Of all the international multilateral groupings in the world "" EU, WTO, UN, ASEAN, SAARC, and so on "" it is the most civilised: all members of the Commonwealth play cricket, drive right hand cars on the left of the road, swear by the values of democracy and education and just love the Queen. Pakistan is out for the second time, Zimbabwe and Fiji are still out, Rwanda wants to get in, and the Commonwealth has got the clearance to open another office in Geneva for the needs of small states in the organisation. This is the body that Kamalesh Sharma is going to steer for the next four years, as Secretary General. One could ask, as a plaintive blogger did, "Can someone explain what's the point in today's world of the Commonwealth (sic)? Does the Commonwealth do anything or mean anything or is it just a talking shop?" The grouping does celebrate a sense of common values, though this can detract from the main menu sometimes: at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kampala last week, for instance, a Jamaican journalist said she feared that Pakistan would dominate CHOGM, at the expense of the real issues on Caribbean minds "" financial compensation for the end of sugar regimes, or the unfair demands made on African-Caribbean-Pacific countries in the Economic Partnership Agreements being negotiated with the EU.
But this will be an easy act for Sharma to follow who, having been Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, Uruguay Round negotiator, Kofi Annan's Special Representative to East Timor and also the editor of an anthology of poetry, knows a thing or two about reconciling contradictions.
Sharma will replace the well-loved Don McKinnon, former foreign minister of New Zealand (who has completed two terms in the post), but may need a special pair of feet to fit into McKinnon's shoes where a sense of humour is concerned.
If the recent CHOGM was anything to go by, the tasks before Sharma will be addressing climate change (vigorously), equity and social justice (not quite so vigorously, judging by the somewhat tepid response to the report submitted by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's Commission on Respect and Understanding ) and issues confronting small states, especially those like Nauru and Vanuatu which feel threatened and at the brink of extinction.
Trade issues "" sugar, banana and cotton concessions "" will continue to be the abiding concerns of the Commonwealth. Somewhere towards the end of his term will be the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, an event Sharma is well-advised to await both with enthusiasm and trepidation, given current levels of preparation.
Much is being made of the diplomatic triumph India has achieved in Sharma's selection "" for there is no voting for the job. He came to the job with flawless credentials, so frankly, India might just as easily have curled up and died if he had not won it. Mohan Kaul, Director of the Commonwealth Business Council for the last 10 years, and Maltese Foreign Minister Michael Frendo, the chair of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), were the other candidates.
When Sharma reports for duty on April's Fools Day, 2008 at Marlborough House, London, he will belong not just to India, but also to the 53-member Commonwealth.
