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UN chief's haste sparks
criticism
By Thalif
Deen
NEW YORK - UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan's decision to rush through the
nomination of a Thai national, Supachai
Panitchpakdi, as the new secretary general of the
Geneva-based United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development (UNCTAD) has drawn criticism from
developing nations.
"Annan was too quick
to nominate someone more than six months in
advance," a Southeast Asian diplomat told Inter
Press Service. "This is very unusual." The Thai
government is concerned because the appointment of
a Thai to UNCTAD secretary general might harm
Bangkok's chances for the top UN job: secretary
general of the world body itself - the UN employes
a general system of regional rotation in selecting
its secretary-general. Next could be Southeast
Asia's chance.
"We are not challenging the
credentials of the nominee," added the Southeast
Asian diplomat. "What we are complaining about is
that there were no consultations and no
discussions on the nominee. We were deprived of
that traditional courtesy," he told IPS.
If approved, Supachai, the present
director general of the World Trade Organization
(WTO), would take over the UNCTAD job in
September. But Annan's nominee has to be approved
by the 191-member General Assembly before he can
take office.
The Group of 77 (G77), the
largest single bloc at the United Nations, has
asked the General Assembly for a deferment of 30
days before voting on Annan's candidate. As a
result, the voting scheduled for last week has
been postponed, possibly until early next month.
Annan's nominees for some senior UN jobs
are routinely approved by the Assembly - and none
has been rejected so far. This is the first time
in the 60-year history of the world body that the
General Assembly has asked for time to vote on a
candidate recommended by the secretary general.
Ambassador Stafford Neil of Jamaica,
chairman of the G77, told IPS: "We wanted more
time to reflect on it because UNCTAD is very
important to the G77."
The Group of 77,
created immediately after the establishment of
UNCTAD back in 1964, has been working very closely
with the UN body over the past 40 years. Both
celebrated their 40th anniversary at a meeting in
Brazil last June.
Told that Annan takes
the view that he is not mandated to consult with
anyone over the UNCTAD appointment, a member of
the G77 told IPS: "What does he think the General
Assembly is: a rubber stamp?"
Although
Supachai is a Thai national, the Thai government
has distanced itself from his candidature.
"He is not a candidate of the Thai
government," Ambassador Laxanachantorn Laohaphan
of Thailand told IPS. She said there were several
Asian candidates vying for the job and Thailand
wanted it known that its government was not
sponsoring Supachai's candidature. "We wanted to
clarify our position," Laxanachantorn said.
Some of the candidates running for the
UNCTAD job included nationals of Cambodia, the
Philippines, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Annan's
announcement preempted lobbying by these countries
- all of which were taken unawares.
According to diplomatic sources here, the
Thai government is peeved because it fears that
the appointment of a Thai to UNCTAD secretary
general would undermine its chances for a bigger
job it has in mind: secretary general of the
United Nations itself.
The official Thai
candidate for that job is former foreign minister
Surakiat Sathirathai, who was kicked upstairs as
deputy prime minister in a cabinet reshuffle in
Bangkok last week. Surakiat's candidature for the
UN secretary general's seat has been endorsed by
the 10 countries that comprise the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia,
Brunei, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
But if Supachai is eventually endorsed for
the UNCTAD job by the General Assembly, it will be
increasingly difficult for another Thai national
to claim the highest-ranking job in the world
body.
Since Asia hasn't held the post of
UN secretary general for nearly 34 years, after U
Thant of Myanmar (known then as Burma), Asian
countries are making a push for a job that will
fall vacant when Annan completes his second
five-year term in December 2006.
The only
other officially declared Asian candidate up for
the job is Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, a
former undersecretary general for disarmament
affairs.
Supachai's rushed nomination also
comes at a time when Annan has called for
"transparency" in all senior UN appointments.
In keeping with the new policy, Annan has
asked all 191 member states to name candidates for
four high-ranking jobs that are vacant or will
soon fall vacant: administrator of the UN
Development Program (UNDP), UN High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR), head of the UN Office for
Internal Oversight Services (UNOIOS), and
commissioner of the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA)
for Palestine Refugees.
On Monday, UN
spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters that for the
first time Annan also will release a short list of
the final candidates vying for these jobs.
"That, of course, is a change in policy,"
Eckhard said. "We've always kept very confidential
all deliberations on the naming of high-level
officials in the UN system. We have now decided
that we would experiment with going public with
the short list."
Eckhard said the lists
currently are being studied, and the short list
will be presented to the secretary general "as
soon as possible ... and then we do intend to go
public with the short list".
Asked whether
there would be any formal kind of forum where
different people can express their opinions on a
candidate in a short list, Eckhard said: "I think
the purpose of publishing the short list is to get
as much reaction as possible, including from
non-governmental organizations. So I think that
there would be some time between the publication
of the short list and the announcement of the
secretary general's decision for those reactions
to be received and digested."
As to why
the same principle of transparency was not
applicable to Supachai's appointment, one UN
official told IPS: "But that appointment was
announced before the new transparency guidelines
went into effect."
(Inter Press
Service) |
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