Let Malta use CHOGM to argue for Commonwealth of Culture

Next December Malta hosts the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). At an estimated cost of Lm1.5 million, is it too expensive for us? Alfred Sant thinks so. Minister Michael Frendo thinks the exposure and networking possibilities make CHOGM well worth it.

Anyone who saw the value of the image of the Grand Harbour beamed around the EU on May 1 will see the value of images of Malta being beamed into every hotel room in the world where CNN or BBC International is being watched. Add the congregation of foreign journalists and you get definite if non-quantifiable value. But can we get more?

A closer look at the possible strategic value of Malta's membership of the Commonwealth highlights four issues.

First, most of the illegal migrants and asylum seekers trying to reach the EU via the Mediterranean are coming from sub-saharan Africa. They use North African countries as a transit point but most come from Commonwealth countries or their close neighbours to Commonwealth members. The Commonwealth's experience, influence and pressure is important to the EU, should the latter decide to ease the pressure of illegal immigration by investing in sub-saharan Africa.

Second, tackling the difficulties of sub-saharan Africa would also be a great help for Malta's immediate southern neighbours, which are bearing the immediate pressure and difficulties of South-North migration.

Libya, for instance, with its vast territory, is receiving illegal migrants on such a vast scale that on one estimate they number 40 per cent of its population; the costs of repatriation are huge and it is cheaper for Libya to host these migrants; yet this decision is also adding to internal tensions in the country between the host population and the migrants.

While Libya, and the other North African countries, can tackle these issues, through the African Union, additional Maltese assistance through the Commonwealth would be useful.

Third, there is a medium-term issue to do with the possible reform of the United Nations. Issues to do with the global economy and global security are fuelling talk of increasing the number of permanent members of the UN security council; another line of argument (favoured by some French politicians) pushes the setting up of a separate UN economic security council. Should either event happen, two Commonwealth members, India and South Africa, are likely to be included in the new/reformed institution.

Malta's relative proximity to these two states through the Commonwealth would be important. A lot of talk about UN reform is just hot air but foreign policy has to be alert to possibilities and scenarios of transformation.

To sum up so far: we should not let the years of seeming irrelevance of the Commonwealth and the years of Euro-centricity mislead us. Commonwealth membership has the potential to strengthen Malta's hand when it pursues its regional policy. It differentiates Malta from several other Euro-Med participants - and in doing so can give Malta a comparative advantage. In the medium-term, it might even prove useful to Malta on the UN stage.

Now, the fourth issue: running through the previous three is the question of cultural diplomacy. Whether we are tackling illegal immigration, tackling economic globalisation and the transnationalism associated with it, or global security, the building of trust through cultural relations is an important component. It is also an area - he calls it "cultural translation" - where Dr Frendo sees a calling for Maltese diplomacy.

Can Malta use its position as host for 2005 to persuade the Commonwealth that it needs to give a special attention to cultural diplomacy? And that Malta might be the place where a centre for the Commonwealth of Culture can be based?

But the first thing Malta needs to do, of course, is explore this possibility to see if it is suitable. Three kinds of experience might come in useful. First, the Commonwealth itself has organisations that tackle certain sectors on behalf of its members - for instance, the Commonwealth of Learning.

Second, the British Council has over the last 70 years acquired considerable experience in public, or cultural diplomacy; it has had to think hard about the nature of cultural relations in a multicultural world (not least within the Commonwealth) as well as hone valuable skills to self-fund some two-thirds of its budget.

Third, there is Malta's experience in developing a blueprint for a centre of multi-cultural dialogue when it organised its bid to host the Euro-Med foundation for dialogue between cultures. It lost out to Egypt in the end but the fact that the foundation-to-be incorporates many Maltese proposals shows that it was not a lack of institutional vision that saw us lose out. (It was a Eurovision-like voting pattern that did us in.)

Beyond tapping experience, however, we need bipartisan agreement on how Malta should strategically use its Commonwealth membership. It would be a pity if premature arguments about the cost of CHOGM pre-empted such agreement.

ranierfsadni@europe.com