inside the glass house

Who’s lying low and who’s f-lying high?
NEW YORK - Responding to a member of parliament who had apparently lied but was last seen dozing off at his seat in the House of Commons during a tedious debate, the acerbic Winston Churchill livened up the discussion with his animated remark that he not only let sleeping dogs lie but also "lying dogs sleep."

Since the Sunday Times piece titled "Thais in Dirty Campaign to Win UN Hot Seat" was singled out for criticism at a news conference in Bangkok last week, we prefer to be less charitable than Churchill. We cannot let the propagation of lies, even under the cloak of diplomacy, go unchallenged.
As we have said before, the golden rule (never mind that the one who owns the gold, rules) in journalism is that even when your mother says she loves you, double check the story.

The story of the Thai offer of a "bribe" to keep Jayantha Dhanapala out of the race for the Secretary-General's job was checked at both ends -- and confirmed as true.

If the government withdraws Dhanapala's candidature -- making it relatively easy for Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai to win (or so the Thais think) -- then Dhanapala will be given any job he seeks in the UN system.

But since Dhanapala has already held the third highest ranking job in the UN -- that of Under-Secretary-General -- how tempting is the offer? Perhaps the only attractive job would be the post of Deputy Secretary-General, the second highest ranking job in the UN system.

But the Thais are obviously ignorant of the fact that according to tradition, if the Secretary-General is from a developing country (e.g. Kofi Annan of Ghana), his deputy has to necessarily be from the Western world (currently Louise Frechette of Canada)Even before the post of a Deputy Secretary-General was created, the two highest ranking jobs in the UN always alternated between developing and industrial countries.

So technically, Dhanapala cannot play second fiddle to Surakiart even if he wins, because Thailand and Sri Lanka cannot hold the posts of Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General -- provided the Thai offer is undeniably valid.

But at a news conference in Bangkok last week, Thai officials denied any such offer. Since the offer was made one-on-one behind closed doors -- with no written evidence -- the Thais hid behind diplomatic protocol to deny it -- and perhaps get away with it.

When a London newspaper doing a follow-up of our story called Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Prasad Kariyawasam last week, he would neither confirm nor deny the story. And that's a standard but tasteful diplomatic response most newspapermen can live with.

On the other hand the transcript of a meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) tell another perspective of the ongoing Thai campaign.

Blowing his trumpet at the closed-door meeting, Surakiart gave a ball-by-ball account of what great progress he is making in his campaign to be elected UN Secretary-General. He said he had 110 bilaterals in New York, visited West Asia, Central Asia; went to Pacific Island Forum; attended an African Union ministerial meeting in Khartoum, CARICOM in Trinidad and Tobago; and an Arab League meeting.

He also claimed he was "well received" as an ASEAN candidate; India and South Asia "supportive"; China "yes"; Japan "not decided yet but noted ASEAN has experienced candidate". Africa is supportive.

He said he lunched with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and more importantly, spoke to President Jacques Chirac "in French, as Chirac wants a candidate who speaks French". (Dhanapala: please note).

According to Surakiart, Russian President Putin is "positive" because he is not in favour of any East European candidates. He also told the ASEAN meeting that Thailand has four categories of tracking support: red, yellow, light green and dark green. "As for the other candidates, many think that the Sri Lankan is not a serious candidate," he told the meeting. Nigeria's Foreign Minister apparently offered to talk to the Sri Lankan candidate to get him to withdraw. The picture he painted was exceptionally rosy (a shade the Thais missed in their colour-coded categories).

Meanwhile, Ambassador Kariyawasam, who is conducting a low-key, not-so aggressive campaign for Dhanapala, has a different take on the current state of things.

"The election process for this post is entirely different from other elections at the UN," he told The Sunday Times. "There is no open voting and therefore open endorsements have not much meaning except for eliminating potential competitors".

"In our perception, we have nominated Mr. Dhanapala to be considered as a candidate of all UN member states as a suitable person to hold this important office and seeking support on the basis of his personal abilities and qualities based on his service to Sri Lanka and to the international community," Kariyawasam said.

He also pointed out that the responsibility for selecting the Secretary-General, by and large, rests with the 15 Security Council members who will enter into a close-door consulting process, and the selected person will then be approved by the General Assembly.

The veto-wielding Permanent Five Members of Council -- the US, Britain, France, China and Russia -- will have a crucial say in this process.
Sri Lanka's traditional foreign policy stance of friendship with all and enmity with none has no doubt been a good base to launch Mr. Dhanapala's candidature, Kariyawasam argued.

"I am confident, that as the process of selection matures, Mr. Dhanapala will stand out as the most suitable option for the international community to put their faith in running this important organisation. However, I also reckom that there is a long way to go before final conclusions can be arrived at", he added.

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