(Trinidad Express) Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma on Saturday heaped praise upon the late Dr Eric Williams, hailing his vision on several societal issues.
Speaking at the 23rd Eric Williams Memorial lecture on Friday at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Port of Spain, Sharma, the feature speaker, noted T&T’s first Prime Minister’s interest in the youth, education and regional and international unification and cited his foresight on the need for a Commonwealth Secretariat.
“He would say that the Commonwealth was like a conglomerate, but without any real organisation. Now it is still a conglomerate, but with an organisation,” said Sharma, an Indian diplomat who became secretary general of the Commonwealth in April last year.
Sharma also said that the Commonwealth should take on the role of “coach as opposed to referee” in situations facing its members such as asking the G-20 countries, the world’s wealthiest nations to take a stake in the issues affecting their less affluent counterparts in the context of the current world economic crisis and other problems.
“While 90 per cent of the world’s GDP sat around the table, 90 per cent of the world were away from it…(The G20) needed to show that we are a world coming together, not a world coming apart,” said Sharma.
