Surakiart's failure has nothing to do with the Coup
This is another article from another foreign journalist who has NO idea about Thailand and her politics...
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Coup may cost Thai a shot at top UN job
By Donald Greenlees
International Herald Tribune
Published: September 28, 2006
HONG KONG As the selection of the next United Nations secretary general enters a crucial phase this week, with South Korea's candidate the strong favorite to win, diplomats and analysts say the coup in Thailand has put one of the front-runners out of the race.
Surakiart Sathirathai, the former deputy prime minister of Thailand who was backed by Southeast Asian nations, was already trailing in the contest to succeed Kofi Annan when a military coup deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Sept. 19.
But the coup is seen as the final blow to his two-year-old campaign to become UN secretary general, meaning there is little chance of a Southeast Asian candidate assuming the leadership of the global body for the first time in 35 years. Southeast Asian nations have effectively ruled out putting forward an alternative at this late stage of the race.
"I would say his chances were small and getting smaller," said Edward Luck, a UN expert who is professor of international affairs at Columbia University in New York.
An informal poll of the 15 permanent and rotating members of the UN Security Council, due to meet in New York late Thursday afternoon, was widely expected to confirm Ban Ki Moon, the South Korean foreign minister, as the favorite to win the coveted post. Ban has led in the last two polls, with Surakiart coming a distant third.
If Ban has a strong showing in the latest poll, in which Security Council members vote in a secret ballot to "encourage," "discourage" or make "no comment" on a candidacy, he would be difficult to beat in the contest to replace Annan, who will steps down in the coming weeks after 10 years as head of the UN. In the last poll, Ban received 14 votes encouraging his candidacy and one discouraging it.
"If Ban gets another strong vote on that occasion, then it's all over," said one senior Western diplomat at the UN, who requested anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the selection process.
Ban, a career diplomat who has been foreign minister since early 2004, has promised to work hard as a peacemaker, but analysts doubt he will take a high- profile role in trying to resolve the nuclear standoff on the Korean peninsula. In an interview with the Russian news agency Itar-Tass this week, Ban emphasized his interest in pushing to reform and modernize the United Nations.
"We have seen the redundancies among the many different agencies and organizations doing similar activities," he said. "That has given some strains on our limited resources. We need to make this organization to deliver more efficiently to the needy countries with limited resources."
One of Ban's strongest challengers is India's Shashi Tharoor, a UN under-secretary general for public information, who ran second in the last informal poll. There are four other candidates: Jayantha Dhanapala, an advisor to the Sri Lankan president; Ashraf Ghani, former finance minister and chancellor of Kabul University in Afghanistan; Prince Zeid al-Hussein, Jordan's ambassador to the UN; and Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the Latvian president.
But it is widely seen as an Asian candidate's turn to lead the United Nations. The last Asian to hold the post of secretary general was U Thant, a Burmese, who served from 1961 to 1971.
With Ban having emerged as the clear favorite before the latest poll, the selection of a secretary general could be decided within a month. Some Security Council ambassadors have indicated that time is running out for late entries into the race.
Unlike in earlier informal polls, the five permanent members of the Council are this time expected to vote using ballots that are a different color to the ones used by non-permanent members, which analysts said would give a clearer indication of the final outcome.
A vote from any of the five permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - discouraging a candidacy would effectively end a candidate's chances.
According to the selection process, the Council recommends a candidate to the 192-member General Assembly, which has traditionally accepted the choice.
There was some speculation that Surakiart, who had been a vocal supporter of Thailand's deposed prime minister, would withdraw his candidacy after the coup. Surprisingly, he received the backing of the coup leaders to continue his campaign.
Surakiart also has the backing of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In a statement Friday, George Yeo, Singapore's foreign minister, said Asean would continue to support Surakiart "despite the coup in Thailand."
But analysts said the coup had almost certainly destroyed what slim chances Surakiart had. He had received three "discourage" votes in the last informal poll before the coup. A negative vote from any of the permanent members would finish his bid for the job.
"As UN secretary general, you certainly don't want a representative from a military regime," said K.S. Nathan, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. "This would weaken his chances."
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Mr. Greenlees' article on the September 28 2006 issue of the International Herald Tribune blaming the coup for the failure of Dr. Surakiat Sathirathai to secure the UN top job shows the author's lack of understanding on the real situation.
Dr. Sathirathai's chance of becoming the UN chief has been nil even before the coup. In the two previous informal polls, he came in distant third and never higher than that.
Dr. Sathirathai's 2-year campaign had never yielded a satisfactory result despite the huge amount of financial and personnel effort the Thaksin regime had put into. That has nothing to do with the coup but with Dr. Sathirathai's inexperience as a real diplomat and without clear objectives and global visions.
There is no dispute that he has ideal credentials in the making of a great man: an aristocratic family background, a Harvard law degree, a good career, and political connections. Those however play no part in contributing to his success at securing the top UN post. It's what he lacks that hurts him.
