inside the glass house

Dhanapala: The known candidate in Asian battle for UN top post
NEW YORK - When Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was in New York for the UN General Assembly sessions, he was pointedly asked whether Sri Lanka plans to field a candidate for the post of UN Secretary-General.

"It all depends on Jayantha," he responded back in September, dispelling speculation that either he himself, or President Chandrika Kumaratunga, would be interested in running for one of the world's most politically-demanding jobs.

So when Kadirgamar formally announced Dhanapala's candidature in parliament last week, it did not come as a surprise - at least not to this columnist. Coincidentally, Kadirgamar and Dhanapala are two superlative products from Trinity College, Kandy. Both won the Ryde Gold Medal for "best all-round student" excelling in studies and sports.

And both have had strong links to the United Nations. Kadirgamar was a consultant to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva and subsequently served as Director of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), one of the few profitable UN agencies, which is totally self-financed and not dependent on handouts.

Dhanapala was Director of the Geneva-based UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) and was later appointed Under-Secretary-General (USG) for Disarmament Affairs at the UN Secretariat in New York.

He also has the distinction of being only one of three Sri Lankans to be elevated to the rank of a USG, the other two being Dr Gamani Corea, one time head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the late Andrew Joseph who served as Additional Admminstrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

Speaking of the Trinity-UN links, a third member of this "holy trinity" (or as their detractors would say "an unholy trinity") is Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama, an ex-Trinitian and a batch mate of Dhanapala at the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya (Class of 1961). Amunugama was the first Director of the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) at the Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

So, how privileged (or how unfortunate?) is Sri Lanka to have three Trinitians at the helm - Kadirgamar as Foreign Minister, Amunugama as Finance Minister and Dhanapala as Secretary-General of the Peace Secretariat? Perhaps the jury is still out on all three.

Dhanapala, who has maintained a high profile in the UN system and is widely respected in the UN community, is an exceptionally strong candidate for the job he is seeking.

The only other declared candidate so far is Thai Foreign Minister Surakiat Sathirathai, who is relatively unknown and untested, but commands support from the 10 countries that comprise the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which collectively endorsed him last September.

Since Asia hasn't had a Secretary-General for nearly 34 years after Burma's U.Thant, Asian countries are now making a push for a job that will fall vacant when incumbent Kofi Annan completes his second five-year term in December 2006.

The two other in-house candidates -- whose names have been floating around in the corridors of the UN -- are Under-Secretaries-General Shashi Tharoor of India and Anwarul Karim Chowdhury of Bangladesh.

Since Surakiat has the backing of ASEAN, it is imperative that Sri Lanka ensure collective support from the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) for Dhanapala's candidature neutralizing any potential candidates from other South Asian countries, including India and Bangladesh.

Both Tharoor and Chowdhury can still run as candidates, if they so desire, without their country's endorsements, which is politically crucial but not mandatory.

But within Asia, there is a view that the principle of geographical rotation -- so sacred to most member states -- should also apply to sub-regions within Asia. South Asia, as the most populous region and the cradle of so many religions and civilisations, should take precedence over Southeast Asia which has had a Secretary-General in U. Thant.

Sri Lanka should also join other Asian nations at the UN to block a subtle move by East Europeans to field a candidate because of a minority view that there has been no East European who has been Secretary-General. The past U.N. chiefs have come from Western Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

But this argument does not hold water because after the end of the Cold War, Eastern Europe ceased to exist as a political entity, with most of the countries joining the Western bloc. Unfortunately, the Eastern European bloc still continues to exist-- but only within the confines of the UN. The bottom line is that the final decision to pick a Secretary-General is primarily in the hands of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council: the US, Britain, France, China and Russia. Sri Lanka has to lobby at the highest levels of government to ensure their collective support.

Last week there was speculation that overwhelming pressure from neo-conservatives in the Bush administration may force Annan to step down before his term ends in December 2006. If this happens, we predicted, the US may steamroll its own candidates at short notice leaving the Asians out in the cold.

On Wednesday, the 191-member General Assembly gave an unprecedented two-minute standing ovation to Annan, which was a slap in the face to the US. And on Thursday, outgoing US Ambassador John Danforth, expressed public support for Annan and said the White House did NOT back calls for his resignation, leaving Asia very much in the picture for the 2006 race.

Meanwhile a Sri Lanka expatriate who closely monitors both the UN and the Sri Lankan political scene says: "The government's decision to present Dhanapala as a candidate for the post of Secretary-General goes part of the way towards atoning for the way it abandoned him when he could have headed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Dhanapala deserves the best possible shot at the SG's position not because of geography (South Asia) but because he is eminently qualified by experience, temperament, and accomplishment".

"As a former 'insider' at the UN he knows very well the pain and frustration of the organisation's perceived irrelevance. As a senior, talented diplomat he understands the extent to which its unrealized potential can be fulfilled. Besides, think of the grace and dignity that Maureen Dhanapala can bring to Manhattan?"

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