UN Secretary General candidates – Croatia, the War, and the Future

What a miserable wretch! She actually thinks her persona is the same as the country of Croatia! That she is Croatia! The world’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has yet to classify this delusion, as far as I am aware!

Reacting to criticisms from Croatia regarding her unsuitability as candidate for UN Secretary General, from people who know the alarmingly and painfully detrimental work to democratic processes and freedoms she had performed as public/political figure in Croatia over the past decade or so, Vesna Pusic has actually proven herself during the past week that she does not deserve to be selected into the UN high office. Indeed, her candidature should be withdrawn or thrown out for reasons of blatant denial of rights to opinions and freedom of thought in a democracy, at least.

On Thursday 28 April 2016 a group of 22 Parliamentary Representatives from the conservative coalition, headed by Mr Pero Coric (HSP AS/ Croatian Party of Rights dr Antun Starcevic), had signed and sent a letter addressed to the member states of the UN Security Council and the Croatian government protesting and questing the legality and legitimacy of Vesna Pusic’s candidature for the UN Secretary General position.

Left to right: Ivan Tepes and Pero Coric
At reading the letter protesting
legality and legitimacy of
Vesna Pusic’s candidature
for UN Secretary General
Photo: Screenshot 24sata 2 May 2016

On the same Thursday 28 April 2016 Vesna Pusic wrote on her Facebook page the following miserable and floridly delusional words (translated into English from Croatian):

“For the first time in history Croatia has a chance for candidature for the position of UN Secretary General. According to the existing rules Croatia will have that chance again in 50 years time. The person in that position must represent the universal human values: peace and security, human rights and the right of all to development and advancement. To agitate against the representative of Croatia means to agitate against Croatia. People who do that do damage to the reputation of my homeland Croatia. However, given that they are the people who promote and utilize hate speech, fear, threats, discrimination and exclusion, they do not damage me personally. Because I promote everything that is opposite of this and that, among other things, recommends me for the job of UN Secretary General.”

You may have gathered by now that Vesna Pusic is nothing more than a political lunatic who threatens the world’s democracy and peace if she were by some calamitous error selected as UN Secretary General. Every decent and fair human being in the world would consider the job of UN Secretary General without subjective bias towards his/her own country. UN Secretary General is a job for the world not one country and everyone has a right to give opinion about any of the candidates. I am more than certain that those in Croatia who have and do criticise her and say she is not suited for the job do so with significant consideration of better qualities of other candidates and requirements for the position. As Croats, or as citizen of any country, people have that right because in this circumstance, being citizens under the UN umbrella, they have a right to such opinions without being branded and vilified as “ruining” their country’s reputation because they criticised one citizen of the country – her, in this case!

It was like that in communist Yugoslavia: you criticized one Communist Party official, you were liquidated or placed in prison on political charges or your life was made so difficult that it was not worth living so you fled abroad if you at all could. Looks like it she still lives for communist times and ways.

I think that people in Croatia who criticize her candidature, who agitate against Vesna Pusic becoming UN Secretary General should be commended for they, unlike Vesna Pusic, have the whole world’s interests at heart.

To speak your mind about a politician or his/her deeds is branded as “hate speech, promoting fear, discrimination…” by the very person who has lodged her candidature for a position that must, according to her own words, represent human rights … Now, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN) – the Declaration the UN Secretary General must uphold, in its Article 19 states the following:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

Well now, Croatia’s candidate Vesna Pusic has in her statement taken at least one human right away from Croatians expressing an opinion about her candidature – the right freedom of opinion and expression.

Absolutely unacceptable. Absolutely repugnant!

dr Zdravko Tomac
Photo:Davor Javorovic/Pixsell

In light of the overwhelming opposition from distinguished Croatian citizens to Vesna Pusic’s candidature as UN Secretary General I do also like the move made on Friday 29 April 2016 by dr Zdravko Tomac (a retired university professor, a former politician and deputy-Prime Minister of Croatia, writer of many books) with his Open Letter to Croatia’s Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic suggesting an appropriate discussion/debate in front of Croatia’s Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Council on the pros and cons of Vesna Pusic’s candidature; that opinion be sought from the President of Croatia and heads of coalition parties before a decision is finalised on the pros and cons of the candidature.

