The DSK (Dominique Strauss-Kahn) saga may spell his own misfortune but is a perfect opportunity to reform the IMF, so urges Peter Hartcher, Sydney Morning Herald international editor, in the National Times on 17 May , 2011.
While speculations are afoot as to how best to select the next leader for the IMF, arguments about individual merit are extremely valid but the elephant in the room is international power politics.
Outdated as the original implicit monopoly amongst Western powers of selecting leaders for such world institutions as the World Bank and the IMF undoubtedly has become, even after some of the voting powers have recently been redistributed to China and India, the developed world still retains outright majority and the US alone absolute veto in IMF decisions.
Apart from monopolizing the leadership of world institutions, Western powers' approach and prescriptions for developing countries in these institutions have not been a paragon of success over the years, especially during the Asian Financial Crisis.
This anachronism has long been getting its fair share of criticism, not least from Western critics, including Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, one-time adviser to Bill Clinton, and formerly chief economist of the World Bank. He wrote in 2002 that the IMF's "approach to developing countries has had the feel of a colonial ruler". His subsequent works, 'Globalization and Its Discontents' (2003) and 'Making Globalaization Work - The Next Steps to Global Justice' (2007) highlighted how such anachronism should be overhauled.
It is no surprise that the China's Foreign Ministry has now weighed in, pointing out that the selection process for IMF leaders should be based on "fairness, transparency and merit."
The full articel by Peter Hartcher, Sydney Morning Herald international editor, in the National Times on 17 May, 2011 can be accessed at
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/…
Best regards,
Andrew
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