Radio Australia Today Editorial

Connie Hedegaard. You can fool some of the people..

17 December 2009

..some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

That was a phrase used by U.S, President Abraham Lincoln to decry those who believed that politicians can get away with lying to the public.

A good phrase, but not one which has stopped politicians putting things over on people.

Take the case of the demise of Connie Hedegaard. Until today she was the President of the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. From the first day she made impressive impassioned pleas to the delegates to come to an agreement.

She soon incurred the wrath of developing noations, particularly those from Africa, who claimed that she was favouring the richer countries over them. The leaked Danish communique which seemed to confirm those suspicions, didn’t help her cause.

So Connie went overnight to the surprise of most delegates and the relief of the developing nation bloc. She announced that she had resigned, to be replaced by the Danish Prime Minister, but played it down saying it was purely procedural: “With so many heads of state and government having arrived, it’s appropriate that the prime minister of Denmark presides.”

You can fool some of the people etc.

For this was a wholly unexpected resignation, and came just two days before the end of the conference, the most important time, when confidence in the process was already ailing and needed to be restored. If this was ‘procedural’, then why wasn’t it flagged months ago? If it was procedural, what was the need for her resignation at all? She could’ve kept the post and handed over to the prime minister as an interim move.

No, this was a huge development, certainly one that will have at least some of those present asking whether the conference has become a shamozzle at the very time that it needed to be at its most resolute. Already there is an assuption in much of the media that the Danish PM Lars Lokke Rasmussen had given Connie a firm shove.

Why would he do it? As our climate conference correspondent suggested this this morning, Mr Rasmussen is noted for his ambition, and maybe wanted to be there at the head of the table when the deals are made. A alternative reason is that it could have been a sop to the smaller countries that will help bring them on side as we get to the final crunch negotiations.

It could be any of these things. Just don’t tell us that it’s a little nothing, just a bit of paperwork. If it was, it was done on paper so thin that anyone could see through it.

- Phil Kafcaloudes