inside the glass house

The importance of the French connection
Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando has begun studying French in preparation to assuming the onerous mantle of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in 2007 -- News items, Sunday Times
NEW YORK - Egypt's one-time Foreign Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali once told a group of journalists that no one who aspired to be the Secretary-General of the United Nations could expect to be elected to office if he or she did not have a working knowledge of French.

France is so passionately protective of its language that it may well exercise its veto on any candidate ignorant of French. When Boutros-Ghali was running for the post of Secretary-General in late 1991, he realized he had to receive the blessings of culture-conscious France -- a permanent member of the Security Council which frequently reminds the UN Secretariat that French, not English, is the traditional language of diplomacy.

French is also one of the six official languages of the UN -- along with English, Russian, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese. Boutros-Ghali's only credible African opponent for the Secretary-General's job at that time was a longtime friend Bernard Chidzero, the Economics Minister of English-speaking Zimbabwe, who was being backed by the Commonwealth and by Britain.

As Boutros-Ghali would recount the story, he met Chidzero at a conference in Africa, when the Zimbabwean suddenly switched from English to French conversation in an attempt to convey a subtle message.

At that point, Boutros-Ghali said he put his arms around Chidzero and remarked jokingly: "Bernard, if you want the approval of France, you must not only speak French, but also speak English with a French accent."

Boutros-Ghali, who was fluent in English, Arabic and French, held "the world's most impossible job" from January 1992 through December 1996. Since he refused to play ball with the US at the tail end of his five-year term, Washington not only blackballed him but also exercised its veto despite the fact that the remaining 14 members of the Security Council cast their votes in favour of Boutros-Ghali. As a result, he became the only Secretary-General in UN history who was denied a second five-year term.

Since the Cabinet has endorsed Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando as an official government candidate for the job, his determination to acquire a crash course in French linguistics skills is understandable.

But a Southeast Asian ambassador in New York, who is also a potential candidate for the job, went one better. He has undergone an intensive three-month course in French in an institution in the south of France where students live, speak and sleep in French.
The course is so rigidly structured that students are totally immersed in the French language -- and by the time they leave the institution, they even begin to think in French. And that's hard to beat.

The real lobbying for the Secretary-General's job is expected to begin only in early 2006 since Annan completes his five year term by December of that year and his successor will take office in January 2007. The five crucial votes are held by the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council: the US, Britain, France, China and Russia. And by the time the campaign begins, the US, Britain and France -- and even Sri Lanka -- may have undergone regime changes.

The Sri Lankan most frequently mentioned in UN circles as a possible candidate for the job is Jayantha Dhanapala, former Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament and Sri Lanka's former Ambassador to the United States. The entry of Fernando does not preclude Dhanapala's candidature because a candidate for the Secretary-General need not necessarily carry the endorsement of his home country.

When Olara Otunnu, a Ugandan national, ran for the Secretary-General's job more than seven years ago, his nomination was backed by Ivory Coast, not Uganda. If, for whatever reasons, Annan decides to step down before his term of office is over, the scenario can change.

Annan, who has been outspoken in his recent comments implicitly criticising the US for its new doctrine of pre-emptive strikes and for its military occupation of Iraq, has come in for subtle attacks by US officials who have described his comments as "unhelpful", "unusual" and "surprising".

The Secretary-General's ostensible reason for calling off his trip to Sri Lanka was that his presence was needed at a time when a key Security Council resolution was up for voting. Subsequently, Annan also cancelled his trips to New Delhi and Kuala Lumpur thereby validating the reason for abandoning his trip to Colombo.

The US sponsored resolution, which was adopted unanimously on Thursday, calls on member states, including Sri Lanka, to provide troops for a UN-mandated multinational peacekeeping force for Iraq and also funds for the reconstruction of the war devastated country.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga has received a personal invitation to attend an international donor conference on Iraq scheduled to take place in Madrid, Spain, next Friday. The invitation came from Jose Maria Aznar, prime minister of Spain, who is hosting the conference.

How much can Sri Lanka -- whose cash flow problems have even delayed funds to cover monthly expenses of some of our overseas missions -- pledge at the donors' conference whose target is about $5 billion?

And what is the token contingent that Sri Lanka can provide for the UN-authorized multinational force in Iraq -- even if such a gesture is meant to placate a desperate US whose troops are being killed in Iraq almost every day?

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