Reform of the Security Council has two alternatives

The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed five special envoys, including former foreign minister Ali Alatas, to help promote his report on much-awaited UN reforms. He talked with The Jakarta Post's Kornelius Purba and Adianto P. Simamora about his new jobs and other foreign policy issues. The following are excerpts from the interview.

Question: Could you talk about your new assignment?

Answer: As we know, the UN Secretary-General presented his report titled In larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All to the membership of the UN on March 12. He has presented the report to members, and later on he will present it to world leaders who are going to assemble for a high level meeting of the UN General Assembly in September in New York, as well as agendas for action on the three related fields plus the field of UN reform.

The secretary-general argued that in the present world situation, the three problems of development, security and human rights plus the UN reform are interconnected. Therefore, the only way to overcome these problems is by facing these new challenges collectively and not bilaterally. And to that purpose, a strengthened UN is needed.

To help him in these efforts, he appointed five special envoys for the regions of America, Africa, West Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia. For Asia, Annan has appointed me.

We are supposed to go to our respected regions to meet leaders of countries. We will talk with them (leaders), discuss the report and try to further elaborate on it. We will also try to get general support for these reforms.

We will then give feedback to the secretary-general about any problems (objections) that might emerge in a country. The special envoys are not supposed to negotiate, but only represent the secretary-general.

That's why I will be traveling to some countries in Asia; I will attend some conferences like the forthcoming Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the south-south conference.

Some countries such as Japan and India have already put themselves forward for permanent seats at the reformed UN, but there is also much opposition to this. How do you see this problem?

Undoubtedly, one of the most controversial issues will be the fashion of the enlargement of the number of permanent seats of the Security Council. Reform of the Council has two alternatives to solve the problems.

The first is to appoint additional non-permanent members and six new permanent members, increasing the total number of Council members to 24, instead of the current 15 members. This is called Model A.

The two seats from Asia have been claimed by Japan and India, from Europe by Germany, Africa is still being debated among the three countries of Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt, while the one seat for Latin America has been claimed by Brazil. These new permanent members would not have a veto right.

Model B does not appoint new permanent members, but there will be semi-permanent members. There are eight members with longer period of office to four years, from the current two years, and it will be renewable.

At present, four countries have been put forward as candidates for the permanent seat, they are Japan, Germany, India and Brazil but this is still controversial because in each region there are still opposing views.

In Asia, Pakistan has opposed India for a long time, while Japan is not going too well. People are now looking at the pros and cons of both models.

Indonesia has also registered interest to become a permanent member of the UN, representing the world's largest Muslim country, but with the same logic, the Vatican can also claim a seat. What do you think?

It is true, Pak Hassan Wirayuda (Minister of Foreign Affairs) at the latest session of the general assembly threw up this issue.

With a population of more than two hundred million, we have also always supported the UN and participated in several peace- keeping missions.

Nowadays, the problems of the world seem to be around Islam, so it may be good to have a Muslim country represented at the UN.

Looking at the present situation, it will only add to the controversy around the various candidates, and we don't know how people will react, but personally it looks to me that we will have a very hard job if we want to push this because it means that there will be four candidates from Asia (China, Japan, India and Indonesia).

Indonesia and Singapore want Australia to join the East Asian Summit, while Malaysia strongly opposes it. How do you see this?

It is being solved now. Indonesia has raised the question; we are not against an East Asia Community (EAC), but what would it be? Will it be just ASEAN+3 (China, Japan, South Korea), or should there be additional members?.

I heard from the last meeting of Asian leaders, many of the points have come closer now. Malaysia proposed and it was agreed by others that if a country wants to enter EAC then it must sign the TAC (Treaty of Amity and Cooperation). I think Australia is thinking about doing this, because Japan, China, India have already done it.

How do you see Indonesian's role in the security council, because we are very inward looking now?

We have very been inward looking and that is because the problems we face after the Asia crisis, but I think we have came out of it now.

We are reasserting our role regionally as well as internationally as we can see what we are doing in Asia now.

We have now, for example, initiated the ASEAN Security Community and we continue to be very active in ASEAN.

We have also shown this in the East Asia Community. We have also taken initiatives in fighting terrorism, and non-traditional threats.

What roles are you still playing in terms of diplomacy?

I am still active. I am advising the foreign minister on many things. I am also occasionally advising the President. I am finishing writing book on the background of negotiations regarding East Timor. I hope the book will be launched very soon.