The Bangladesh government launched a massive diplomatic effort for the post of Secretary General of Organization of Islamic Conferences. Unfortunately, there was no national consensus behind the candidate nominated by the government. The Islamic countries ultimately came to know that the candidate nominated by the Bangladesh government was a partisan rather than a national candidate and a major diplomatic debacle of the foreign ministry followed.

It is sheer lack of vision on the part of our foreign ministry that they did not even think of nominating a candidate for the post of Secretary General of the United Nations to be selected/elected by September/October this year. This is surprising given the back drop of the fact that there are excellent prospects of a Bangladeshi nominee being selected as the Secretary General of the UN.

Bangladesh has an excellent record of service to the UN. Because of the intense diplomatic efforts of President Ziaur Rahman, Foreign Minister Shamsul Huq, and Foreign Secretary SAMS Kibria, Bangladesh was elected as non-permanent member of the Security Council of the UN in 1978 by defeating Japan. Bangladesh acted as rotating President of the Security Council for one month and Mr. Kibria presided over the meetings of the Security Council.

As far as my knowledge goes, the Secretary General of the UN at that time was very impressed by the performance of Mr. Kibria and requested President Ziaur Rahman to put the service of Mr. Kibria at the disposal of the UN. President Zia agreed and Kibria was made Assistant General Secretary of the UN and given the job of chief executive of ESCAP in Bangkok.

By all accounts Kibria did an excellent job as an UN executive for twelve years until his retirement. As a young and small nation Bangladesh had the distinction of being elected as the President of the General Assembly of the UN in 1986. Mr. Humayun Rashid Choudhury, as the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, had the rare privilege of presiding over the World Assembly. Bangladesh was again elected member of Security Council in 1999 and presented to the UN community an excellent performance.

Bangladesh was elected as the head of the UN 5th Committee (Administration and Budgetary), Committee on Program and Coordination, UNICEF Executive Board, UN Population and Award Committee. Bangladesh had been active member of the Group of 77.

Bangladesh has been justly proud of contributing large numbers of troops to peacekeeping missions organized by the UN in the countries ravaged by severe ethnic conflicts. The performance of Bangladeshi peacekeepers has received plaudits from all over the world. Given this track record, Bangladesh deserves consideration by the members of the Security Council and the members of the General Assembly as a candidate for the top post of the UN Secretariat.

Do we have suitable candidates for the top executive job of the UN? To my mind we do have an extremely competent candidate for the world organization: I feel that Dr. Kamal Hossain is a suitable candidate for the post.

He is the author of the Constitution of our country. He is an internationally known jurist. In 1989-90 I was a fellow at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Several judges of the International Court of Justice, which is an organization of the UN, gave lectures at SIPRI at that time. To my great pride some of them were full of praise for the legal acumen of Dr. Kamal Hossain.

There are, however, problems about Dr. Kamal Hossain's selection as the Secretary General of the UN. As has been pointed out by Mr. Abdul Hannan, charismatic political leaders like Anthony Eden and Charles De Gaulle were considered for the post of first Secretary General of the UN but were rejected in favor of Trygve Lie, a politician cum diplomat.

But political leaders like Thai Deputy Prime Minister Sura Kirat Sathi Rathai, South Korean Foreign Minister Banki Moon, and Sri Lanka's Jayantha Dharmapala, advisor to the Sri Lankan President are in the race. So there is no harm if Dr. Kamal Hossain is nominated by Bangladesh. It seems to me that if Dr. Kamal Hossain is nominated for the top UN job, there will be no objection by either of our two major parties.

I feel that some might argue that Dr. Kamal Hossain is one of our few sober, foresighted, honest, and visionary political leaders. He could serve the country better as a political leader rather than as the top executive of the UN. I feel that government should talk to the opposition as well as Dr. Kamal Hossain before sponsoring his name.

In case Dr. Kamal Hossain's name could not be sponsored, there are other good Bangladeshi candidates. Mr. Hannan has mentioned the names of Reaz Rahman and Dr. Iftekar Ahmed Chowdhury. According to Mr. Hannan our best candidate would be Anwarul Karim Chaudhury. After SAMS Kibria, the late lamented former Finance Minister, Mr. Chaudhury is the senior-most UN official from Bangladesh. Mr. Hannan has detailed the vast diplomatic experience and solid accomplishments of Anwarul Karim Choudhury. I need not repeat them here.

We could also look for other talents. For example Mustafa Kamal, a debonair, brilliant LSE educated and Lincoln's Inn trained lawyer, who retired as the chief justice of Bangladesh and is now acting as the chairman of the Law Commission is, to my mind, another talent for the job of the top executive of the UN.

He has vast experience of the UN system. He was a member of the Pakistan delegation to the 25th session of the UN General Assembly. In 1976 he again worked in the UN as a member of the Bangladesh delegation to the UN General Assembly session. In 1977 he was a member of the Bangladesh Delegation to the conference on Sea Law held under the auspices of the UN in New York. In 1978 he attended the same conference. He again served as a member of the Bangladesh delegation to the UN General Assembly with Justice BA Siddique as the leader of the delegation.

The players of international politicsthe sovereign stateshave developed a consensus that the post of Secretary General of the UN should rotate among the six continents of the globe. The first secretary at the time of founding of the UN was from Europe. The UN already had three Secretary Generals from Europe, one from Latin America, two from Africa, and one from Asia.

There is a strong possibility that this year the Secretary Generalship might go to Asia. American Ambassador to UN Mr. Bolton has been saying that the post of Secretary General should go to Europe. There will be a lot of diplomatic maneuvers for the post of the UN Secretary General this year.

Bangladesh should join the competition and devote all its diplomatic talent and skill to win the most prestigious international job. Unpredictable things happen as a result of power politics in the international arena. Bangladesh might get the most coveted assignment. The next generation of Bangladeshis will not forgive this generation of Bangladesh leaders if they do not try for the post.

The writer is a National Professor of Bangladesh and alone responsible for the views expressed in the article.