Personally, I think the whole campaign was Tyrant Thaksin's ego boost if he could send his man to head the UN. Worse, this man would do anything Thaksin and George W. Bush ordered. Thaksin's blind and foolish ambition will hurt Sathirathai more deeply than the Tyrant himself. Dr. Sathirathai was a well-pampered minister in the Thaksin administration simply because of his family connection with the royal family. His wife is the Queen's niece, and his mother was the princess' professor. By bringing Dr. Sathirathai into politics, Thaksin added to his own advantage.
In addition, the Thaksin administration's human rights records have been condemned by several international human rights groups. The condemnations came long before the coup. Read this letter from an Asian Human Rights organization asking Dr. Sathirathai to evaluate his candidacy.
In fact, we have a better candidate than Dr. Sathirathai. Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, another Harvard alumnus and a former State Department Minister, is a moderate Muslim with more experience and better recognition in ASEAN than Dr. Sathirathai. Dr. Pitsuwan would also strengthen the ties between Thailand and our Muslim neighbors while improving ASEAN status in the world stage. Being Muslim, Dr. Pitsuwan could also handle the political conflicts where religious differences were the root of the cause.
And why wasn't the better Thai person be presented to the world, you'd ask. Because Dr. Pitsuwan was a member of the opposition party, the Democrat.
Can't you see now that this is another of Thaksin's self-serving schemes? This is another example of how Thaksin put his own interest ahead of Thailand's.
In Mr. Greenlees article's last paragraph, Mr. K.S. Nathan is also making mistakes. He is rushing to judgment. Thailand is trying to get back to civilian government. The Reform Council will be fading into providing a supportive role. Our country will be working toward a new election within a year or so. We have to clean up the widespread corruption mess that the regime of which Dr. Sathirathai belonged had created during their 6 years in power. We had bad experiences with military regimes before, and we will not let that happen again.
If you ask me, I will choose to take care of my own country before I go out to clean the world.
And if cleaning our own country of 60 million people will cost Dr. Sathirathai's and ASEAN's dream of power and prestige, so be it.
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There was an article in the New York Times, "Why I Should Run the UN," featuring interviews with 5 UN Secretary General candidates: Jayantha Dhanapala, Ashraf Ghani, Shashi Tharoor, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, and Zeid Raad Zeid Al-Hussein. I wonder why the paper did not offer similar chances to all the candidates including Dr. Sathirathai. Maybe their visions and missions have been published elsewhere.
+++++
Coup may cost Thai a shot at top UN job
By Donald Greenlees
International Herald Tribune
Published: September 28, 2006
HONG KONG As the selection of the next United Nations secretary general enters a crucial phase this week, with South Korea's candidate the strong favorite to win, diplomats and analysts say the coup in Thailand has put one of the front-runners out of the race.
Surakiart Sathirathai, the former deputy prime minister of Thailand who was backed by Southeast Asian nations, was already trailing in the contest to succeed Kofi Annan when a military coup deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Sept. 19.
But the coup is seen as the final blow to his two-year-old campaign to become UN secretary general, meaning there is little chance of a Southeast Asian candidate assuming the leadership of the global body for the first time in 35 years. Southeast Asian nations have effectively ruled out putting forward an alternative at this late stage of the race.
"I would say his chances were small and getting smaller," said Edward Luck, a UN expert who is professor of international affairs at Columbia University in New York.
An informal poll of the 15 permanent and rotating members of the UN Security Council, due to meet in New York late Thursday afternoon, was widely expected to confirm Ban Ki Moon, the South Korean foreign minister, as the favorite to win the coveted post. Ban has led in the last two polls, with Surakiart coming a distant third.
If Ban has a strong showing in the latest poll, in which Security Council members vote in a secret ballot to "encourage," "discourage" or make "no comment" on a candidacy, he would be difficult to beat in the contest to replace Annan, who will steps down in the coming weeks after 10 years as head of the UN. In the last poll, Ban received 14 votes encouraging his candidacy and one discouraging it.
"If Ban gets another strong vote on that occasion, then it's all over," said one senior Western diplomat at the UN, who requested anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the selection process.
Ban, a career diplomat who has been foreign minister since early 2004, has promised to work hard as a peacemaker, but analysts doubt he will take a high- profile role in trying to resolve the nuclear standoff on the Korean peninsula. In an interview with the Russian news agency Itar-Tass this week, Ban emphasized his interest in pushing to reform and modernize the United Nations.
"We have seen the redundancies among the many different agencies and organizations doing similar activities," he said. "That has given some strains on our limited resources. We need to make this organization to deliver more efficiently to the needy countries with limited resources."
One of Ban's strongest challengers is India's Shashi Tharoor, a UN under-secretary general for public information, who ran second in the last informal poll. There are four other candidates: Jayantha Dhanapala, an advisor to the Sri Lankan president; Ashraf Ghani, former finance minister and chancellor of Kabul University in Afghanistan; Prince Zeid al-Hussein, Jordan's ambassador to the UN; and Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the Latvian president.
