By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 15 2005 (IPS)

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s decision to rush through the nomination of a Thai national- Supachai Panitchpakdi – as the new secretary-general of the Geneva-based U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has drawn criticism from developing nations.

Supachai, the present director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), will take over the UNCTAD job in September this year.

“Annan was too quick to nominate someone more than six months in advance,” a Southeast Asian diplomat told IPS. “This is very unusual.”

“We are not challenging the credentials of the nominee. What we are complaining about is that there were no consultations and no discussions on the nominee. We were deprived of that traditional courtesy,” he added.

Annan’s nominee, however, has to be approved by the 191-member General Assembly before he can take office.

The Group of 77 (G77), the largest single bloc at the United Nations, has asked the General Assembly for a deferment of 30 days before voting on Annan’s candidate.

Traditionally, Annan’s nominees for some senior U.N. jobs are routinely approved by the Assembly – and none has been rejected so far.

This is the first time in the 60-year history of the world body that the General Assembly has asked for time to vote on a candidate recommended by the secretary-general.

Ambassador Stafford Neil of Jamaica, chairman of the G77, told IPS: “We wanted more time to reflect on it because UNCTAD is very important to the G77.”

The Group of 77, created immediately following the establishment of UNCTAD back in 1964, has been working very closely with the U.N. body over the last 40 years. Both celebrated their 40th anniversary at a meeting in Brazil in June last year.

Told that Annan takes the view that he is not mandated to consult with anyone over the UNCTAD appointment, a member of the G77 told IPS: “What does he think the General Assembly is: a rubber stamp?”

Although Supachai is a Thai national, the Thai government has distanced itself from his candidature.

“He is not a candidate of the Thai government,” Ambassador Laxanachantorn Laohaphan of Thailand told IPS.

She said there were several Asian candidates vying for the job and Thailand wanted it known that its government was not sponsoring Supachai’s candidature. “We wanted to clarify our position,” she said.

Some of the candidates running for the UNCTAD job included nationals of Cambodia, the Philippines, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Annan’s announcement pre-empted lobbying by all these countries – all of them being taken unawares.

According to diplomatic sources here, the Thai government is also peeved because it fears that the appointment of a Thai to be UNCTAD secretary-general would undermine its own chances for a bigger job it has in mind: secretary-general of the United Nations.

The official Thai candidate for the job is former foreign minister Surakiat Sathirathai, who has just been kicked upstairs as deputy prime minister in a cabinet reshuffle in Bangkok last week.

Surakiat’s candidature has also been endorsed by the 10 countries that comprise the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)- Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

If Supachai is eventually endorsed by the General Assembly, it will be increasingly difficult for another Thai national to claim the highest ranking job in the world body.

Since Asia hasn’t had a U.N. secretary-general for nearly 34 years after Burma’s U. Thant, Asian countries are now making a push for a job that will fall vacant when Annan completes his second five-year term in December 2006.

The only other officially declared Asian candidate for the job is Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, a former under-secretary-general for disarmament affairs.

Supachai’s rushed nomination also comes at a time when Annan has called for “transparency” in all senior U.N. appointments.

In keeping with the new policy, Annan has asked all 191 member states to name candidates for four high ranking jobs that are vacant or will soon fall vacant: Administrator of the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, head of the U.N. Office for Internal Oversight Services and Commissioner of the U.N. Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees.

On Monday, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters that for the first time, Annan will also release a short list of the final candidates vying for these jobs.

“That, of course, is a change in policy,” Eckhard added. “We’ve always kept very confidential all deliberations on the naming of high-level officials in the U.N. system”.

“We have now decided that we would experiment with going public with the shortlist,” he added.

Eckhard said that the lists are now being studied and the shortlist will be presented to the secretary-general “as soon as possible”. “And then we do intend to go public with the shortlist,” he added.

Asked if there is going to be any formal kind of forum where different people can express their opinions on a candidate in a shortlist, Eckhard said: ” I think the purpose of publishing the shortlist is to get as much reaction as possible, including from non-governmental organisations (NGOs).”

“So, I think that there would be some time between the publication of the shortlist and the announcement of the secretary-general’s decision for those reactions to be received and digested,” he added.

Asked why the same principle of transparency was not applicable to Supachai’s appointment, one U.N. official told IPS: “But that appointment was announced before the new transparency guidelines went into effect.”

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