24th October 1999

Day of cheque book diplomacy in Paris

New Zealand outvoted Thailand in a bruising battle for the job of Director-General at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) last month while Norway overwhelmed several developing nations to grab the leadership of the World Health Organisation (WHO) last year.

At the upcoming election for Secretary-General of the London-based Commonwealth, New Zealand is strongly favoured to win against Bangladesh in a voting scheduled to take place during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in South Africa early next month.

The moral of the story, if there is one, is that if you have deep pockets — and are willing to dole out goodies to the world's poorer nations — you have a better chance of beating a candidate even if he or she is armed with superior credentials.

At the closed-door elections held in Paris last week, the big vote-getters for the top UNESCO job were from Japan and Saudi Arabia, two countries rich enough to "buy" votes with promises and pledges.

At a time when the United States and the European Union are obsessed with good governance, transparency and a corruption-free (Third) world, elections to UN bodies are being increasingly dictated by "cheque book diplomacy".

As one UN ambassador puts it: Since it takes two to do the tango, the bribe giver should be held equally accountable as the bribe taker.

In a Paris-datelined story last week, the New York Times said that in recent weeks, UNESCO headquarters has been "buzzing with rumours that the Japanese and Saudi governments had promised generous aid packages to several Third World countries in exchange for their votes."

Not surprisingly, however, "both Japanese and Saudi diplomats strongly denied engaging in such cheque book diplomacy", the Times added.

Japan's Ambassador to UNESCO Koichiro Matsuura who received 34 of the 58 votes won the required majority to outvote the Saudi Ambassador to Britain, Ghazi Algosaibi, who came second with only 13 votes in a third round of voting.

Sri Lankan candidate Senaka Bandaranaike, our ambassador in France, despite his strong credentials and what was described as an impressive presentation before the UNESCO Executive Board, collected only four votes in the first round of balloting and two in the second, forcing him to withdraw his candidature in the third round.

The four countries that reportedly cast their votes for Sri Lanka were India, China, Nepal and Bangladesh, with the last two remaining loyal into the second round.

Japan was also way ahead of the other eight contenders who hailed from Egypt, Australia, Romania, France, Indonesia, Hungary, the Philippines and Trinidad and Tobago.

Matsuura, whose candidacy will have to receive final approval at a meeting of UNESCO's General Conference on November 12 in Paris, will succeed Federico Mayor of Spain who will complete his second six-year mandate next month.

The approval is considered a formality but in the unlikely event that the General Conference does not approve Matsuura, the Executive Board must choose another candidate within 48 hours.

Currently, Japan is the largest single contributor to UNESCO accounting for about 25 percent of its budget. UNESCO's 1999-2000 biennium budget is about 550 million dollars.

As of last week, Japan had not only paid up all its outstanding dues but it is also one of the major contributors to UNESCO's extra budgetary activities accounting for about 40 percent of the voluntary contributions.

Japan's financial standing in UNESCO has been a strong element in the economic stability of a UN agency which was abandoned by the US years ago.

As one Japanese diplomat remarked during voting time in Paris last week: "No Japan. No UNESCO."

In recent years, Japan has been increasingly vying for UN jobs on the ground that it is a major donor nation.

Currently, Japan is also the second largest contributor to the United Nations accounting for 20 percent of the 1.3 billion annual UN budget: up from 17.9 percent in 1998.

The US, which is the largest single donor, accounts for 25 percent of the UN budget. Ranking behind Japan are Germany (9.8 percent), France (6.5 percent) Italy (5.4 percent) and Britain (5.1 percent).

Matsuura is a former deputy foreign minister who was trained in law in Tokyo and graduated in economics from Haverford College in the US.

According to an unwritten rule, the new director-general was expected to come from an Asian country which has never held the job since the UN agency was created 53 years ago.

At one time, one of the front-runners for the job was Ismail Serageldin of Egypt, a vice president of the World Bank, who received endorsements from about 50 Nobel Laureates, including scientists, educationists and cultural leaders.

'My entire career has been a preparation for the UNESCO job,'' Serageldin was quoted as saying, ''But the politics are not in my favour," he rightly predicted, "although I see myself as the candidate representing the UNESCO constitutency,'' he said.

But despite his exceptional credentials, he got only seven votes in the first round, four in the second and three in the third.