A DAMNING British report has warned that the Commonwealth is out of touch and must undergo radical change to regain relevance and clout on the global stage.
The document, a copy of which has been read by The Age, has caused consternation in London's Commonwealth Secretariat, sparking anxiety among senior bureaucrats that it will take the gloss off the agenda for this week's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad.
The research, commissioned by the Royal Commonwealth Society to mark its 60th anniversary, spanned the globe, asking tens of thousands of people, including policymakers and former heads of government in the 53 member states, their thoughts on the association.
The results, which will be released tomorrow, paint a grim picture of a once-powerful and high-profile alliance of nations that now risks fading into irrelevance, overtaken by new geopolitical alliances such as the G20.
Less than a third of people surveyed in the Commonwealth could name something that the association does, with the Commonwealth Games usually cited as the only example.
Policymakers found it difficult to pinpoint areas where the Commonwealth has a strong voice and adds value to foreign relations.
The research also reveals that the Commonwealth's strongest support is among older Anglophiles who have a strong affection for the Commonwealth but much of it coloured by nostalgia for the imperial past.
It suggests too that while much good work is done by the network of Commonwealth nations and societies, there is also a perception that it is spreading itself too thinly, diffusing its voice and identity on the international stage.
"This report is already causing a stir in the corridors of the Commonwealth Secretariat," a Commonwealth insider told The Age yesterday.
"If the bureaucrats who run the Commonwealth support it, it will almost inevitably lead to a radical overhaul of how they work. If they try to bury it, they will look obstructive and out of touch."
The report is also likely to ruffle feathers because it urges the Commonwealth to toughen its stance in cases of human rights abuses or attacks against democracy as have occurred in Zimbabwe,
Fiji and Sri Lanka.
Asked for his observations for the project, former prime minister Malcolm Fraser echoed the report's warning that if the Commonwealth is to survive as an effective organisation, it should "not be shy and retiring".
Mr Fraser said the Commonwealth was not taken as seriously by leaders as it used to be: "Without enthusiasm from presidents and prime ministers to use the Commonwealth to find shared solutions to common problems, its great potential risks being wasted."
He said the Lusaka CHOGM exactly 30 years ago paved the way for Rhodesian independence, but if Zimbabwe was one of the Commonwealth's greatest successes, "it is also one of its greatest failures".
"No one predicted that the country to which the Commonwealth gave birth would end up leaving the fold in 2003," he said.
"A number of Commonwealth leaders have been quietly involved in Zimbabwe over the years, but the Commonwealth itself could have been more influential and arguably did not marshal its resources early enough or adequately enough."
Commonwealth Society director Dr Danny Sriskandarajah was in Trinidad last night and could not be contacted.
But it is believed that the report's authors will push to stimulate debate at CHOGM to harness support for a new path and role for the Commonwealth if it is to survive and thrive.
Dr Sriskandarajah, in a blog posted this week, said the report was written to "be unashamedly provocative, not because we want to undermine the Commonwealth, but because we believe the conversation so far should be a wake-up call".
"I suspect that our report will ruffle some feathers next week, but I hope it will be received in the constructive spirit we embarked on at the start of this process," he wrote.
"For us, it would be hugely disappointing if having engaged tens of thousands of people on the future of the Commonwealth, our findings are then ignored by leaders in Trinidad.
"We believe the conversation should be a wake-up call that leads to real action, not just a paragraph in a long communique, or the renaming of a division in the Commonwealth Secretariat."
The Age per Paola Totaro 11-25-09
