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GROUND REALITIES

Of Hasina, Yunus and Zoellick

Syed Badrul Ahsan
Yunus may not make it to the presidency of the World Bank, but that someone from outside America someday will is a thought Bangladesh's prime minister has thrown our way. You only need to wait a while, before China and India begin banging on the door.***
PRIME Minister Sheikh Hasina's suggestion that Muhammad Yunus be considered for the presidency of the World Bank is certainly food for thought. And that in the sense that the time has perhaps arrived when some changes need to be brought about in the operational structure of the two Bretton Woods institutions. The argument is yet there, one propounded rather intensely by those familiar with the workings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, that the old convention of the former being led by Washington and the latter by Europe cannot easily be set aside. They are of course right. It is, when you consider things from the perspective of history, truly hard to transform well-entrenched images and practices. But, again from the perspective of history, there is always a time when change becomes necessary.
It is in such light that the Bangladesh leader's thoughts on Yunus being the next chief of the World Bank ought to be considered. It may be that the idea will not much progress beyond being an idea. It may be that not much attention will be given to Sheikh Hasina's suggestion. And it will likely be that Bangladesh's clout on the global stage being of pretty limited dimensions, owing to reasons of economy and politics, there will not be much chance of Yunus making his way to Washington. Besides, do not forget that Robert Zoellick, the outgoing chief of the World Bank, has just made it clear that America needs to exercise leadership in virtually everything which concerns life across the world.
Now, that is certainly risky business, considering what has been happening in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan (the Americans have been there) and what could likely happen in Iran should the Obama administration commit the folly of striking at the ayatollahs. And where the World Bank is concerned, Zoellick's point will certainly have been picked up by his fellow Americans in Washington. You can tell yourself, with little question in your mind, that the Republicans now trying to get the Democrat Obama out of the White House will be cheering the suggestion.
The World Bank remains, therefore, an important institution. Which is why the Americans will not want to let it slip out of their grasp. But that Sheikh Hasina's proposal merits serious debate is only substantiated by the fact of what the Chinese and the Indians have been doing in these past three decades about raising their profiles higher on the global stage. You cannot stop the Chinese from raking in increasingly bigger slices of the world economy, which only goes to vindicate the Napoleonic warning that an awakened China would shake the world. Well, we are beginning to feel the tremors caused by a resurgent China. Add to that the calm, calculated strides being made by the Indians. They may be a mite behind the Chinese, but they are catching up.
In essence, even as Europe struggles to keep itself economically afloat and America tries to tighten its grip nearly everywhere militarily, apart from holding itself together, it is Asia which is moving forward. Bangladesh's prime minister has thrown in an idea. If you place that in juxtaposition with the changes taking place in Burma (or Myanmar, as its soldiers have been calling it for years) and with such strong economies as Indonesia's and Malaysia's thrown in for good measure, there are reasons to think the global power structure could well change -- unless of course the West is ready for a battle of attrition with those who are tempted to challenge its old-fashioned dominance.
Beyond the question of battles, though, comes the reality of the geopolitical changes which have taken place in the past four decades or so around the world. The Soviet Union may have died from internal haemorrhage, but there is Russia which refuses to take a backseat to the only (at this point) superpower in the world. Consider the changes in the United Nations itself. There are more members in the Security Council than there were earlier. Where before 1971 it was tiny Formosa which pretended to speak for all of China, it is today Beijing which speaks for the largest concentration of people anywhere around the globe. You only need to wait for the Security Council to expand its permanent membership. A fraternity formed in the aftermath of the Second World War cannot be an unalterable rule of diplomacy. And, in the economic sense, China, India and Brazil are busy reshaping commercial strategy across a broad swath of territory. On the environment, smaller, poorer and climate change-afflicted nations do not any more take things lying down when it comes to an issue of emissions.
If the world can change, if power structures can undergo transformation, there is very little reason why the World Bank and the IMF cannot. The reputation of the IMF has not been enhanced by the sexual exploits of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The World Bank has the dubious reputation of having been led by two men whose involvement in the destruction of foreign nations is a matter of public record. Robert McNamara, having contributed to the bleeding of Vietnam as US secretary of defence in the 1960s, went on to serve the bank for thirteen years; and Paul Wolfowitz, a Bush neocon whose contribution to the illegal invasion of Iraqi is remembered only too well, became president of the bank only to be forced out at one point.
The message is loud and clear: if the world can change, if Obama can talk about change in America, it is only natural that old notions and old prejudices should make way for meaningful transformation to come into the Bretton Woods structures. Yunus may not make it to the presidency of the World Bank, but that someone from outside America someday will is a thought Bangladesh's prime minister has thrown our way. You only need to wait a while, before China and India begin banging on the door.
The writer Is Executive Editor, The Daily Star. E-mail: bahsantareq@yahoo.co.uk