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Journalism of Courage
The worst thing India could have done was propose a light weight for the job of Secretary General at a time when the United Nations is facing its most serious crisis.
The oil for food scandal has seriously eroded the credibility of the world body exposing the hypocrisy of its self righteousness. More than anything else it has paved the way for Kofi Annan8217;s exit.
It is into this minefield that India has walked in with a nomination for the Secretary General.
For the first time the Secretary General8217;s post has become an integral part of reforms of the UN system. It is not a person who will implement the reforms but be a part of the reforms package itself. A good man for the job of Secretary General is badly needed, petty nationalism has no place. India has failed to rise to the occasion.
In a carefully timed press conference the Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations laid bare the strategy that the Western nations will unfold in the selection of the new Secretary General.
Speaking at the United Nations Press Centre in New York, Mr Allan Rock acknowledged that it was the turn of Asian countries to select a new Secretary General but he had to be a man of stature, a man of ideas, as he put it. The western countries would try to seek a broad consensus in the General Assembly for the new Secretary General, but it would be up to the five permanent members of the Security Council to have the final say as to who should be the new Secretary General. In other words, not the General Assembly but the five permanent members would select the new Secretary General. He also made it clear that the new Secretary General need not be from Asia if the region could not throw up a suitable candidate. Not the region but competence and ability would determine the new choice.
It is reasonable to assume that Canada was carefully picked to speak for the developed world, and Asians could not assume that they could provide the new Secretary General just because it was their turn.
At a time of crisis a man of true worth was needed, irrespective of the region. Here comes India wobbling along, ignorant in its sanctimoniousness. Still naively believing that it will become a permanent member of the Security Council very soon and that it alone could provide a Secretary General. Shashi Tharoor is an unknown lightweight, he is an average writer and a typical international civil servant. If India had no one of real stature it could symbolically have supported another Asian candidate like the Sri Lankan Deputy Prime Minister. That way it would have won goodwill and also kept enough room for manouvreability to play an important role if someone from outside the Asian region was being considered.
India then would have played the role of a large sagacious nation, counselling but not competing. Perhaps that is exactly what the Chinese will do. Unfortunately India always thinks like a small country.
The hostility of Americans towards the United Nations is astounding. 8220;How corrupt is the United Nations?8221; screams a headline in the influential Commentary magazine. A book being sold in leading stores carries the title The UN Exposed. In the book the author, a journalist, suggests Kofi Annan move from his 19.2 million official residence in New York8217;s most exclusive Sutton Place locality to Harlem, where poor blacks and Latins live so that he can see the problems of the poor first hand.
The real rub is lifestyles. United Nations personnel enjoy huge tax free salaries, park their cars wherever they want and strut around the streets of New York with their UN badges round their necks. This makes Americans mad. An aristocracy on their own soil! The hostility is to be seen to be believed. Asking for directions to UN Headquarters, well dressed executives on the streets would just look at me and shrug their shoulders.
The UN Headquarters, though it prominently proclaims it stands on independent territory of its own, is ignored by the rest of New York. Some writers have advocated that the US win back its land. It is isolated in its lonesome splendour, its visitors are mainly school children.
Nearly all major radio and TV networks have special enclosures overlooking the General Assembly and the Security Council, but they have been locked for years. Rarely are UN proceedings now covered live. The oil for food scandal has only proved to Americans what they always thought, that the UN is corrupt and dishonest besides being incompetent.
And yet the world needs the UN. For one, UN civil servants must stop looking down on others, particularly the Americans in whose country they live and who provide their funding. It is as much a clash of lifestyles as it is of politics.
The new Secretary General must be a man who can bring peace to the world body, only then will it be able to bring peace to the world. It is not necessary the new head of the UN be from Asia if Asia cannot provide a man who can meet the challenge.
At a time of crisis national divisions are bureaucratic and meaningless.
The writer is a foreign correspondent based in India. He is a former fellow of the University of California and Harvard University.
