There is news today that the former Thai foreign minister and long-time Nakorn Sri Thammarat Democrat party heavy, Surin Pitsuwan, has influential backing for a bid to take the position of United Nations Secretary General.
The other Thai candidate for the position, Surakiart Sathirathai - who has, it must be noted, been lobbying for years - is still in the race. As an aside for those with any interest in the lives of Thailand’s rich and famous, Surakiart’s CV, and that of his wife, make fascinating reading.
In response to the rumours, Surin has been reported as saying, “I’m taking it with a big grain of salt”.
It seems likely that if a Democrat party government had ruled in Thailand for the past few years then Surin would be a frontrunner for the UN’s top job. Has the coup restored his chances of making a run? I have heard people in Thailand and abroad speculate on his chances many times over the years. Has the coup now given Surin - moderate Muslim, champion of democracy - the chance of a lifetime?
Only time will tell.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Bangkok Pundit // Sep 28, 2006 at 10:09 pm
Nick
It was only a few days ago that The Nation was telling us it was Dr Supachai who was acceptable to the P5. Surin makes more sense than Dr Supachai, but I don’t see the UNSG coming from Thailand with the coup. Then, again we will have to wait for the 3rd straw poll.
2 XKMasada // Sep 29, 2006 at 9:42 pm
Extremely unlikely in my opinion.
Supachai was a Democrat, and the Democrats have the most to gain from the coup. To support him now would essentially be encouraging the junta. Given the US has just suspended over $20 million in foreign aid to the Thai government, this is unlikely.
In addition, the nomination of a Muslim to the post would prove highly unpopular with some segments of the American public. Reading a random assortment of American blogs following the coup, one theme that stood out among the more ignorant of the bloggers was “Muslim general leads coup overthrowing Buddhist government!” This is total nonsense of course – General Sonthi’s religion is totally irrelevant, but US politicians will have to contend with even more of that if they nominate Surin.
3 XKMasada // Sep 29, 2006 at 9:50 pm
Speaking of Surakiart, the criticism that he has received has been quite stunning, since most of it seems to be from the Jayanama family. The Jayanama family is Thailand’s most respected family of diplomats, Direk Jayanama having begun the tradition during WWII.
Asda Jayanama, former ambassador to the UN seems to hate him particularly badly. Addressing the PAD crowd, it was hard to imagine that this person had ever been a diplomat. “Because we have a weak foreign minister who responded to Thaksin as if he was his servant, we have been unable to solve any problems.” Asda also claimed that Surakiart Sathirathai parked his car outside the official residence of UN secretary-general at night so he could have a look. “It’s very embarrassing,” Asda told the crowd. He called Surakiart’s candidacy as a lost cause and an embarrassment for Thailand’s international standing, claiming that it was “silly”. He has also publicly called Surakiart “a third rate politician”, “clumsy”, “bungling”, and “lacking a brand name”.
Why such hatred? I have my own theory (which I will not discuss here – it involves personal issues of Surakiart), but for Surakiart to have such a loud and influential thorn on his side has been quite a handicap.
4 kev // Sep 30, 2006 at 4:58 pm
I don’t think we will need to worry too much about any Thai candidate as the South Koreans seem to have it in the bag.
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