Consensus Candidate

EMPTY coffee cups made for impromptu ashtrays. Security personnel gave up as the world media surged at the doors of the United Nations Security Council (SC) day after day, pencils poised, cameras running and tongues wagging. After current UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali announced that he was 'temporarily' stepping down from candidature, had the Africans come up with other proposals?

Tongue-twisting names circulated amidst speculation that France would continue to relentlessly veto candidate after US-supported candidate, and China would do so to at least one speculated name because of his country's diplomatic relations with Taiwan. When there was no more unity to be found within the ranks of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), whose candidate Boutros-Ghali was, the race boiled down to four: all of whom were nominated by individual states. Amara Essey of the Ivory Coast, Ould Abdallah of Mauritania, Hamid Al Gabid of Niger and Kofi Annan of Ghana.

But all the while, there seemed little or no doubt that a quiet, dapper man entering and leaving the UN Secretariat every day—as he has done frequently over his 30-year-long career with the world body—was going to be the next secretary-general of the UN. Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Kofi Annan of Ghana, was the only one who seemed unperturbed by the spotlight, the furore and the hype.

On December 13, a formal poll was held and the Council eventually emerged after weeks of deadlock when a repeated "discouragement vote" from veto power, France, against Annan, widely considered a US fav-ourite, had shown no signs of disappearing. Reporters converged on the 37th floor of the UN instead, where the peacekeeping department has its offices. Champagne flowed and flowers arrived.

"The mood is exhilarating," Shashi Thar-oor, special assistant to Annan, told 바카라. "This is the first time in the history of the UN that one of us has worked his way up. Kofi has seen the best and the worst: from the dust of Africa to the snows of Bosnia. Here he is now: the secretary-general." Tharoor has been close to Annan during the course of his own career and knows 'Kofi', as Annan is called by almost everyone in the corridors of the UN, to be a serene and composed personality. Annan is once said to have taken the flak for the misdemeanours of a subordinate and simply told the latter not to mind "the turkeys" flapping about the mistake. But to what extent is outward composure going to help Annan in the uphill task that faces him? The UN is broke with the US, its largest contributor (25 per cent of the annual budget) and its greatest defaulter at $1.7 billion, wielding muscle.

Boutros-Ghali never balked at superpower arrogance, specifically Washington's ambitions to manipulate the UN as an executive arm for its own foreign pol -icy. US politicians, over the years preceding presidential election year 1996, saw their opportunity and exploited it. The Republican-dominated Congress held바카라 웹사이트

"I am personally delighted," said outgoing US Permanent Representative to the UN, Madeleine Albright, of the Council's consensus over Kofi Annan. The US' close ally, Britain, lost no time in making its opinion known too. "This is a good result for Africa and for the UN organisation," tight-lipped British Permanent UN Representative, John Weston, told the press as he broke the news that the Council had reached consensus.

But what made France change its mind and actually vote in favour of Annan? For weeks it had been rejecting him on account of the fact that the English-speaking Ghanian was not a 'Francophone' and that a person who had risen from within the ranks of the UN itself would be unable to bring about the reforms that Washington had tirelessly parroted. French Ambassador to the UN, Alian Dejammet, merely told the press that Annan's choice (finally) met French conditions that the next UN chief come from Africa and speak French.

But as in every organisation of the size and the stature of the UN, there is said to have been the inevitable wheeling and dealing behind the scenes. Even sections in the UN bureaucracy are said to have lobbied for Annan. No doubt, several senior positions within the UN will be occupied by Annan's own favourites and it will surprise nobody if many of those officials are French.

Tharoor himself, who is also likely to move up to the top floor of the Secretariat along with Annan, brushed off all such scepticism. "It is much more Kofi's nature that gained him the consensus," he said. "Look at Bosnia: so critical of the UN, but so positive about Kofi. That is largely because Kofi obtains results, and his style of conciliation is always with the result in view. Nobody campaigned for Annan: the government of Ghana did—but only after Boutros-Ghali stepped down. If at all, Koficampaigned by doing his job so well that governments began to think: here is a person we can cooperate with on other counts as well."

But what does Annan himself think about the task ahead of him when he takes over from Boutros-Ghali on January 1? Born in Kurnasi, Ghana, on April 8, 1938, Annan's father was the respected chief of a tribe. After preliminary education in Ghana, he took a bachelor's degree in economics from Macalester College in Minnesota, followed by an academic stint at Geneva and a master's degree from MIT.

In comparison to Boutros-Ghali's distinguished diplomatic career, Annan's resume is sober. After a term at the World Health Organisation in Geneva to oversee tourism management there, Annan rose from assistant under-secretary general for programme planning, budget and finance to the chief of peacemaking missions in 1993. During his time, he witnessed the frustrations of Somalia and then Rwanda. After the Iraq crisis, Annan was sent to the country to negotiate the release of hostages and those stranded in the region. Finally, his quiet but firm handling of Bosnia brought him praise from all international quarters.

But frustrations remain, especially about the UN's much-maligned role in international policing, a subject close to Annan's heart. "Once the Council gives us a mandate to mount an operation, we must get logistical support and humanitarian assistance on time," he mused. "We must tackle the problems before they explode—take Burundi and Zaire—we have a tendency to do that. It is my hope that we focus a bit more on previous action and take a broader view in national interest. We will need to educate ourselves and the public that we live in an interdependent world and a global village. What happens in one region could happen in all: the impact the Iraq crisis had on international oil prices and the Bosnian situation on Europe, for instance."

Critics say that a man such as Annan, who rose from within the organisation during the years when the UN was growing and developing a reputation for wasteful mismanagement, is not likely to emerge an efficient reformer. But to UN employees and to the Third World, which forms the bulk of the 185-member strong organisa-tion, Kofi is approachable and identifiable.

And therein may well lie the key. Bou-tros-Ghali's origins and brilliance in the arena of international politics earned him admirers. Annan is likely to win friends. Whether those emerge from arm-twisting quarters, remains to be seen.