I feel that Kofi Annan has been able to steer the organisation through a period that has been politically very risky for the organisation - he managed to stay close to principles but while also holding the organisation back from taking too great political risks. While my impression is that this was the right thing to do over this past period I also feel that the dynamnic is now changing and that the UN needs to be more assertive in the next few years. Assertive in the sense of taking strong stands on principle and international human rights law, taking pre-emptive stands where this can save lives; being more willing to strongly and publicly express views divergent from those of the Security Council if necessary. For these types of tasks, the organisation needs someone with a very finely tuned political capacity, but also someone who is deeply respected by States and the public. I would instinctively expect to find this latter characteristic in someone who has done a good deal of grass roots work in difficult conditions, who is very much respected by civili society, but who has also gained the respect of Governments. Its not easy to find these sorts of Mandela-like characteristics in a single person.

On my other points - that Mr. Tharoor has something of a reputation for being self-serving and even arrogant: these are very subjective comments drawn from a limited pool of people ive spoken with. MZ you clearly respect him and i accept that my own impressions here may well be wrong. His Cv suggests that he is exceptinally bright and has huge capacity for work - in terms at least of output. I hear his novels are very good, and that he has been able to publish so much while doing a full-time job is extraordinarily impressive. My impression, nevertheless, in comparing his CV with that of a number of others in the race or on its margins, is of someone who has not been driven by a burning desire to improve the world about him, but has rather followed a track that was smooth and fast rising. I have little doubt that he is competent in terms of doing things and understanding things. But i personally would like the world to have a Secretary-General who we admire and for whom we have deep respect, whose principles have been unquestioningly demonstrated by his/her life actions. Someone whose ideal UN staff will think of when they take physical risks. The UN cannot rely on great power to shape events, but must instead rely on great statesmanship and the esteem in which the Secretary-General and the Organisation are held. I can think of, for example, three Pakistani ladies who have had prominent UN roles - a former head of the UNFPA (who has now ruled herself out of the SG race), and Ms. Hina Jilani and Ms. Asma Jahangir. I give these three just as examples of people from the region, who are women (as many have noted here, it is high time the post was held by a woman), who are eminently capable, very experienced politically and intellectually, who have had semi UN roles (representing the Secretary-General, …) and whose life work has shown their commitment to the issues at the heart of the UN Charter - including commitments to equality, to non-discrimination and tolerance, to inclusion, to the rights to life and … The latter two have both been imprisoned on many occasions for their work and are internationally respected. Ms. Jilani. for example, has, I read, received awards and recognition from the Blegium, German and French Parliaments, and from President Clinton, among many others. She has repeatedly gone from holding high level positions and then back to grass-roots work, showing clearly her commitment to the issues and not to herself. There are many other Asian men and women whose CVs suggest they are far far more deserving than Mr. Tharoor of this post and would, i believe, do much more to inspire the world and steer the UN forward.

Dare u say DPI is irrelevent unit just for media contacts.

Shashi & UNSG posts are made for each other. Public is interested to attend & observe IDPeace vigil every year,only bcos of Shashi, not bcos of the security council.

I shall come with my world peace flag only if Shashi is unsg in the next coming yrs.Otherwise we are not interested to cooperate with UN in any way.
Already public chase us, moment we speak about UN messages!

Thats the reason why Tharoor keep saying to media to uplift & defend its dignity:'’We need to reform the UN, not because it has failed, but it has succeeded enough to invest into it'’

He never lets down UNO.But we have always seen UNO letting him down with its own power game.

UNO IS NOT INDESPENSIBLE TO THIS WORLD ANYMORE, BUT THAROOR IS INDESPENSIBLE TO THIS WORLD.

With such humanitarian,universal man’s spirit world can give birth to another UN

And there are many N.G.Os & publics around the world who agree with me.

I hold no brief for Ban Ki-moon, whose candidacy is of course more a matter of geostrategic manouvering than personal qualities, as these things always are.

Dear Tony, spiritual perception of enlightenment would have been necessary to judge the merits of candidate only if their answers were not enough.Dhanapala might have completed it before Tharoor, but not as efficiently as Tharoor,moreover it was hosted only after Tharoor’s.Ban ki Moon didn’t bother to answer! So there are every chance of judging him to be studying.No one is accusing on any candidates as per your spiritual enlightenment. If readers don’t have to judge & leave their reponses on “on topic” realities, then why this site is existing with this headline?

I do think it is unjust however to accuse the other candidates of studying his responses and then attempting to claim them as their own, both to Dr. Tharoor and to the others.

Let us judge the candidates on their own individual merits, not on some spiritual perception of enlightenment WE might have of them. Such is what constitutes “off-topic” speculation.