Dhanapala vs Tharoor at UN 

Meenakshi Iyer 
June 19, 2006
The Daily News (Sri Lanka)
Original Source: http://www.dailynews.lk/2006/06/19/fea02.asp

NEW DELHI: With India nominating its candidate, the race for the United Nations Secretary General's post is heating up. 
And definitely, Shashi Tharoor's nomination for the top UN job by India should come as a surprise if not disappointment for Sri Lankan candidate Jayantha Dhanapala, who must have been looking forward to his India-visit next month to seek support. 
During his visit to New Delhi last month, Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera had informed India about Dhanapala's candidature and requested support. 
But the Indian foreign office merely said that it had taken note of the matter. What followed was stony silence until Shashi Tharoor's candidature was announced. India's long silence on this issue had definitely intrigued experts and strategists worldwide. 
One reason, which is seen by most of the experts, is that in 1995, Dhanapala had been rather unhelpful to India at the Conference on Disarmament, which he chaired. 
The conference had decided to renew the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) indefinitely, and in doing so, enshrined a strong international legal system against nuclear proliferation. 
Dhanapala, it is alleged, connived with the US and other big Western powers against India. 
India's nominating a candidate, while Dhanapala had thrown his hat in the ring much earlier, may not be taken by Sri Lankans very kindly. 
Certainly, the Sinhalese will think that this is another back stab by India, says Dr. S. Chandrasekharan, Director of South Asia Analysis Group, a New Delhi-based think tank. 
But Tharoor's nomination is in no way going to deter Dhanapala's chances at the world body, according to experts in New Delhi. 
If you see the history of UN Secretaries General, barring a few, most of them had been from smaller countries. So if that is a consideration, Sri Lanka stands a better chance, says Colonel R. Hariharan, an intelligence expert based in Chennai. 
The present Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, whose term ends on December 31, is from Ghana and his predecessors were from nations like Egypt, Peru and Myanmar. 
Also, the New York-based Foreign Policy Journal had tipped Dhanapala as the man most likely to become the UN's next Secretary-General. He gets the most favourable odds of 6 to 1 as compared to former US President Bill Clinton, who stands a 1 in 1,000 chance, the journal says. 
South Asia watchers believe that Dhanapala might just be the right guy, as he is preferred by the US, the world's only Super Power. 
His wide experience, both within and outside the UN system, and his contribution to international affairs in critical areas like disarmament and management of conflict, place him ahead of his rivals. 
Considered by many in the diplomatic community to be the front-runner, the former Under Secretary-General for disarmament knows how to navigate the UN inside out, notes the Foreign Policy Journal. 
Dhanapala was widely acclaimed for his Presidency of the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference, a landmark event in disarmament history. He was credited with crafting a package of decisions balancing the twin objectives of nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament, and the concerns of the nuclear weapons states and the non-nuclear weapons states. 
The report was adopted without a vote. The soft spoken, suave scholar, is seen in Sri Lanka as a veritable storehouse of energy with an enviable ability to find time for more than one kind of activity. 
But those who know Tharoor well, say that the highest-ranking Indian in the World body is also well aware of the system, having joined the organisation way back in 1978. Tharoor's internationally acclaimed stature and experience make him eminently suitable to become the next Secretary General of the UN, says Foreign affairs spokesperson Navtej Sarna. 
Until late 1996, the swashbuckling diplomat was responsible for peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia. 
Educated in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and the United States, Tharoor, who hails from the southern state of Kerala, received his doctorate at the age of 22 from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. For nearly a year-and-a-half, Tharoor was Executive Assistant to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan before taking the assignment as Director Communications and Special Projects in the office of the Secretary-General in July 1998. 
India had for long maintained that it was not keen to field anybody for the top UN post as it was vying for the permanent seat of the expanded Security Council. 
It remains to be seen what's New Delhi's take on this, because the issue may affect Tharoor's UN prospects. 
As for Dhanapala, there is just one issue which can mar his chances in the race at the UN - Sri Lanka's fragile peace. He was Secretary General of the Sri Lankan government's Peace Secretariat, a nodal point in the island's peace process, during a critical phase when the slide towards war became apparent. 
But since critical decisions were taken at a political level in an intensely politicised peace process, it would be unfair to blame Dhanapala for any downward spiral.