27 August 2016 12:00 am
Next week’s three-day visit to Sri Lanka by the United Nations outgoing Secretary General Ban Ki-moon gives us an opportunity to reflect on the ties between our country and world body and the role the UN is playing or not playing in international politics and socio-economics.
Mr. Ban completes his second five-year term as UN chief at the end of this year and has built a good reputation among the big powers or five permanent members and also other countries though his political effectiveness has been questioned especially in the main trouble spots such as Iraq and Syria. In any event he appears to have become so popular in his home country of South Korea that there is speculation he might run for the presidency in that country in 2017. According to a recent article in Britain’s Daily Telegraph, Mr. Ban has been branded as “plodding and painfully in-eloquent,” and the worst Secretary General of the UN, but he is the firm favourite to become the next president of South Korea. Mr. Ban has done little or nothing to deny suggestions that he will run in the presidential election in December 2017.
Speaking during an official visit to Seoul in May, Mr. Ban said South Korea was extremely divided and diplomatic efforts were the only way to bridge the widening chasm with North Korea. That is in stark contrast to the Park Geun-hye government, which has largely given up attempting to negotiate with Pyongyang in the face of provocations, not least the detonation of nuclear devices, the latest of which took place this week.
The 71-year-old Mr. Ban also met a number of politicians including the chief policymaker of the Saenuri Party and Kim Jong-pil, a former prime minister who is now considered a political king-maker. The reports say the South Korean people sense that Mr. Ban is planning to throw his hat into the ring after leaving New York and they approve. In a poll conducted by the Joong Ang Ilbo newspaper during Mr, Ban’s visit, more than 28 per cent singled out the UN chief as the nation’s next leader. His closest rival, Moon Jae-in, of the opposition Minjoo Party, had the support of just about 16 per cent.
During next week’s visit to Sri Lanka Mr. Ban will hold extensive discussions with President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe among others. Mr. Ban will deliver a speech in Colombo on the UN’s global development goals and he is expected to highlight the importance of development and human rights, as he would do in Myanmar which he visits before coming to Sri Lanka. Mr. Ban will also visit a resettlement site for displaced people in Jaffna and take part in a conference on youth and reconciliation
in Galle.
Sri Lanka’s relationship with the UN and the international community ran into its worst crisis during the former Rajapaksa regime but the new national government during the past 20 months has acted effectively to restore the relationship to such an extent that President Sirisena was given a high ranking place at last year’s UN General Assembly sessions. Most analysts say the UN is often politically ineffective largely because of the veto powers given to the five permanent members and there needs to be a structural change though when and whether it will come is a big question. However in economic terms the UN has done a fairly good job through some 22 agencies in areas ranging from healthcare and education to the environment. Overall the world may not be much better off because of the UN but it certainly would have been in a much worst condition without the UN.