First among unequals

Shashi Tharoor, our candidate, put up a creditable show, standing second in all the straw polls, ahead of more senior candidates from Thailand and Sri Lanka and the three late entrants. This is very much because of his personal qualities and his vigorous efforts to project his vision of the UN. But he was an insider and so far only one insider has made it to the top job.

The UN secretary-general has three key functions: providing a classical diplomatic capacity to contain or resolve conflicts and crises, acting as a leader for the emerging global community of NGOs, internationalists and MNCs, and administering a sprawling bureaucracy. Clearly, in the present case, the choice has been dominated by the first requirement. Ban Ki-moon8217;s performance in negotiations with North Korea marked him out as a diplomat with special abilities. That, and his long experience in the South Korean foreign service, gave him the edge.

Many commentators have described him as a mild and affable diplomat and questioned his ability to stand firmly for UN principles when they are under pressure from the powerful. But that may be a mistake. People grow into their jobs and this is particularly true of the UN secretary-generalship. Who would have guessed that the equally mild-mannered Perez de Cuellar would have brokered the end of the Iran-Iraq war or that Kofi Annan would have questioned the legality of the second Iraq invasion by the US and its allies?

The secretary-general of the UN is not elected. He is appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council which acts as a selection committee for this purpose. The procedure for the selection of the UN SG has been more transparent and open this time than in the past. The final selection in all probability will be of a long-standing front runner. That itself is special. In the past the usual scenario was of an impasse with differences among the permanent members and the emergence of a dark horse candidate from the shadows at a late stage. That is how Perez de Cuellar came in 1981, when there was a stand-off with the Chinese vetoing Kurt Waldheim, seeking a third term, and the US vetoing Salim Ahmed Salim of Tanzania.

The procedure may have been less opaque this time. But it is a flawed procedure. The Charter wrote in a privileged role for the five permanent members of the Security Council with their veto power. The dynamics of the selection in the Security Council are such that a candidate has to get the support of the five permanent members. Even if one of them dissents, he is out. That is what happened to M. Boutros Boutros-Ghali when he went for his second term. He had 14 votes in his favour but one veto, that of the US, and he was out. But if a candidate is accepted by the Perm Five he only has to get four more members to support him and he is through.

The UN secretary-general has to serve not just as the principal diplomatic trouble-shooter for the Security Council but also as the implementer of decisions reached by the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, and other bodies. Yet these other bodies and the broader membership of the UN play virtually no effective role in the process of selection.

Take the present selection. There was general agreement that the new SG would be from Asia. But the only Asian voices in the selection process in the Security Council were those of China, a permanent member, Japan and Qatar. The vast area of Asia in between these geographical extremes had no direct role in the selection of an Asian secretary-general.

The UN is also a forum not just for national governments but for global civil society. The secretary-general of the UN is like a community leader who must be accepted as a legitimate voice by this motley crowd of idealists and activists. He also has to work with business and industry, given the role that they play now not just in the global economy but also in the good works of the UN in health, environment, African development, and so on. The selection procedure gives little weight to a candidate8217;s ability to articulate this community function.

The UN today operates in a global environment radically different from when the Charter was formulated. It has to aggregate the interests of many more countries, and, in a globalising world, of many constituencies and interest groups. Yet the way in which the secretary-general is chosen is not very different from when Trygve Lie was first appointed to the post. That is why the new secretary-general will have to work to overcome the limitations of the process and grow into his role as a global community leader.

The writer was an under-secretary-general at the UN HQ in New York