Dr Tomac writes a compelling case in his open letter and among other things he says (to the Prime Minister):
“If every Ambassador must receive agreement from the President of Croatia and from the Croatian Parliament in order to be appointed as an Ambassador then it’s impermissible that Croatia does not seek agreement from the President of Croatia and all important elements of the Croatian society before a nomination is given for Croatia’s candidate for the biggest and the most important position Croatia has ever had the opportunity to offer a candidate for. For the matter to be even more serious, Zoran Milanovic and his government sent that candidature while they were only a technical, a caretaker government and had no rights making and sending such a nomination for candidature.”

Indeed, in a previous article I myself questioned the legitimacy of Vesna Pusic’s candidature for UN Secretary General on account of it being made by a government in exit, so am very glad to see other people have assessed the situation the same way as I have. How can one think otherwise than what facts dictate: Pusic was nominated by caretaker government that had no power to nominate her in the name of Croatia at the time, therefore, her candidacy must lack legitimacy and legality. There is no information as to whether Prime Minister of Croatia will respond to the open letter from dr Tomac or from the parliamentary group but I do hope he does. The letters are an expression of fact-based opinion of many notable Croatians who hold democracy and fairness as high values of a society. Vesna Pusic’s latest appalling denial of human rights to people criticising her (for the benefit of the world where the UN Secretary General position sits) surely must be among the reasons to re-examine the suitability of her candidature for UN Secretary General on behalf of Croatia! To do otherwise would be immoral and unjust – on a world scale. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

UN Assembly 13 April 2016
Hearing what Secretary General candidates
have to say
UN Photo/ Rick Bojornas

The UN Secretary General candidature basket seems to be overflowing with candidates from most states of former Yugoslavia (that communist contraption that broke apart in 1990’s) – five (out of six), in fact: Danilo Turk, former President of Slovenia and former UN Assistant Secretary General; Igor Luksic, Montenegro’s Foreign Minister; Vesna Pusic, former Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia, Vuk Jeremic, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, former President of UN General Assembly, Srgjan Kerim, former Foreign Affairs Minister of Macedonia and former president of UN General Assembly. The only one missing from this former Yugoslavia club of UN Sec-Gen hopefuls is a candidate from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The United Nations member states sat for three days last week at the East River headquarters and didn’t hesitate in giving the nine official candidates vying for the position of U.N. chief their toughest job interview to date. In the three-day publicly broadcasted informal dialogues, the nine secretary-general candidates answered approximately 800 questions collectively, according to the 1 for 7 Billion Campaign — ranging from their would-be policy concerning the alleged sexual abuse cases within the U.N.’s peacekeeping operations to concrete reform plans for the secretariat they’re hoping to lead.

This was a radical departure from how things were done previously. For the past 70 years, the five veto-wielding members of the Security Council (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and United States) pretty much picked the Secretary General behind closed doors. Given the strong push for a woman to finally lead the UNO and especially from Eastern Europe – wagging tongues whisper – all male candidates noticeably padded their “women’s platforms” with tired old promises of more women representation in key UN positions, some including appointing a woman as their deputy secretary-general and, wouldn’t you know it: Serbia’s Vuk Jeremic even said he would be only too happy to name his selection (woman) ahead of elections! Oh dear, pity nobody asked him to show there and then how many women deputies he had in his past high positions in Serbia and the UN itself (General Assembly)! Jeremic said that a “revitalized United Nations” should be the “centrepiece of global governance” under the leadership of the Secretary General – using big words without really saying what he means; political drivel of a high order.

Vuk Jeremic

In an attempt to mitigate their disadvantage on the score that a woman should be the next Secretary General, Igor Luksic of Montenegro promised to appoint a female deputy. Danilo Turk of Slovenia made the argument that geographic fairness was as important as gender equality.

