The Hindu Business Line : Exit Paul Wolfowitz

What havoc a wrong choice can cause! It is not as if the tumultuous two years in the World Bank, thanks to the working style of its President, Mr Paul Wolfowitz, were not foreseen: Even at the time of his appointment, the reactions reflected the outrage felt round the world.

A sampler: `Truly terrifying'; `...lacking any relevant experience.... a deeply divisive figure'; `a very surprising and... an inappropriate nomination'.

Mr Jeffrey Sachs, respected for his perceptive analysis of issues of concern, summarised at the time the reasons for the opposition to Mr Wolfowitz thus: "He is a man without international development experience, without professional qualifications. He has not demonstrated an interest in the Millennium Development Goals, the shared international commitments to the fight extreme poverty. (He) is not a banker, an economist, a public health specialist, a water management specialist, an agronomist, a climate change specialist — any of the professional specialisations that stand at the core of the poverty challenge."

I had myself written in my piece, "Bush stokes anti-US embers: Shock-and-awe dispenser as chief of World Bank" (Business Line, March 19, 2005): "Unless Mr Bush thinks that the world should swallow whatever he chooses to thrust down its throat, he could not have thought of a more unsuitable person... This is no time to experiment or to gamble on an ugly duckling becoming a swan.

All those who have the good of the Bank at heart and care for harmonious international relations must combine and exhibit the will to ensure that the mode of selection conforms to the universally acceptable criteria of professionalism, objectivity and credibility."

An exact echo of the above is to be found in the following editorial comment of The New York Times (May 19, 2007): "Custom gives United States presidents the power to award the World Bank presidency to any American — whether or not they have appropriate managerial skills or development credentials... That deeply flawed selection process produced the Paul Wolfowitz debacle. It is offensive not only for its hypocrisy, but because it has long made the bank a less effective and credible vehicle for financing international development than it should be. It ought to be reformed now, before Mr Wolfowitz's successor is chosen. The ground rules should be changed to require merit selection and open up the job to highly qualified applicants worldwide."

End Western carve-up

The ground rule hitherto was a US-European "carve-up" of the top jobs in the World Bank and the IMF. It is time the developing countries challenged this practice.

India should take the lead in organising the developing member countries of the World Bank against the continuation of this "carve-up".

It is in a pre-eminent position to do so because in respect of its shareholdings and voting rights (2.85 per cent) it is on a par with Canada, China, Italy, Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia, and well ahead of Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

It has the weight and influence to build up its case by evoking the synergy of the collective political will of developing countries, and insist on their right to put up their nominee(s) as their candidate(s) to run the two institutions whose mission is essentially to do with addressing the problems of those countries.

A depressing footnote to l'affaire Wolfowitz is the prolonged vacillation shown by the Executive Board of the Bank in dealing with the unsavoury disclosures and their readiness in the end to be bulldozed into accepting that Mr Wolfowitz `acted ethically and in good faith'.

This points to the need for measures to ensure that the Directors are persons of independence and courage.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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