Small bud of reform

In a statement released on Monday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it would consider two candidates for the position of managing director: front-runner Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, and Agustin Carstens, Mexico's central bank chief.

By making the list of candidates as short as possible - surely merely a symbolic effort to break the 65-year European lock on its top post - the IMF has offered little cause for optimism about itself and the fragile global recovery. It would be a pity if the fund fails to make use of the current crisis that the arrest of its last chief on alleged sexual assault charges brought about to instill a much-needed spirit of bold reform.

The absence of the third candidate, Israel's 67-year-old Stanley Fisher, from the shortlist reveals the IMF's reluctance to embrace change. It is hard to interpret the fund's rigidity over its age limit of 65 for an incoming managing director as a matter of principle.

Instead, the fact that the IMF would rather not take the trouble to overcome the procedural difficulty to allow another non-European hopeful a run at its top job speaks volumes about the agency's increasing irrelevance in the world today.

Had it been fully aware of the urgency to adapt itself to the sea change in the world economy, the fund would have thought twice about its decision to disqualify an important nominee on the grounds of age.

Unfortunately, as it is, the competition between the odds-on favorite Lagarde and the only candidate of change, Carstens, offers little chance of expediting necessary reforms with the IMF.

With the determined backing of crisis-mired Europe, it is generally believed that the French finance minister will more than likely be elected to succeed her countryman Dominique Strauss-Kahn as the IMF head.

That result will be a victory for the status quo, largely because European countries are still over represented in this international financial institution.

However, the Mexican central bank chief has made himself a strong competitor, aside from his individual credentials, by personifying the rising call of developing countries to abandon the obsolete unwritten convention that the head of the IMF has to come from Europe. A final decision will be made on or before June 30.

If it is to swiftly adapt itself to the new realities of the world economy and restore its legitimacy and effectiveness, the fund must make sure that the new managing director will be the one who can best push forward reforms of the organization.

Mounting uncertainties about the global recovery also demand the international firefighter against financial and economic crises assume a bigger role.

While the initial steps to seek an exceptionally capable candidate to head the IMF have not been satisfactory, the fact that at least one non-European is in the running for the top position is a bud of reform that provides hope for the future.