UNITED NATIONS: Ban Ki-moon becomes the United Nations' eighth secretary-general on Monday as a virtual blank slate, with little international diplomatic experience outside Asia and little known about his policies.
Since nailing down the top UN job in October, the former South Korean foreign minister has shown mainly he is a good listener, say UN diplomats who have tried to sound him out on his plans.
He has given away precious little about his intentions after he moves into the 38th-floor offices to be vacated by Kofi Annan on Sunday after his 10 years as UN leader.
Most of what Ban has discussed publicly has dealt with UN management matters, not diplomacy. He has pledged generally to press ahead with efforts to reform the bureaucracy to make it more effective and responsive to the 192 U.N. member nations.
He also put distance between himself and Annan's administration as he took the oath of office in mid-December, vowing to restore trust in the UN secretariat and set “the highest ethical standard.”
The words were widely seen as an apparent slap at the outgoing secretary-general, whose tenure was stained by findings of corruption and mismanagement in the $64 billion oil-for-food programme for Iraq and in UN procurement.
Ban, 62, has been so secretive about his immediate plans he has not even disclosed his choices for the most senior UN policy posts, including his chief of staff and spokesman.
That will make it hard for him to hit the ground running as crises in Somalia, Sudan's Darfur region and the Middle East compete for his early attention.
During the transition period, Ban has surrounded himself with close aides from his Korean Foreign Ministry days, some of whom have told current staffers another top priority will be to exercise more vigilance over leaks to the press.
With strong support from the United States and China, he was chosen for the job over six rivals by the 15-nation Security Council, a decision confirmed by the 192-nation General Assembly. Ban will be the first Asian U.N. head in 35 years.
MAN OF ACTION: While he strikes colleagues as a shy and retiring bureaucrat, he vows to be a “man of action” in his new job.
He won the nickname “Slippery Eel” from the journalists covering him in Seoul, for his skill in making a graceful exit when they tried to put him on the spot over a thorny issue.
“Rest assured, however, that my actions will be anything but slippery: I am a man of action,” he told a recent dinner of UN correspondents.
Ban has also repeatedly pledged to be “a harmoniser and a bridge-builder” as UN leader.
Diplomats said while he was not a great communicator, he had great determination and was very hardworking.
Modesty and humility were considered virtues by Asians but should not be misunderstood because “I take decisive decisions whenever it is necessary,” he said in an interview in October.
Ban served 37 years in South Korea's diplomatic service after graduating at the top of his class in international relations from Seoul National University. He also earned a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.—Reuters
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