Indonesia and the UN

The United Nations is currently examining proposals for reform with the objective of making the UN as relevant in this century as it was in the last.

Recent articles in The Jakarta Post and The New York Times have highlighted some of the major issues the UN is considering.

In an editorial on Dec. 7 The New York Times commented "The most widely discussed proposals concern expanding the Security Council whose permanent membership reflects the power relations of 1945, not 2004. The UN can only gain in authority and relevance by adding newly important countries from the developed and the developing world".

The editorial then went on to say that Japan is obviously qualified for one of the new permanent seats". Perhaps Japan would make an excellent permanent member of the UN Security Council. Yet there is already a disproportionate concentration of Northern Hemisphere nations in the Security Council.

Equatorial and Southern Hemisphere nations also need representation if the UN is to function as a truly representative world organization. With its recent elections as a global model for democratization, its history of nonalignment with the collective world thinking that doctrine espoused, and its profound understanding of the complexities and diversities which exist within humanity, particularly within the context of multi- ethnicity and religious tolerance, Indonesia has a strong claim for membership of the United Nations Security Council.

GREG WARNER
Jakarta