C/wealth must prove its worth in light of global conditions – Secretary-General

Nov 28, 2009 News

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By Gary Eleazar in Trinidad

Mere minutes before Head of the Commonwealth, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, declared the Heads of Government Meeting open here in Port of Spain, the grouping’s Secretary-General, Kamalesh Sharma told the attending leaders, representatives and high level delegation members, that in light of the current global conditions the Commonwealth has to prove it its worth.
And outgoing Chairman, Uganda’s President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, took the opportunity to blast the major contributors of carbon emissions and CFCs (Chloroflorocarbons) calling them aggressors in the face of what the emissions have done to the planet.
He also said that the issue of protectionism in the developed world should be a thing of the past and that there should be the insistence of a fair trading regime.
Museveni said that the problem of underdevelopment must be solved by those countries and what is needed from the developed world is understanding, support where possible and, “no obstruction.”
The Ugandan leader noted that in the developing countries there is a need for a socio-economic development transformation of which the stimuli are, “education and health for all through…liberalization and private sector growth with government intervention where necessary…not to lose resources to the developed world through specialization and an unequal formula of exchange.”
According to Museveni, the fact that developing countries receive minuscule returns for their resources is a modern form of slavery that must be abolished.
There must be a modernization of the infrastructure especially that of information and communication technologies (ICT), he said.
Museveni reminded the distinguished gathering that there must also be greater regional integration to provide credible blocs that could negotiate on the world markets.    
Secretary-General Sharma said that ever since its inception in 1949, the Commonwealth has stood the test of time. “In 2009 and beyond, it must again show itself to be in and of its times, and equal to them.”
This, he said, was amidst the wreckage created by a series of global crises, the looming existential catastrophe of climate change and “the pernicious poison of poverty and disease; the strangling of so much entitlement and opportunity.”
Sharma described the Commonwealth as a champion of democracy, of development and dignity for its people, and a community with respect for diversity, adding that it has been constantly renewing itself in the face of fresh challenges and new needs, over six decades.
Sharma in outlining what he would like to see emanate out of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009, explained that there must first be a restatement or recommitment of the body’s values and principles, with practical commitments to match.
“We can be flattered that other organisations have taken their cue and have evolved, in parts, in our (The Commonwealth’s) image. The rest of the world, though, is catching up…Now is the time to push forward again in pioneering ways…I hope that we will raise our bar once more in the standards we set for ourselves, and in the ways in which we make them real,” said the Secretary-General.
He also reminded the gathering that the forum is being held in the final few days before the global community meets at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
This, he said, should fuel a restatement of the Commonwealth’s shared responsibilities towards the preservation of the planet.
He urged them to set out the responsibilities of countries, both rich and poor, “and especially of rich countries towards the poor…We are called to discharge our special Commonwealth responsibility towards the most threatened and vulnerable.”
Pointing to the fact that the Commonwealth is celebrating its diamond jubilee anniversary under the theme ‘serving a new generation’ Sharma said that the CHOGM should deliver practical commitments to its more than one billion youths, who represent the future of the Commonwealth.
The Secretary-General charged that this must be done, “especially, in bringing youth policies and programmes into every aspect of government, and in providing training and other support as we encourage young people to become the job creators and inheritors of the future.”
In his final charge to the 2009 CHOGM he said that it must respond to the theme set out by Trinidad & Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning, “Partnership for a more Equitable and Sustainable Future”, Sharma told the grouping, “We are already a network of partnerships,” recalling a previous reference to the Commonwealth by the Queen when she referred to it as “the original World Wide Web.”
The Secretary-General called on the leaders while in Port of Spain, to refresh the ways in which those networks link the Commonwealth, and “especially the ways in which they use technology to weave an ever-closer web of partnerships.”
This, he said, was the spirit of enlightened globalism at large and in a world of headlong globalisation, “We are a great global good, contributing to the globalisation of wisdom.

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