UN must democratize itself, say experts

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The United Nations (UN) must democratize itself and relinquish security roles to regional security arrangements if it wants to stay relevant, an analyst says.

Kusnanto Anggoro of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said here on Friday that the UN, especially its Security Council, has to reform and get rid of veto rights currently enjoyed by five founding nations.

"The global politics have changed. There are non-traditional issues that cannot be addressed by the UN, so it should start to strengthen regional security cooperation," Kusnanto told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Meanwhile, senior analyst Soedjati Djiwandono said that the UN had served as a "playing ground" for the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) -- the United States, Britain, Russia, France and China, which have veto rights.

This situation, according to Soedjati, reflects real global politics, where superpowers determine war and peace in the universe.

Small countries, according to Soedjati, have never and will never play any major role in deciding the world's peace or war.

"Reforms of the United Nations Security Council should aim at shifting the world body back to its original purpose. It will be better for the UN to concentrate more on social and economic fields," Soedjati said.

Both Kusnanto and Soedjati were asked to comment on the presence of the world body in conjunction with United Nations Day which falls on Oct. 24.

Kusnanto stressed that although the world was no longer suffering from wars between countries, it is confronted with separatism, terrorism and other transnational crimes that would better be solved by regional cooperations.

"With the delegation of power, permanent members of the UNSC will no longer solely determine the world's peace," Kusnanto said.

He further pointed out that despite jargon on dialog, democracy etc. the UN serves as a symbol that confirms the perception that the mighty is the winner.

"The five permanent members were the winners of World War II and now they own the most powerful nuclear weapons. This proves that the use of force is the main factor in the UN," Kusnanto said.

"Such authority, to send peacekeeping forces or solve the internal conflicts of one country should be the job of regional security arrangements," said Kusnanto, apparently referring to the invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq by the United States and its allies.

The U.S. and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 on the grounds that it had harbored the principal suspect of the New York and Washington terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 that killed more than 3,000 people.

The U.S. attacked Iraq in March 2003 on the suspicion that the country, then under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, was developing weapons of mass destruction.

Kusnanto said that the UN should maintain its duties as a moral force in the world, with the power to impose sanctions on member countries.

"The rest of the technical security arrangements should be in the hands of regional security organizations," Kusnanto said without elaboration.

The world organization was established 58 years ago, under the initiative of the five war winners, with the aim of preventing similar world wars in the future.

However, since the cold war ended in 1989, marked by the fall of the former Soviet Union, the UN lost its relevance, with the U.S., the only superpower, often going it alone without the world body.

The U.S.'s "going-it-alone" policy was clearly displayed when the country decided to attack Afghanistan and Iraq despite opposition from the UN.

Indonesia has campaigned on the importance of revitalizing the UN and reforming UNSC, especially the elimination of the veto rights of the five permanent members.