Beheading The
UN
By Satya Sagar
08 October, 2004
Zmag
In every standard Bollywood movie there
comes a scene that never fails to work up the audience into a frenzy
of excitement and applause. The hero, after being whipped black and
blue by the villain and his henchmen, finally wipes the blood off his
chin and starts kicking ass like he invented the concept.
Kofi Annan, bless
his timid soul, is no Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan. And yet there
he was on the BBC showing spunk and daring worthy of a Hindi movie hero
by calling the US War on Iraq illegal. And as if that belated
show of bravery was not enough, also pulling up the Superpower at the
UN General Assembly for its disgraceful abuse of Iraqi prisoners
at Abu Gharib. (whistle, whistle !)
Of course, the villain
George Bush Jr. and his villainous men were hopping mad at this most
UNservile behaviour. Cut his funds, nip his pension,
shoot him I could hear the leaders of the White and Western
world bark over their hot lines- Washington to London to Canberra.
For all the slavish
behavior displayed all this while by the body he presides over Kofi
Annan had shown them that, once in a while, he could also be No
More Mr Nice Guy if he wants to.
Is this then a sign
that the much-maligned United Nations is finally standing up and yearning
to be heard amidst the din and disaster of Americas colonial war
on Iraq and Afghanistan ? Do we dare hope that an organization born
over the graves of millions dead from the Second World War and meant
to uphold global norms is at last beginning to do its job? Can this
be the turning point when the UN stands up to US Imperialism and tells
it where to get off?
From the evidence
we have on hand the answers dont give much ground for optimism.
For all we know, maybe Kofi is a Bollywood actor after all and having
said some fighting lines will pack up and move on to the next show.
After all he has let the world down before- from Rwanda to Kosovo to
Baghdad- by behaving more like a slave of dominant western powers than
the international civil servant he is supposed to be.
And besides whats
the point in Kofis fulminations when the organization he heads
has over the years gone from being hallowed to hollowed, only shape
and no substance, not even sound leave alone fury. All of which has
made it all that easier for US Imperialism to abduct and decapitate
the UN in what was the very first act of their colonial invasion
of Iraq. So what we have of the UN now is just the head floating around,
occasionally wagging its tongue, while the rest of the corpse is nowhere
to be found.
How did this institution,
with its historic mandate to end all wars and promote peace and development
around the world, come to such a sorry pass?
There are many reasons
for the demise of the United Nations as a credible institution. The
primary blame of course lies with the Allies who emerged victorious
in the Second World War and fashioned the UN to suit their own long-term
interests. The concept of a veto, reserved for the exclusive use of
a few select countries, was sadly a continuation of the colonial logic
of might is right that had led to both the World Wars of
the last century. Imposed on the global community for the past six decades
the veto has destroyed the credibility of the UN as a genuinely democratic
platform where every country, big or small, has an equal voice.
With the demise
of the Soviet Union, whatever little space smaller and weaker nations
had to maneuver between the two Superpowers, was also lost thus damaging
the UN system further. Threatened, bribed or brushed aside the lesser
nations of the world have all, one by one, surrendered their rights
to Uncle Sam- the sole surviving Bully on the Global Block.
Papa Bushs
Gulf War One was the first ruthless demonstration of the ambition of
US elites to establish a unipolar world- where they and only THEY would
decide the fate of everything on Earth. It is the hubris created by
the father that has led Little Bush to attempt the brazen colonial conquest
of Iraq and probably in the near future of other countries in the oil-rich
middle-east.
There were other
factors too hastening the decline of the UN. Chief among them has been
the rise of the World Bank, the IMF and WTO as global institutional
power centers deciding the economic life and death of numerous developing
nations. Aggressively promoted by successive US regimes this evil troika
has undermined the UN system completely - for a political body without
control over the money purse is like music without instruments, a tiger
with no claws- why it is like Uncle Kofi himself!
Here mention must
also be made of the emergence of large multinational corporations that
today wield more power globally than even entire blocs of developing
nations. With several times the turnover of entire countries these corporations
have become a law unto themselves on the world stage and are completely
outside the control of both nation-states and the UN that is supposed
to represent their collective will.
But if it were just
about the villainy of US Imperialism the story of the rise and fall
of the UN would be far too staid and simplistic. Tragically, complicit
in the hostage-taking and beheading of the world body are also the governments
of nations whose citizens would stand to benefit most from the establishment
of a genuinely transparent and democratic UN system.
