The International Herald Tribune - Chance at top UN seat gets the juices flowing INTERNATIONAL October 20, The International Herald Tribune Chance at top UN seat gets the juices flowing - Seth Mydans Bangkok: First out of the starting blocks, and building up a head of steam, is the candidate from Thailand. But the man from Sri Lanka is right behind him. And if the heavyweight from South Korea formally joins the race, he could be the man to beat. The prize is the top job at the United Nations, and following an informal rotation, it will be Asia's turn, at the end of next year, to take the wheel. No Asian has held the secretary general's post since U Thant of Burma, who served for a decade until 1971. The position is appointed by the 191-member General Assembly on the recommendation of the 15-member Security Council. The term of the current incumbent, Kofi Annan, ends in December 2006. Not everybody is conceding the seat to Asia, and a number of other candidacies are possible, particularly from Eastern Europe, which is calling itself a region and claiming a place in the rotation. Thailand's candidate, Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, is off to what might seem a decisive head start. He has been campaigning for more than a year and claims to have gathered the endorsements of more than 100 nations, including the backing of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean. But these are diplomats speaking. Apart from Andrei Gromyko "Mr. Nyet" of Soviet times it is rare to hear someone say no. Last week, for example, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen of Finland, after a visit by his Thai counterpart, Thaksin Shinawatra, offered the following endorsement: "I told the prime minister that I met his candidate, and I even told him I have met no other candidate." Or the unnamed German official quoted in a Thai newspaper who praised Surakiart in the following words: "He has an impeccable academic record, as well, with a PhD law degree from Fletcher School." Even among his closest neighbors, Surakiart who comes from a land famous for its smiles must be wondering just how solid his backing is. "Everyone will say, 'Well, of course we support you if you want to nominate yourself,"' said Rizal Sukma, an Indonesian political analyst. "But in the end there has to be an official Asean decision." One problem Surakiart has is the fractured nature of Asia today, particularly with frictions involving China, Japan and South Korea. If the continent cannot agree on a single candidate, it could divide and lose. On the other hand, an inoffensive compromise candidate could be an embarrassment. The other declared candidate in Asia is Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, a former ambassador to Washington who spent a decade at the United Nations, including five years as an under secretary dealing with disarmament issues. He is advertising himself as a hands-on manager who knows how the United Nations works. In the past few weeks, South Korea's foreign minister, Ban Ki Moon, has been edging forward, advertising himself, quite simply, as better than the other guys. "There are already two very good candidates," he told the Reuters news agency early this month. "But, you know, when I was in New York last month I heard from many, many member countries that Asia needs to have a very good, credible candidate." Surakiart, for his part, is presenting himself as a champion of reform, human rights, fiscal responsibility and general good will. "If my contribution would help only one person, helping them from starvation, that would be my success," he said recently, in a remark that appeared to be addressed to people with a high tolerance for artificial sweeteners. If the Asian competition begins to look bruising, other possible names have been floated from such places as Iran, India, Chile and even Chappaqua, New York, the restless retirement home of Bill Clinton. The most serious non-Asian possibility at the moment is the outgoing Polish president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, who points out that Eastern Europe if indeed it can be counted on its own as a region has never had a turn at the job. If it were not for his hard work over the past year, Surakiart could be seen as a long shot. A former foreign minister and finance minister who is just 47, he is overshadowed by more statesmanlike figures even in his own country, and he is something less than a household name. His biggest liability is his prime minister and patron, Thaksin, who has never shown much love for the United Nations. Thaksin, who clearly has ambitions to be a regional leader, may be the most undiplomatic statesman around. His best-known remark about the United Nations came in 2003 after a special envoy from the organization criticized his human rights record particularly an anti-drug campaign in which more than 2,500 people were shot and killed. "The United Nations is not my father," he said dismissively, which raises the question of who is trying to be whose father. More recently, when 131 Muslims fled across the southern border to Malaysia saying they were afraid of Thai military abuses, Thaksin and Surakiart along with him tried to dissuade the UN refugee organization from interviewing them. The Thai officials said the organization, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, was meddling in Thailand's internal affairs. Thaksin's harsh crackdown on a violent uprising in the Muslim south, along with insensitive remarks about Islam, have alienated him from the important Muslim nations of Malaysia and Indonesia, but he doesn't seem to mind. It will be interesting to see how far a man who disdains tact or diplomacy can get in his ambitions for regional leadership, or how successful his chosen candidate to head the United Nations will be. Many of his own countrymen have their doubts. "A delusion of grandeur," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a leading Thai political scientist. ~