Radio-Canada reveals today that the leadership of the World Organization of the Francophonie (OMF) is disastrous.
The illustration and defense of the French language at the international level are too important issues to be left in the hands of a small organization whose leaders have neither the means nor the skills to carry out these tasks.
As the Radio-Canada journalist explains, current President Louise Mashikiwabo comes from Rwanda, a country that abandoned French overnight and asked its officials to now work in English. Emmanuel Macron believed that appointing a Rwandan woman to head the OMF would help bring France closer to Rwanda. There was an error.
A whispered truth
But there are worse things. A truth that we hardly dare to whisper in the hallways of law firms. The truth is: the more international officials come from corrupt and dictatorial countries, the greater the risk that they will develop corrupt and dictatorial reflexes.
Speak to the UN Secretary-General, who has no idea where the staggering sums his organization spends each year go. No wonder, considering that three quarters of the UN member states are extremely corrupt.
This does not mean that officials from dictatorial and corrupt countries are all dictatorial and corrupt, or, conversely, that those who come from democratic and less corrupt countries are necessarily good and honest administrators. It is a simple question of probabilities and administrative cultures.
However, the OIF has many administrators who come from dictatorial and corrupt countries. It is not surprising that employees complain about opaque management, degrading treatment or embezzlement. In such a context, it is inevitable that some leaders will misuse the resources allocated to them. It is inevitable that they will behave like little dictators. This is the example that they have received all their lives in their homeland.
Some solutions
To avoid these problems, the OIF must be more than a political instrument in the hands of certain states and more than a hiding place for officials at the end of their careers.
It must defend French vigorously, first distinguishing within its ranks between those countries for which French is actually the common language, those for which it is one of the common languages, and those that claim to attach particular importance to it. These three scenarios should give OIF member countries three different statuses.
At its head it must have diplomats and managers of international standing able to stand up to political leaders who want to exploit it.
It must have the financial resources to fulfill its ambitions and therefore have several years of renewable budgets.
To minimize corruption, all budgets should be subject to an annual independent public financial audit.
But above all, the leaders of the real French-speaking countries must believe in their mission. That is his biggest challenge.