The sad fact is that most of the UNs member governments, usually
run by small political elites and rarely representing the true interests
of their people, have never had the conviction or courage to collectively
oppose the emasculation of the only institution that gives them a voice
in global affairs. While each individual Prime Minister or President
from Asia, Africa or Latin America behaves like a prize bull back home
when it comes to raising their voices at the General Assembly
they turn into domesticated cattle before the cowboys of the Western
world.
Worse still there
are those nations that, instead of helping change the UN to the entire
globes benefit, want to break ranks and beg or bribe their way
into the ranks of the Security Councils permanent members.
I am referring of
course to the very vulture-like attempts by a host of countries- Japan,
Germany, India, Brazil, angling for a perch from where to peck at the
decaying corpse of the UNs credibility. They all got together
at the recent UN General Assembly to jointly promote their ambitions
of getting a permanent seat on the Security Council.
A permanent seat
for what? To get a ringside view of a Colin Cheeseburger
Powell lying through his teeth about WMDs in Iraq? So that a freshly
constituted Perm Nine can pretend to be more important on
the world stage than Exxon-Mobil, Texaco-Chevron or even Haliburton
and Bechtel ? Or is this all a routine to jack up the bribes these very
important countries get for turning a blind eye to the predations
of US and British Imperialism around the globe?
Besides, what really
is the criteria to become a permanent member of the UN Security
Council? Population size? Per capita income? Expenditure on importing
armaments? The number of gold medals they won at the Olympic games?
Number of holy cows owned - or what?
The truth simply
is that in our day and age there should be absolutely no room for privileging
a few rich and powerful countries with greater powers in the UN than
their poorer and weaker counterparts. But look inside each member nation
of the UN and that is what you find - the strong dictating to the weak,
the rich to the poor - so how can one change an organization that is
but a sum of all its faulty parts?
Before I get all
too cynical or sound like I am let me say that with all its problems
the UN system is certainly the only existing structure we have right
now to arrive at peaceful solutions to global problems - not just of
war and conflict but also poverty, disease and underdevelopment. The
world cannot afford to give up on the UN just because US Imperialism
holds it captive or whimsically uses and abuses it according to its
needs. Doing so would be giving in to the worst form of international
terrorism - for whatever it is worth the UN needs a serious rescue operation.
Here are a few things
that I think need to be done to restore the credibility of the UN system
and enhance its ability to perform the historical tasks it was created
for:
a) There needs to
be an immediate follow-up on Kofi Annans statement that the US
and British invasion of Iraq was illegal as per international law. The
implications are grave and the US and its allies must be held accountable
for every single death occurring from the illegal invasion. Given the
number of deaths that have already occurred in Iraq there is no doubt
that what we are witnessing there is nothing short of a crime against
humanity. Even if it is only a few members of the UN that are willing
to join together and challenge US Imperialism their efforts would be
crucial to save the globe from slipping into total chaos where only
might is right and no laws of any kind apply.
b) While abolishing
the concept of the veto would be the best thing to do another way of
making the UN system more democratic is to give permanent security council
membership to regional blocs like EU, ASEAN, OAU, SAARC and the African
Union. Let the members of each regional bloc sort out among themselves
how to best to represent their collective interests. The UK, US, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand, despite their geographical separation, can
be clubbed into one regional bloc, since they anyway represent one nation
masquerading as five.
c) The World Bank,
IMF and WTO need to be brought under the control of the UN General Assembly
with the national representation on their boards in proportion to the
population of individual member countries. .
d) The membership
of the UN should be expanded to include global civil society organizations
that will serve as a counterbalance to the domination of the system
by governments as well as the multinational corporations they usually
serve.
e) The UN headquarters
needs to be urgently moved out of the US, which has been rightly dubbed
the worst host any international institution can ever have. I would
not go to the extent of saying relocate it in Pyongyang- one place where
the US would have no influence at all- but there are plenty of alternatives
available. Alternatives that can prove that the US is not indispensable
to the existence or functioning of the UN system and which in fact will
allow it to prosper and thrive in a way it never really has from its
velvet prison in New York.
Satya Sagar is a
writer, journalist, videomaker based in Thailand. He can be contacted
at [email protected]