Taking on the most impossible job

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Taking on the most impossible job
Sunday, 11 14, 2006

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon will replace Kofi Annan as the Secretary General (SG) of the United Nations (UN) for a five-year term beginning January, 2007.

Mr. Ban will take on what has been described as the “world’s most impossible job,” and he will face the twin challenges now confronting the UN: How to rebuild trust and turn the UN into an efficient and transparent organization accountable for the priorities it sets for its development and peace-building goals for the millennium; and, how to steer the UN in taking an evenhanded stance in its intervention over crises in many countries worldwide.

The choice of Mr. Ban reflects an affirmation of the consensus-building skills of this man who has often described himself as a “harmonizer, balancer, mediator.” He is expected to maintain this consensual style, concentrating more on being a good civil servant and chief administrative officer, rather than striking a figure as a globe-trotting high-profile diplomat.

Truly Asian in his reputation of modest demeanor, Mr. Ban exudes a quiet determination to get things done. He is described as “a kind of iron-hand in the velvet-gloved person at work,” one who prefers the behind-the-scenes deal over the ostentatious, grand gesture. But as Mr. Ban himself says, “I may look soft from the outside, but I have inner strength when it’s really necessary.”

This inner strength had been evident in the tough negotiations he had had with China, and in his key role in the talks aimed at curbing Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. Asked if he could be impartial as when, say, a resolution is on the table to deal with North Korea, Mr. Ban said the SG does not represent his own country, and that he would facilitate the solution to problems to the best that he could, and therefore need not be partial.

Mr. Ban had first dreamed of becoming a diplomat when, as an 18-year-old student he met then US President John Kennedy. He went on to graduate in International Relations from the Seoul National University, and doing postgraduate studies at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. This civil servant of 37 years — 10 of which were spent on UN-related missions — has accumulated enough experience to discharge the role of harmonizer, balancer, and mediator.

Mr. Ban is quoted as saying diplomacy is a tough job, requiring dedication to the public good and a sense of mission for mankind. He will certainly find himself at the center of the never-ending task of facilitating the process of resolving issues worldwide.

He will find the tasks that lie ahead of him a tough job indeed, given the reluctance of the 192 members of the UN to allow the SG to exercise more power. Given his inclination to always create an environment toward reconciliation, sooner or later Mr. Ban would have to deal with vastly conflicting interests that could derail any headway for such reconciliation. Mr. Ban’s being the harmonizer should be assurance enough that he will exert all efforts to bring together those minded to play the aggressor and those minded to resist under their own devices. Then again, he should do well to implement what he calls a two-pronged approach: Deliver a very strong and stern message, on the one hand; and leave room for negotiations so as not to escalate international tension, on the other.

A dedication to the public good is a quality that is never wanting in a diplomat like Mr. Ban. His avowal to see South Korea play the role of a bridge between the United States and developing countries, rather than being stuck in between, makes one realize that Mr. Ban has a personal agenda to meet what he termed in his acceptance speech as “the needs of the ‘we the peoples’ for whom the UN was created.”

It would be interesting to see how he would deal with Afghanistan, for example, where the UN is very much involved, in a very hostile environment. The lesson of failure to attain peace in Iraq is much too recent to be reprised in Afghanistan, and Mr. Ban will have to make his dedication to the public good the hallmark of all efforts to make all UN interventions there succeed.

“The world’s peoples will not be fully served,” Mr. Ban declared in his acceptance speech, “unless peace, development and human rights…are advanced together with equal vigor. But I pledge to serve you well, with all of my heart and to the best of my abilities. I will seek excellence with humility. I will lead by example. Promises should be made for the keeping. This has been my motto in life. I intend to stick to it, as I work with all stakeholders for a UN that delivers on its promises.”

For a diplomat who has vast experience in dealing with international crises, Mr. Ban brings assurance to all that his sense of mission for the interests of the world’s peoples, particularly the poor and vulnerable among them, will be given high importance when the UN finally adopts and implements the principle of the “responsibility to protect.”

After three Europeans (Lie, Hammarskjöld, Waldheim); one Asian (Thant); one Latin American (de Cuellar); and two Africans (Ghali, Annan), Mr. Ban as the eighth UN Secretary General will have to define his own role and the use of his “good offices” within the context of the five years in office that lie ahead of him. He will, as a saying in his native Korea goes, have to “carve the peg by looking at the hole.”

There certainly are a lot of holes worldwide that need plugging with steps Mr. Ban has to undertake, in the glare of international scrutiny as well as in the privacy of his office, while drawing upon his independence, impartiality and integrity, to prevent international disputes from arising, escalating or spreading.

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