The UN reforms
As the United Nations General Assembly moves full steam ahead, the United States is intensifying its campaign to stop Secretary- General Boutros Boutros-Ghali from running for a second term in office. Washington has made it very clear that it does not want the 73-year-old Egyptian diplomat at the helm any more, and its diplomats are prodding the General Assembly and the Security Council this week to start looking for a successor to take over when his five-year term expires at the end of the year.
The massive support that Boutros-Ghali enjoys in his bid for a second term will become purely academic when the crunch comes. The U.S. has threatened to veto Boutros-Ghali's candidacy if he goes ahead with his bid. Not even the open support of three of the four other permanent members of the Security Council -- Russia, China and France, each of which also enjoys veto rights -- matters if Washington exercises its veto power. The best that Russia and China can do, and they appear to be doing this, is delay formal discussion at the Security Council until after the U.S. presidential election in November, hoping that whoever wins will put domestic politics aside and endorse Boutros-Ghali's re- appointment.
But even that appears to be remote because both candidates for the presidency, Republican Bob Dole and the incumbent, Democrat Bill Clinton, are speaking the same language when it comes to the United Nations: They oppose Boutros-Ghali's leadership and blame him for what they see as the slow pace of reforms toward improvement of the world body. They also blame him for some of the problems in the world's trouble spots, like Somalia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. To complicate the matter, there is the decision by Congress to delay payments of $1.6 billion in arrears that the U.S. government owes to the UN, while insisting that it implement more reforms. Essentially, Congress is saying that it will pay up only if Boutros-Ghali goes.
Given that there is little hope for Boutros-Ghali to keep his job, Indonesia and its fellow members of the Non-Aligned Movement should now concentrate more on securing the continuation of much of the good work the Egyptian diplomat began toward democratizing the United Nations. They should not waste too much energy on defending what now appears to be a lost cause.
Certainly, credit must be given to Boutros-Ghali for initiating the reforms and the discussions on democratization efforts that have been underway at the world body. While the reforms sought by the United States to streamline the United Nations are important, a more imperative issue for developing countries is to turn the United Nations into a democratic institution, one that reflects the reality of the current international situation. The present UN structure, in which five countries -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain -- enjoy overriding power over the other 180 or so members, was founded upon the political realities in the aftermath of World War II and has served its purpose well for the United Nations in policing the world during the Cold War period. But the Cold War has ended and a different kind of policing task is called for to ensure international peace and order.
Washington's threat to use its veto power against Boutros- Ghali's candidacy is just one example of many in which this privilege has been used to serve the interest of one country, in spite of international opinion to the contrary. This is all the more reason why democratization of the UN is important.
Thanks to the vision and statesmanship of Boutros-Ghali, discussions on democratizing the United Nations have begun, although not at a pace developing countries would like to see.
If Washington gets its way -- and all indications are that it will -- in denying Boutros-Ghali a second term to see through his initiatives, then developing countries should at least secure their continuation. Hopefully, Indonesia, which holds a seat in the Security Council, can influence the selection of a successor who has the same diplomatic skills, vision and charisma as Boutros-Ghali to push through the changes at the United Nations.