DSK departs under a cloud - signal for change at the IMF?

Wilberne Persaud, Columnist
wilbe65@yahoo.com

Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn was until May 18, this year, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He held the position from September 2007 when French President Nicolas Sarkozy backed him for the job. He is a bit of a darling of the French media who refer to him as DSK. He likes women and is apparently liked by many too - as our dancehall artistes would say, "im love nuff gal".

Yet this allegation is about sexual assault perhaps in the worst place for him: New York, the city of Law and Order Special Victims Unit. To be taken off a plane in handcuffs is not a pretty sight in any circumstances; in these it is disastrous. Strauss-Kahn is very well qualified for the job he held. He is an economist, lawyer and politician with significant experience in politics and government apart from his stint at the IMF. Indeed, a run for the French Presidency was expected to tear him away from that job. Such was, however, never to be.

A member of the French Socialist Party, he lost his bid for the Party's nomination in a run for the Presidency to Ségolène Royal in November 2006. Royal then lost to Sarkozy and the hope was that DSK would have a successful run this time. In his own words, he thought the only possible difficulties he'd have in the coming Presidential race might be "money, women and my Jewishness". He seems to have been dead right on his second obstacle. It was a maid at New York City's Sofitel Hotel who accused him of sexual assault and forcible participation in oral sex. A US grand jury indicted him on seven counts including criminal sexual assault, attempted rape and sexual abuse. These counts carry a potential 25 years in prison.

The evidence as it inevitably seeps out in the US, seems damning. The door to his suite was open while the 32-year-old African migrant cleaned. This is hotel policy. If, as Strauss-Kahn claims, the sexual act were consensual, why would the maid have left the door open? This detail is supported by the electronic record of the maid's entry to the suite.

Could this have happened in Jamaica to a man as prominent and influential as he? Can you imagine a central bank governor, CEO of a big bank or top businessman hauled off by police on such an accusation? Can you even imagine one of our hotel maids summoning the courage to make such an accusation? Even in today's enlightened world that might require a true stretch of imagination. Moreover, how would the policeman at the station house react both to the complaint and complainant?

Previously accused

Strauss-Kahn had previously been publicly accused in 2007 on French television of attempted rape. He has had an 'improper' relationship with a female subordinate at the IMF. His current wife stands by him, defends him. But two weeks ago he was not in Paris where polling suggests a majority of people hold the view that he was set up. Did he forget he was in the city of Law and Order Special Victims Unit? Now what's the matter with DSK? As a friend of mine, an avid critic of the IMF says, how can he prescribe restraint for hungry, perhaps starving Third World populations when he appears able to demonstrate none with respect to his own behaviour?

Will emerging economies use this episode and his resignation to change the 66-year-old tradition of a European head of the Fund? French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde wants to succeed her countryman. Her only challenge comes from Augustin Carstens, Mexico's Central Bank Governor. She is pushing her competence and not the fact that she is European. Either of these would be first - Lagarde a woman, Carstens a non-European. Both candidates are able but Lagarde has European and, it is rumoured, the backing of China and Brazil. On the one count, her being a woman, she might garner much support. The culture of the IMF, it is said, could certainly use top-down overhaul. All that said, however, such leadership change signals nothing different for Jamaica-IMF relations.