But it is widely seen as an Asian candidate's turn to lead the United Nations. The last Asian to hold the post of secretary general was U Thant, a Burmese, who served from 1961 to 1971.
With Ban having emerged as the clear favorite before the latest poll, the selection of a secretary general could be decided within a month. Some Security Council ambassadors have indicated that time is running out for late entries into the race.
Unlike in earlier informal polls, the five permanent members of the Council are this time expected to vote using ballots that are a different color to the ones used by non-permanent members, which analysts said would give a clearer indication of the final outcome.
A vote from any of the five permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - discouraging a candidacy would effectively end a candidate's chances.
According to the selection process, the Council recommends a candidate to the 192-member General Assembly, which has traditionally accepted the choice.
There was some speculation that Surakiart, who had been a vocal supporter of Thailand's deposed prime minister, would withdraw his candidacy after the coup. Surprisingly, he received the backing of the coup leaders to continue his campaign.
Surakiart also has the backing of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In a statement Friday, George Yeo, Singapore's foreign minister, said Asean would continue to support Surakiart "despite the coup in Thailand."
But analysts said the coup had almost certainly destroyed what slim chances Surakiart had. He had received three "discourage" votes in the last informal poll before the coup. A negative vote from any of the permanent members would finish his bid for the job.
"As UN secretary general, you certainly don't want a representative from a military regime," said K.S. Nathan, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. "This would weaken his chances."
+++++++++++++++++++
Mr. Greenlees' article on the September 28 2006 issue of the International Herald Tribune blaming the coup for the failure of Dr. Surakiat Sathirathai to secure the UN top job shows the author's lack of understanding on the real situation.
Dr. Sathirathai's chance of becoming the UN chief has been nil even before the coup. In the two previous informal polls, he came in distant third and never higher than that.
Dr. Sathirathai's 2-year campaign had never yielded a satisfactory result despite the huge amount of financial and personnel effort the Thaksin regime had put into. That has nothing to do with the coup but with Dr. Sathirathai's inexperience as a real diplomat and without clear objectives and global visions.
There is no dispute that he has ideal credentials in the making of a great man: an aristocratic family background, a Harvard law degree, a good career, and political connections. Those however play no part in contributing to his success at securing the top UN post. It's what he lacks that hurts him.
Personally, I think the whole campaign was Tyrant Thaksin's ego boost if he could send his man to head the UN. Worse, this man would do anything Thaksin and George W. Bush ordered. Thaksin's blind and foolish ambition will hurt Sathirathai more deeply than the Tyrant himself. Dr. Sathirathai was a well-pampered minister in the Thaksin administration simply because of his family connection with the royal family. His wife is the Queen's niece, and his mother was the princess' professor. By bringing Dr. Sathirathai into politics, Thaksin added to his own advantage.
In addition, the Thaksin administration's human rights records have been condemned by several international human rights groups. The condemnations came long before the coup. Read this letter from an Asian Human Rights organization asking Dr. Sathirathai to evaluate his candidacy.
In fact, we have a better candidate than Dr. Sathirathai. Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, another Harvard alumnus and a former State Department Minister, is a moderate Muslim with more experience and better recognition in ASEAN than Dr. Sathirathai. Dr. Pitsuwan would also strengthen the ties between Thailand and our Muslim neighbors while improving ASEAN status in the world stage. Being Muslim, Dr. Pitsuwan could also handle the political conflicts where religious differences were the root of the cause.
And why wasn't the better Thai person be presented to the world, you'd ask. Because Dr. Pitsuwan was a member of the opposition party, the Democrat.
Can't you see now that this is another of Thaksin's self-serving schemes? This is another example of how Thaksin put his own interest ahead of Thailand's.
In Mr. Greenlees article's last paragraph, Mr. K.S. Nathan is also making mistakes. He is rushing to judgment. Thailand is trying to get back to civilian government. The Reform Council will be fading into providing a supportive role. Our country will be working toward a new election within a year or so. We have to clean up the widespread corruption mess that the regime of which Dr. Sathirathai belonged had created during their 6 years in power. We had bad experiences with military regimes before, and we will not let that happen again.
If you ask me, I will choose to take care of my own country before I go out to clean the world.
And if cleaning our own country of 60 million people will cost Dr. Sathirathai's and ASEAN's dream of power and prestige, so be it.
+++++
There was an article in the New York Times, "Why I Should Run the UN," featuring interviews with 5 UN Secretary General candidates: Jayantha Dhanapala, Ashraf Ghani, Shashi Tharoor, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, and Zeid Raad Zeid Al-Hussein. I wonder why the paper did not offer similar chances to all the candidates including Dr. Sathirathai. Maybe their visions and missions have been published elsewhere.
posted by A Desperate Seeker at
10:14 PM
