and in the financial
institutions the IMF and World Bank. What we are trying to get accepted by the world
community is that the process in reforming these institutions should be an inclusive one
because in the era of globalisation everybody must be embraced in the global
governance arrangements that are being made. There is a discrepancy right now
between globalisation and the superstructure for global governance and the pace of
globalisation movement of capital, finance, investments, technology has moved far
ahead [but the structures have remained old] so this is something which we are very
active on. And people have started now echoing what we've said. The American
President wants to call a meeting and discuss this and also [speak] about governance,
President Sarkozy (of France), President Barroso of the European Union, all of them
have started saying this but we said it a long time back. That's one, the other is to try
and create a partnership platform and the object of this is to use the channels which are
available through technology now to get the members acting directly with each other in a
variety of ways. Best practices can be shared, data and information, all forms of
knowledge, all the actors whether in civil society or business or government institutions
they can all interact with each other, technical collaboration, investment programmes ...
this is to create a channel which is independent of our technical cooperation channel
which is run through our own budget and it has huge potential. These are two of the ones
that are occupying our attention and there are some others.
Was India a willing participant in some of your initiatives?
I was informed that India will be supportive of all of them. There are some others as well
but I need not name all of them. There are some other initiatives and they heard the
plans and they said yes, you can rely on our support. So you have to travel to various
countries, I've visited Africa, I've visited the Caribbean, I've visited Asia and I've visited
the Pacific, so actually in that sense I'm coming to India quite late.
Your visit comes ahead of the presidential run-off in Maldives, where Commonwealth is
an observer. How do view the Maldivian electoral process?
Yes, we are (an observer.) It was done in an accelerated form and it's not to be expected
that every aspect of every election will be perfect but the point is that the election as a
whole must be seen to be credible and the people must believe in it. I think this
important criterion has been met.
Pakistan has been reinducted into the Commonwealth. Does it still pose any challenges
for the Commonwealth? How do you see Pakistan today?
Not at all, it's a strength. It brings strength to the Commonwealth when polities rpt
polities that are autocratic or authoritarian take to the Constitutional democratic path. So
governance is an important brand strength of the Commonwealth and South Asia
represents about three-quarters of the population of the Commonwealth, so South Asian
countries in their totality which is India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Maldives
either having been on it or taking to the democratic path gives huge credibility to the
organisation.
Is the Commonwealth directly or otherwise involved in shaping the outcome in
Zimbabwe?
We would like to and we've offered it but we enter into partnerships and collaborations
on the basis of an invitation because you know you need two for a partnership. So this
has been repeatedly offered by me and when the political climate there changes and we
are invited, we'll move very quickly.
What would you like to see happening in Zimbabwe in the shorter term?
Political stability above all so that an acceptance of the standards of governance which
are actually called the Harare Principles would then enable outside parties to engage in
the rehabilitation of Zimbabwe, which has suffered enormously. Ours is a people-centred
organisation in as much as the, you know, values which we espouse are those which we
feel will be beneficial for the individual citizen. So whatever benefits the people of
Zimbabwe politically and economically and socially is something which we would
support.
Any initiative on the democracy and nation-building fronts?
That we have on a continuing basis. They call it the good offices of the Secretary-
General. We are engaged in many countries among member countries in various ways
depending upon where they want progress or where they want institutional strengthening
or where they have technical assistance, where they need capacity building in different
ways, because everyone is at a different stage of democratic growth. This is an
unadvertised part of our contribution because we believe in providing strategic
partnership in substance and not necessarily advertising every single thing we do. So
this goes on all the time. I'm engaged in all of this including Maldives which you
mentioned.
India will host the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Have you reviewed the infrastructure for
the Games?
No, but I [met] the minister of state for sports and there are still two years to go. The
Youth Commonwealth Games in Pune which concluded [recently] were extremely
successful. For the first time all 71 jurisdictions who can participate were present and all
the venues were full and it was extremely well integrated into the lives of the city and the
cultural component was very rich, so I'm sure a lot of lessons have been learnt as a
result of that.
What will be your priorities as Secretary-General?
Well, governance is certainly one of them because you know last decades have shown
that it is intrinsic strength in the polity of a country that matters in the end. That's how
you should define, what have you done for yourself which brings confidence in the
people of your country. That has been our strength in any case and through the passage
of time it has been demonstrated that that's what ultimately matters in the life of a nation.
So we will carry that on. Secondly, I would like the member-states to be more interactive
with each other through the agency of the Commonwealth ... Commonwealth as a
facilitator and an enabler for lot of patterns of interactive collaboration and mutual
support. This is what we call Partnership Platform. And then Strategic Partnerships.
There are many people who admire and respect the values of the Commonwealth and
would like, I think, to work with us. I think we should actively explore who these are and
in this way you are not limited in your impact and outcome on your own budget ... you
work with like-minded entities and people. I think the world is seeing a lot of concern by
many parties on our collective future so I think there are many of these partners outside.
Would the Commonwealth like to venture into conflict resolution between and/or among
member-states?
There's no tradition of the Commonwealth to do that. That's not one of our comparative
strengths. I think we should concentrate on our comparative strengths.
Has the government and/or the industry of India offered to contribute to some
Commonwealth projects?
I've got a very positive response from the [Indian] industry. We're having the 60th
anniversary of the modern Commonwealth in the creation of which our first prime
minister and India played such a pivotal role, so I'm encouraging all member-states to
think of initiatives which they can take in this context. So CII, I think, in this connection
says that they are happy to create a cell dedicated to collaboration with the
Commonwealth, which is a very big thing because it's the premier industry organisation
in the country. And there will be other such initiatives. We're discussing some in the
area of parliamentary work, strengthening institutions like the election commissions,
skills development, ICT (information and communication technology) penetration of
member-states, something called Commonwealth Connects, which India supports very
strongly. I'm sure in all of these areas India is telling us that we can rely on their
support.
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