As always at CHOGM, events take control
22 November 2007
The wily British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, prophet of the “Wind of Change in Africa”, was once asked what represented the greatest challenge to a statesman.
His reply was simple: “Events, dear boy, events…” As so often he was being shrewd, pragmatic and perceptive.
When Commonwealth summits come round every two years unexpected events nearly always happen in the preceding days that threaten to refocus the proceedings.
Nigeria did that with the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and nine others on the eve of the Auckland CHOGM. This year events in Pakistan prove the point again.
So does the death at 88 on the eve of CHOGM in Kampala, of Ian Smith, the white leader of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) whose intransigence led to the long liberation war. It has put the public focus sharply back again on Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe.
The event came just as Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai arrived in Kampala at the invitation of civil society. He addressed a packed meeting organised in the old Imperial Hotel by the Royal Commonwealth Society.
It was the culmination of a campaign worked out over many months in London to persuade Commonwealth Heads to do more to help rescue the people of Zimbabwe from their plight and another illustration of the ever-growing influence of civil society.
Until a decade ago Commonwealth summits were just that - meetings of heads of government that lasted four or five days.
Today the meeting itself is down to three days, but around it flows a mass of activity lasting nearly a fortnight. A Commonwealth Youth Forum, Commonwealth People’s Forum, Commonwealth Human Rights Forum, Commonwealth Business Council Meeting and many more. It is a cast of thousands drawn from every one of the 53 countries.
They make up the network across the world that is the ticking heart of the Commonwealth. The modern term for it all is civil society. In earlier days we used the cumbersome phrase non-governmental organisations.
As every CHOGM comes along the influence of civil society on the agenda of the summit itself is growing. Relentless lobbying in the years between summits has led Heads to devote more and more time on issues ranging from climate change to human rights.
This year we are watching the plight of Zimbabwe being forced back by civil society on to the Commonwealth table, from which it was entirely absent at the Malta CHOGM two years ago.
It has not been on the official agenda, since it walked out in 2003 and ceased to be a member.
For a time it seemed the Commonwealth had washed its hands of Zimbabwe. To be fair, Secretary-General Don McKinnon and his political team had tried several times to re-engage Mugabe, but over several years the Zimbabwean leader would have nothing to do with anyone in Marlborough House.
Every now and again McKinnon and Mugabe still find themselves at the same international gatherings. Always Mugabe has turned his back at sighting the Secretary-General. Some contact, but all too little, has been managed from to time between officials.
But the pressure coming from civil society somehow to help the people of Zimbabwe and now the presence of Tsvangirai and many other lobbying Zimbabweans on the fringes of the CHOGM is leading to discussion among the leaders around the edges of the CHOGM and most importantly of the Retreat which is taking place a few miles outside Kampala at Munyonyo.
The Retreat, at which the Heads meet informally with the presence of officials, was invented for the 1973 meeting in Ottawa by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau for leaders to talk frankly to each other about the toughest issues.
Zimbabwe, which has haunted the Commonwealth on and off for decades, is certainly one of those.
As Macmillan said, in the end it is events that challenge the statesmen.
22/11/07
The views and comments in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Commonwealth Secretariat.
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