The Commonwealth at 50: A Growing Force for Good
Date: 23 Apr 1999
Speaker: Secretary-General Chief Emeka Anyaoku
Location: Nehru Centre, London
In the Central Hall of the Indian Parliament, on that historic midnight in August 1947 which ushered in India's independence, Jawaharlal Nehru told his countrymen and women of the "tryst with destiny (made) long years ago". He was, of course, referring to India's rendezvous with independence. But unknown to all at the time - perhaps even to Nehru himself - another tryst was in the making, with a different destiny.
Within two years of independence, the founding fathers of India's Constitution decided that the country should have its own President, thus abandoning dominion status. But Pandit Nehru felt at the same time that India's membership of the Commonwealth should, if possible, be retained even under its new republican dispensation.
India's request presented the Commonwealth of the day with a vexed choice. But after deliberating carefully in London fifty years ago almost to the day, Commonwealth Prime Ministers, on 27 April 1949, adopted the London Declaration, whose anniversary we are celebrating this evening. The Declaration reconciled republicanism with Commonwealth membership thereby enabling India to remain in the fold. It did this by making the British monarch [King] the symbol of the free association of the Commonwealth's independent member nations and as such the Head of the Commonwealth. And it was this that opened the doors for many other newly independent countries which subsequently wished to maintain the links which the association offered, no longer as colonies but as sovereign partners.
27 April 1949 was thus the Commonwealth's own tryst with destiny. Nehru's approach was, of course, influenced heavily by his connections with Harrow and Cambridge and it is arguable whether history might have taken a different course if he were not at the helm of affairs in India at the time. But India's decision showed Nehru the statesman, one who could look deeper and further than others and assess the potential benefits to his country of retaining its Commonwealth links. It was that vision which, in many ways, has helped the Commonwealth grow from its original membership of five to fifty-four today.
I cannot, therefore, begin to address the subject today without paying tribute to Jawaharlal Nehru, whose name hallows this institution. And I must thank you, Professor Choudhuri, for arranging this event.
Mr Chairman, the theme of this evening's function is The Commonwealth at 50: India's Contribution Then and Now. However, I will not dwell on the role India has played in the Commonwealth over the last fifty years since I know that one of my fellow speakers will do so. Suffice it for me to say that not only do the people of India account for well over half of the Commonwealth's total population of 1.7 billion but that India remains an active, important and valued member of our Commonwealth family.
The task assigned to me this evening is to look to the Commonwealth of the future, to the Commonwealth of the new millennium. That is in itself an enormously satisfying thought, for no rebuff could be greater to those prophets of doom who have been predicting the demise of our association with uncanny regularity. The fact is that the Commonwealth is not just alive, but kicking. It is dynamic and vibrant. It has grown more than tenfold in its membership in these fifty years and is likely to grow further. Not only has it never lost its raison d'être but it has found increasing relevance as the sun sets on the 20th century.
I believe that the reasons which have led to the resurgence of the Commonwealth as a force for good on the international stage are indeed the factors which underscore its relevance to the future. As we stand at the threshold of a new millennium, I would submit that the Commonwealth has much to contribute in seeking to deal with factors which threaten the stability of nation states and the world society.
I would characterise these threats as four-fold. The first is what I frequently refer to as divisive pluralism; in other words the tensions and conflicts spawned by differences of race, ethnicity or religion in several of our societies. A second is failure to consolidate good governance, whose components I see as democratic choice, transparency and accountability. A third element which imperils stability must surely be the unacceptable levels of poverty in the world. And finally, there are the sinister problems which are not constrained by national boundaries, such as environmental degradation, drug trafficking and commercial crime. Let me touch briefly on each of these challenges of the future.
The terrible happenings in the Balkans remind us sharply of the challenge to peace and stability that can come from divisions based on ethnicity, religion and culture. We have seen this happen not just in Kosovo, but in several other places including Rwanda, Bosnia, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, parts of Indonesia and elsewhere. The growing cosmopolitan nature of societies everywhere make it imperative that attention should be paid to ways of, in the words of Nelson Mandela, "making the world safe for diversity". The Commonwealth recently joined hands with UNESCO to hold a colloquium in Paris to discuss precisely how best to manage diversity and work towards constructive pluralism. And we are also, together with La Francophonie, planning to hold a second colloquium on the increasingly important theme of democracy in pluralistic societies. I believe that the Commonwealth, whose central ethos is the promotion of unity in diversity, has much to offer to the world in this regard.
The Commonwealth can take legitimate pride in its achievements in the promotion of democracy and good governance, which were enshrined in the 1991 Commonwealth Harare Declaration. Since 1991, eight countries have made the transition from military or one-party rule to multiparty democracy and the Commonwealth's last remaining military regime in Nigeria is all set to hand over power to an elected government on 29 May this year. The unconstitutional overthrow of an elected government in the Commonwealth now invites immediate censure of various kinds. To become a member of the Commonwealth now, an applying country must be a democratically governed country.
This is an impressive record by any standards. A lot of effort has gone into it. Not merely the observing of 27 elections in 19 countries since October 1990, but innumerable efforts in other ways to create or reinforce democratic processes and institutions. For example, India's electoral logistics expert, Mr Sarangi, was in Nigeria from October 1998 to the end of February 1999 under the sponsorship of the Commonwealth helping the Independent National Electoral Commission through its series of four elections.
The challenge of poverty is a truly awesome one. Over 1 billion people around the world today live on less than one dollar a day. Globalisation and trade liberalisation, notwithstanding their positive features, have not been entirely benign in their consequences for many developing countries which suffer a sense of marginalisation.
One of the most significant developments in the Commonwealth has been its ability to give greater content to economic co-operation for development. To add to the sterling work which the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation (CFTC) has done over nearly three decades to promote socio-economic development in member states, many new initiatives have recently been launched: the Commonwealth Private Investment Initiative has already established four regional investment funds, including one for South Asia. A Trade and Investment Access Facility has been set up within the Secretariat for assisting developing countries, including especially small states, to make the best of globalisation, and the Commonwealth Business Council has already made a mark in promoting business links within the Commonwealth in the first two years of its existence. Following the highly successful Commonwealth Business Forum held in London in October 1997, similar initiatives have taken place in Ottawa and New Delhi and another Commonwealth Business Forum will be held in Johannesburg on the eve of the CHOGM in South Africa in November this year. With these efforts, it is my hope that the Commonwealth can improve upon the 20 percent share of world trade which it can already claim.
The Commonwealth has also been active in promoting global consensus and practical co-operation in tackling such transnational problems as the environment, drug trafficking and money laundering.
I must mention, finally, the Commonwealth's good offices role. Quite often, without fanfare and away from the glare of publicity, we have been able to respond to requests from member governments to help tackle divisive domestic situations which threaten national stability. We work closely with the United Nations and regional organisations, where necessary, for conflict prevention and resolution. I believe that this is a Commonwealth strength and much as I hope that the need for it will disappear, I fear that this service will remain in demand in years to come.
Those, Ladies and Gentlemen, are the challenges of the future, which make the Commonwealth relevant not merely to yesterday and today but for tomorrow. It is perhaps appropriate for me to close with another quotation from Nehru. It was he who made famous the phrase "the healing touch". I believe that the Commonwealth provides that healing touch to a world which, at the turn of the millennium, needs it desperately as ever before.
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