By Shefali Rekhi
Assistant Foreign Editor
shefali@sph.com.sg

 

"THANK you for that kind introduction. I must say it is good to be back in Senegal...(ch)... Singapore."

Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan speaking in Singapore at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy as its first Li Ka Shing Professor. ST PHOTO: Carolyn Chia

Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan inadvertently began the first of his two talks in Singapore with a slip of the tongue. It was probably a consequence of the hectic schedule he still maintains four years after he ended his tenure.

Senegal is a former French colony in Africa, the continent Prof Annan hails from.

Africa is also the region where he focuses much of his efforts on improving the lives of people. He is doing this through initiatives such as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, which seeks to promote sustainable agricultural growth.

There is also the Africa Progress Panel, which was set up by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to monitor the commitments of the international donor community.

Prof Annan, who is 71, is also tied up with the Kofi Annan Foundation, which is based in Geneva, and works to promote peace, alleviate poverty, and much more.

Last year he accepted a faculty position at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy to be its first Li Ka Shing Professor, a position established after the Hong Kong tycoon who donated $100 million to the school's endowment fund, three years ago.

It is this position that  brought him to Singapore to deliver two lectures for students over the past couple of weeks.

The slip was an amusing start to the conversation during which he shared his experience in trying to reform the UN and discussed the challenges that remain unresolved even today.

His expression, as he corrected his mistake, helped him build a quick rapport with his audience.

Leaders are those, he said during the talk, who don't mind admitting that they do not have it all.

"What I look for in a leader is good judgment, to be able to take the right decisions — to be able to know when to sit and when to act," he said.

Leaders are those "who (have) a good understanding of the environment and the ability to work with people.

"A leader should also want to know what he doesn't know and where to go for advice and seeking advice and letting it be known that you don't have it all.

"It is not a weakness," he said.

Prof Annan was nominated to be the United Nation's seventh Secretary General in 1996 — at short notice after his predecessor Mr Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt — could not be re-elected.

Prof Annan was the first to be appointed from within the UN system, but came in with few having forgotten his inability to prevent the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that left hundreds of thousands dead, as head of the UN peacekeeping operations.

Over the next 10 years, the UN contributed to peace efforts in Congo, Sierre Leone, Liberia and elsewhere. For his efforts, in 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Yet the latter part of his term at the UN was marked by the discord he had with the US over going to war with Iraq. In 2003, America failed to get the nine votes it needed from the Security Council but nevertheless proceeded with the war against Iraq.

A year later, Prof Annan labeled the invasion of Iraq illegal and earned the ire of the Republicans who were eyeing a second win during the US elections later that year.

"I was personally very pleased that (America) didn't (get the votes it needed)," Prof Annan said in response to a question over the issue. "If the UN had endorsed the war on Iraq, it would have been a very sorry day," he added.

One of the biographies on Prof Annan, written by his aide Fred Eckhard, mentions that he lost his voice, looked vacant at meetings and even sought medical help after the invasion.

Reforming the UN, Prof Annan said, had not been easy. There was much opposition to his plans to expand the number of the seats in the Security Council from 16 to 25 or 26, with most of the opposition coming from the very regions from which new members had been nominated.

Yet, he said, in today's world, it is no longer possible for one country to thrive at the expense of another and hence processes must be representative.

"I look at (the) emergence of China, India, Brazil, Indonesia... (and ask)... do we have the right structures and mechanisms... is the architecture we have efficient and effective? If (it is) not representative or democratic, what sort of change do we require," he said.

Narrating an incident, he said that he had apologised for not being able to reform the UN at a gathering of UN representatives. This had coaxed a diplomat from Russia to remark that God had created the world in seven days.

"I said, 'yes you are right'," Prof Annan said. "But he had a unique advantage. He worked alone... no Security Council, no General Assembly."

LKY School Dean Kishore Mahbubani applauded Prof Annan's efforts to change processes at the UN.

"He didn't do just a maintenance job but used it to transform and improve the UN," he said and added that Prof Annan, should he decide to share, would have a lot more interesting experiences to tell.

But Prof Annan declined the subtle nudge to disclose details.

"Nigerians have a phrase," he said. "Secrets must remain secret."

So what would be his self-evaluation score, a student asked.

"A man can't see himself except through a reflection in the mirror," Prof Annan replied. "You have to tell me. It is better to have a third party validation and I leave that to you."
 
More questions flowed.

"How can I become the UN Secretary General one day?" another student queried.

"I became secretary general not because I love it or expected to be Secretary General. I was quite prepared to leave after running the peace keeping operation. My name came up quite late. My election was on 13th December and luckily I knew the organisation. I had two weeks to prepare.

"Recently there has been campaigns. Governments have been quite active. My advice is when you leave here, do it well, be active, show leadership in your community.

"But competition will be tough — the next Secretary General will be a woman," he said.