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Association of Tamils of Sri Lanka in the USA
by Max Stamper, MaximsNews.com, September 7, 2006
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Security Council members also appeared to indicate that they were not too enamored of the choices, and signalled that they would welcome more nominations...The Security Council is expected to continue its closed-door deliberations on the next Secretary-General this month and perhaps into next month. |
UNITED NATIONS - The race to replace Kofi Annan is heating up.
Prince Zeid al Hussein, Jordan's ambassador to the U.N., has now been officially nominated as his country’s candidate to succeed Kofi Annan whose term expires 31 December, when the new secretary-general will move into the thirty-eighth floor office of the United Nations building on 1 January.
Prince Zeid Al Hussein is also the first Muslim candidate to enter the race, a point that's expected to resonate in the U.N. membership given the widening gulf in relations between the Muslim world and the West.
Whether he is perceived as the best person to help bridge that chasm may be crucial to his chances of winning what has been described as an "impossible job."
The Jordanian prince, a cousin of that country's monarch, King Abdullah II, appears to have timed his entry in a calculated manner.
His nomination comes after an initial straw poll among U.N. Security Council members that gave some indication of the Council’s leanings regarding the four choices it had back then: India's Shashi Tharoor, South Korea's Ban Ki Moon, Sri Lanka's Jayantha Dhanapala and Thailand's Surakiart Sathirathai.
Ban Ki Moon topped the non-binding straw poll, and Shashi Tharoor came in second.
Jayantha Dhanapala and Surakiart Sathirathai, who ended up bottom, would appear to have very little chance now of gaining support for their bids. Security Council members also appeared to indicate that they were not too enamored of the choices, and signalled that they would welcome more nominations.
Enter Prince Zeid Al Hussein.
But there will probably be more candidates to follow. News reports today say that the government of Fiji has nominated Sri Lankan ambassador-at-large Niranjan Deva-Aditya (also known as Nirj Deva) who is a dual U.K. citizen, a conservative MP and representative of Britain in the EU parliament. Deva-Aditya has been expressing an interest in the post for some time, and is very unlikely to win.
More intriguing, however, are whispers about two other possible candidates: former Malaysian deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and former Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chock Tong.
Both come from Southeast Asia, home of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc.
They come from countries that enjoy a close rapport with both China and the United States -- the two permanent members of the Security Council whose backing or objection can make or break a candidacy.
Both Beijing and Washington have acknowledged that the next Secretary-General will have to come from Asia, given the tradition of rotation among the various regional blocs in the United Nations.
Anwar Ibrahim has indicated that he considering a candidacy. In his most recent statement, he reiterated that he has been urged to run by leaders and officials of several governments around the world. He has said that he has yet to decide, however, whether to throw his hat into the ring.
The former Malaysian deputy prime minister brings the added cachet of being a recognized and credible interlocutor between the Muslim world and the West. He also brings substantial human rights credentials, having been jailed on what are widely acknowledged false charges of abuse of power and sodomy in Malaysia to prevent him from mounting a political challenge to the then prime minister.
Former Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chock Tong has steadfastly maintained his silence on a possible candidacy after initial indications that Singapore is canvassing the Permanent Five Security Council members on their support for him as a candidate.
The Security Council is expected to continue its closed-door deliberations on the next Secretary-General this month and perhaps into next month.
It is thus unlikely that U.N. General Assembly members will be presented with a Security Council endorsed candidate when they gather in New York in the middle of this month.
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