Vesna Pusic

As the incoming Croatian government would have never nominated her, Vesna Pusic was quick to secure a “last minute in office” nomination by the outgoing former government, which was loaded with communist undertones and appalling organisational skills or results. Yet she had the gall to say at East River last week that the first priority for the new UN Secretary-General should be “to make the organization work.” So let’s suppose that the UNO does not work (which I think is a wrong supposition) – judging by her previous performance in high positions of governance, she would not know how to make an organisation work if a solution bit her on the buttocks. She was Deputy-Prime Minister of Croatia that saw hugely gaping divisions and despair in society Croatia had not seen for decades! She could not make modern and democratic Croatia work, how could she even think that she could make the UNO work!

Vesna Pusic said that her native country Croatia, had managed the transition from war to a stable peace, following the Balkan wars of the 1990s, thanks in part to the UN. Yes, but she failed to say that she personally and her political parties walked out of the Croatian Parliament and refused to fight for democracy as opposed to communism in Croatia. No wonder Croatia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Karamarko said last Sunday 17 April that “Vesna Pusic is not their choice for the UN Secretary General candidate and that he personally would never vote for her but that she will have access to technical support of the government,” such as access to diplomatic missions’ buildings etc., while Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic said that his government “will not obstruct her candidacy” and in such a way this may be construed as support.
Saudi Arabia representative was quick to address Vesna Pusic after she shared her views on LGBT rights, highlighting her supposed “attitude” toward the U.N. as an institution and to its members, and cautioned her against “any attempt for the imposition of social values that are not internationally accepted, and that are not commonly recognized on the entire system.” Pusic, after taking a deep breath, argued she has never in her 63 years of existence seen an organization or individual not flawed, adding later that her knowing and acknowledging these flaws makes her even more qualified for the job.

Oh dear, what a misguided fool!

Igor Luksic

Igor Luksic from Montenegro stressed the importance of promoting women in top U.N. posts and said if the secretary-general is from a country in the developed north, the deputy secretary-general should be from the developing south. And he proposed that the deputy secretary-general be based in Nairobi to focus on implementing the new U.N. goals for 2030 to tackle poverty and preserve the environment as well as key regional issues.

Danilo Türk
Photo: Daniel Novakovic/STA

Danilo Turk’s, from Slovenia, priorities for the UN Secretary General are security issues in crisis areas in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere. Attention should also be devoted to sustainable development and support services, which are responsible for the implementation of the set goals. He also suggested faster appointment of new personnel in the UN, especially when it comes to field work, and simplify the procedure for adopting the budget. A practical vision including that there should be a global framework for dealing with refugee crisis.

Srgjan Kerim
Photo: AP Photo/ Bebeto Matthews

Srgjan Kerim, a former Macedonian foreign minister and ex-General Assembly president, stressed the importance of following the unwritten rule of rotation, saying Thursday 14 April it maintains “mutual trust” and promotes needed unity at a time the world is facing many crises.

Other candidates so far are:

Irina Bokova,
Former Acting Minister of
Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria;
current Director-General of UNESCO

Natalia Gherman,
former Minister of Foreign
Affairs and European Integration of Moldova,
former
Acting Prime Minister of Moldova

Helen Clark,
former Prime Minister of New Zealand,
current Administrator of
the UN Development Program

António Guterres,
former Prime Minister of Portugal,
former UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Despite the wide range of topics discussed during the dialogues last week, certain subjects were barely mentioned, or perhaps avoided. Syria and what a candidate proposes to do about it if he/she became the Secretary General was, for example, not floated as a question at all. Odd! Really odd given the millions of refugees out of Syria flooding Turkey, Lebanon and Europe…given the well of Islamic terrorist furor spreading into the world from there. July 2016 is the time we may expect to know which candidate has been selected and while there may be more candidates to come I sincerely trust (and I count, if for nothing else, then because my taxes contribute to the UN membership fees my country pays into the UN coffers) the selected will not be Vesna Pusic or Vuk Jeremic. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A.,M.A.Ps. (Syd)