Race for UN Chief Heats Up in Diplomatic Circle

By Philip Dorsey Iglauer
January 15, 2006
The Korea Times
Original Source: http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/special/200601/kt2006011521265245270.htm

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While the race to succeed Secretary-General Kofi Annan is underway, the foreign diplomatic corps’ electioneering in Seoul for the world’s top diplomat has begun in earnest. 
The world is debating whether the next U.N. diplomat-in-chief should be a woman or come from Asia or Eastern Europe. How things will unfold is anyone’s guess. 
Though rumors are swirling about who should or will run, candidates from only two countries have so far officially thrown their hats in the ring: U.N. insider Jayanta Dhanapala of Sri Lanka and businessman-turned-politician Surakiart Sathirathai of Thailand. 
Rumors have it that Poland’s Aleksander Kwasniewski has set his sights on becoming secretary general, too. Vaira Vike-Frieberga, president of Latvia, who would be the first female secretary-general in its 60-year history, is one more possible candidate. 
Asian diplomats in Seoul believe, however, it is Asia’s turn to fill the post. It has been, they point out, 35 years since an Asian had the top U.N. job, when Myanmar’s (formerly Burma) U Thant completed his 10-year tenure in 1971. 
While the Thailand and Sri Lankan ambassadors argue its ``Asia’s turn,’’ Thai Ambassador Vasin Teeravechyan in Seoul adds that ``there is the understanding that a U.N. secretary general should come from a middle-sized country with some standing in a region.’’ 
The Sri Lankan ambassador agrees. ``There is a general understanding that the post should rotate geographically, but added it should rotate within the region as well. ``Southeast Asia had its turn in the 1960s,’’ Sri Lankan Ambassador to Seoul G. Wijayasiri said over Ceylon tea at his office in Seoul. ``There are one and half billion people in South Asia, yet we have never been represented at the highest position of the U.N.’’ 
The Thai candidate has quite a head start, however, having already secured the important endorsement of ASEAN. Moreover, though no announcement has been made, Teeravechyan tried to give the impression that China, a permanent U.N. Security Council member, is already pushing the candidacy of Sathirathai. 
Wijayasiri was quick to repudiate the implication that China has made a decision on which candidate to back, arguing that Sri Lanka has a long and special relationship with China rooted in strong trade ties. 
Dhanapala, too, has years of experience inside the U.N. and on peace and disarmament issues. He presided over the Nonproliferation Treaty conference in 1995 and, because of his experience with disarmament, has real-life experience in an important aspect of the secretary-general’s job _ mediation. 
His experience in denuclearization issues would be of interest in Korea, as the protracted crisis on the peninsula has confounded leaders here. 
Sathirathai, on the other hand, has an impressive record of administrative skill, experience and education, his country’s first ever graduate from Harvard Law School. He has served as head of many of Thailand’s most important offices, including the ministries of finance and foreign affairs, and most recently as deputy prime minister. 
Whoever wins, the new U.N. secretary general will have will have to lead a 191-naton organization fractured by the U.S. occupation of Iraq and a global North-South wealth gap and complicated by calls from rich countries to streamline the U.N.’s bureaucracy. 
The secretary general’s job of balancing the conflicting interests of the whole world is demanding. 
Annan said of his job: ``I am a cheerleader, I am a promoter, I am a salesman, I am a debt collector, I am a father confessor and there are other aspects I still have to discover.’’ Not for long; the embattled diplomat’s job is set to end Dec. 31. 
Norwegian diplomat Trygve H. Lie, the first secretary general, described it as the most impossible job in the world. 
Criticism of the U.N. in the U.S. has risen above the usual Bronx cheers the group receives, because of sexual misconduct by U.N. peacekeepers and a corruption scandal in the oil-for-food program. 
The U.S. seems to be looking for someone who can shake things up at Turtle Bay in New York, someone with administrative acumen and a will to reform. The new secretary general will be invariably preoccupied with reform of a body that is generally agreed to need a financial and organizational house-cleaning. 
So, the fact Sathirathai was chairman of Thai Oil, Thailand’s biggest energy company, could make him the taskmaster Washington, also a permanent member of the Security Council, is looking for to make the U.N. run in a more business-like manner. 
Could not an insider with a track record of integrity take hold of the U.N.’s unwieldy bureaucracy more effectively? That is what Sri Lanka’s ambassador suggested. ``Many countries are talking about reform. There is a need for someone who is credible and innovative,’’ he said. 
The U.S. is also looking for an early election. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton has been quoted in the press as saying ``I think our focus now has to be to pick a successor, having the election in the middle of year, in June, July, something like that,’’ Bolton said. 
``The election customarily occurs in autumn, in October or November, as the General Assembly reconvenes in September,’’ Wijayasiri said. It would be out of step to hold it early, he said. 
Also, in contrast to modern political elections, it’s an election of discretion for the top diplomat position. 
The Thai ambassador revealed that unique characteristic of the secretary general race. ``It is certainly not appropriate for me to make a comparison between Sathirathai and other candidates,’’ Teeravechyan said. 
Wijayasiri invited more competition, saying the more Asian candidates run the better. ``It is better for the region if the region proposes a slate of competitors to ensure an Asian gets the top position,’’ he said.