RI throws its weight behind UN reform

Adianto P. Simamora and Ivy Susanti, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reiterated Indonesia's full support for reform at the United Nations during a meeting with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Friday.

Presidential spokesman Dino Pati Djalal said that reform within the UN, which includes the broadening of representation on the Security Council, would allow Indonesia to boost its diplomatic stature.

"Our position is clear, we support UN reform. Our support is based on our view that it is an important aspect in our multilateral diplomacy, particularly for international negotiations," he said.

Earlier in his address to the Asian-African Summit, Annan urged the Asian and African leaders to back his campaign for UN reform, saying the developing world could benefit from his proposals on trade and debt relief, and the UN's increasing role in improving security and protecting human rights.

"The time has come for action -- for concrete, measurable steps, leading to a quantum leap in resources for development," Annan said at the opening of the summit on Friday.

"I have called on every developed country that has not done so to commit to a timetable to reach, by 2015, the agreed target of providing 70 cents in official development assistance for every US$100 of gross national income."

The secretary general released last month a 63-page report proposing the most wide-ranging shakeup of the UN since its creation in 1945.

"If we are to make our world fairer, freer and safer for all its inhabitants, the institutions of the United Nations should reflect the world of 2005, not 1945 -- particularly the Security Council. I believe the time is approaching when the member states should take a decision to make the council more representative, including by strengthening the representation of developing countries."

Annan also appealed for support for the establishment of two new intergovernmental bodies, the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights Council.

Forty-two heads of state/government and more than 50 other officials including vice presidents, ministers and heads of international organizations, attended the two-day summit.

Overall, 80 nations were represented at the summit, a commemoration of the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference that paved the way for the Non-aligned Movement, a neutral force in the Cold War period. A commemoration of the Golden Jubilee of the Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, West Java, will cap the events.

Annan briefed foreign ministers and officials of the participating countries on Thursday on the proposed reform.

Ali Alatas, Annan's special envoy to promote UN reform, said after the meeting that some officials still misunderstood the reform concept.

"There were also problems regarding the states' position toward some issues. We will leave them for further negotiations. But they are only a few countries that have different views," he said.

Alatas added that to date, there were only two Asian candidates for the position of secretary general: former Thai foreign affairs minister Surakiart Sathirathai and a Sri Lankan UN diplomat Jayantha Dhanapala.

"The Asian officials will still discuss the candidates, they haven't endorsed anything," he said.