New U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon vows to restore trust
South Korea’s Ban Ki-moon was sworn in as the eighth U.N. secretary-general on Thursday and vowed to restore trust in an institution tainted by scandal and a growing divide between rich and poor nations.The former South Korean foreign minister, 62, takes over on January 1, succeeding Ghanaian Kofi Annan, 68, who steps down at the end of the month after 10 years as U.N. leader.
“You could say that I am a man on a mission. And my mission could be dubbed ‘Operation Restore Trust’: Trust in the organisation and trust between member-states and the secretariat,” Ban said.
“I hope this mission is not ‘Mission Impossible,’” he told reporters after taking the oath of office before the 192-nation U.N. General Assembly.
Good luck to him, but I think it will be a very tough job, if not ‘Mission Impossible’ then at least ‘Mission Extremely Difficult.’ Part of the problem, beyond obvious corruption issues, is that the U.N. has tried to claim more ‘trust’ than it deserves. It is not, as Kofi Annan tried to make it, an institution than can confer a ‘unique moral authority’ rather it is an arena where power politics, often at their most obvious, are played out. Demanding more ‘trust’ than you deserve is a pretty good way of being actually trusted less than you deserve.
That said, the U.N. does quite a bit of good, and if some of the severe corruption problems can be solved (they didn’t begin or end with oil-for-food) they could do even more. Ban Ki-moon has a chance at making that happen I think.
His statements are remarkable for being somewhat of a snub towards the outgoing doofus, reminiscent of “to our Armed Forces personnel: help is on the way!” or any of a number of similar statements from the early Bush administration.
The U.N. has not had any credibility since U Thant pulled the UNEF out of Sinai in 1967.