EDITORIAL : THE BANGKOK POST, THAILAND

All talk about new IMF chief

A proposal that Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij become head of the International Monetary Fund is a moment of flattery for Mr Korn and the country. But it is followed by a reality check.

The majority of nations affected by the powerful IMF has no real say on who runs the group. As events now stand, a European will likely be approved to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is being investigated for sexual molestation. It has always been that way, since the IMF came into existence 65 years ago.

Don't blame the Europeans for this. Don't blame the cross-Atlantic alliance of close-knit financial mavens who founded the IMF and the World Bank after World War Two. The chummy European-North American alliance may have set up the system where a European runs the IMF with an American assistant. They are responsible for the "tradition" that an American always leads the World Bank, with a European at his (never her) right hand. But the system continues because the rest of the world refuses to take the responsibility to change it.

In the aftermath of a terrible war, the informal agreement on who should lead the IMF and World Bank may have been necessary. It was, indeed, an informal pact. There is no hint of the sweet sharing of the top IMF and World Bank jobs in the charters of the two organisations. Nothing but the "old boys' network" holds the unreasonable format together. Many colonies of 1946 have become notable financial successes. The two greatest losers of that conflict have become two of the biggest economic powers.

Add to that the strong criticism and resentment in many countries - including in Thailand - at stingy World Bank lending and crippling IMF belt-tightening. It galled many to learn that Mr Strauss-Kahn was arrested from an IMF-financed first-class airliner seat after alleged sexual assaults in a hotel room costing IMF members 90,000 baht per night - when he was not even on official business. Change is needed, right at the top, but members seem too timid to respond.

Both the Japan Times and South China Morning Post listed Mr Korn among world figures who should be short-listed to succeed Mr Strauss-Kahn. The newspapers are right, and this newspaper would be first to support any move to elect Mr Korn. The sad fact is that he will not be considered by those who matter.

Europe and the United States are quickly decided on exactly who should be the next IMF managing director. They are rallied quickly around a common nominee: French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world flounders, Thailand included. The government, including Mr Korn, have ever so timorously endorsed Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Russia wants the head of Kazakhstan's central bank, Grigori Marchenko. Australia won't even nominate anyone, but Treasurer Wayne Swan said the next IMF chief should be chosen on merit, and who could disagree?

Singapore urged an open and transparent process, and how could it get more vague?

Rarely is it more evident that those who ignore the problem are bound to repeat it. Just last month the so-called BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China - urged the US and Europe to end their monopoly on the World Bank and IMF jobs. Asean, too, is on record against the practice. This morning, as Europe and the US rally around a single candidate, no other region or group even wants to compete.