One of the biggest bumps on the road to United Nations reform is the UN Security Council. This five-member relic of the Cold War is the effective epicentre of all decisions by the world body. China, Britain, Russia, France and the United States not only are able to initiate and drive actions by the UN, they also are able to stop them. If the people and governments of 190 countries favour a project by the United Nations, they will not get it if the vote is 190-1, and the one is a Security Council member. Yet leading nations make it impossible to change this ridiculous system for the most base and repellent reasons: unreasoning hatred based on race and nationalism.
For nearly three weeks now, three popular Chinese websites have stridently urged internet surfers to ``sign'' a petition to keep Japan out of the UN Security Council. Censored government media have delightedly joined the baiting. In the southern city of Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, 10,000 people signed a 10m banner with its anti-Japanese slogan. In the capitalist-friendly Shenzhen and in the capital Beijing, people have taken to the streets in a rejection of Japan's UN bid.
The racists in China have received the support of South Korea. That country's ambassador to the UN, Kim Sam-hoon, said Japan could not effectively lead the international community. A Seoul government statement said Tokyo has not atoned for World War Two actions as effectively as Germany. No one doubts North Korea will join the South in that opinion.
The UN reform commission of ``wise men and women'' under Anand Panyarachun recommended recently that the Security Council be enlarged in one of two ways. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is pushing member governments to adopt one of the two Anand plans. The first calls for an enlarged Security Council that better reflects today's world, rather than giving almost all UN power to five victors of a war few can remember. It is ironic, then, that resistance to the reform centres entirely on actions of two generations ago or more.
Pakistan and India oppose each other for the Security Council. Italy opposes any idea of putting Germany on the top UN body. Argentina and Brazil will not give each other even token credit, and Mexico opposes either of the two South American giants claiming to represent Latin America as a whole. And these regions appear almost conciliatory when the debate shifts to Africa. A widespread mishmash of old and bitter rivalries from Libya and Egypt all the way to South Africa seems impossible to break.
Most of these campaigns to keep neighbours out of the UN are so deeply rooted in racism that they probably will not be resolved. Bitterness such as that sparked by the Japanese invasions, conquest and atrocities of World War Two will never die quickly or completely. But the lingering resentment of, say, the Chinese says far more about the lack of leadership in China today than about Japan. It is possible to say Japan still owes a debt from World War Two without rousing the rabble into the streets, but the Chinese leaders prefer the low road to the high.
The Indian and Pakistan cricket teams have recently competed where armies fought. France and Germany still contend in Europe _ but in economic matters and at political negotiation sessions. One of World War Two's most brutalised nations, the Philippines, has called on Japan to take a more active and responsible role in the world. Here at home, it is difficult even to remember the mobs at the gates of the Vietnamese embassy on Wireless Road 20 years ago.
No one doubts the terrible suffering of China, Korea and a dozen other countries under Japanese tyranny. But today's Japanese government has tried to conquer no one, and few Chinese can even recall Japanese control. Japan needs to do more to help its neighbours, including revising textbooks and halting its own form of clinging to the past by celebrating its war heroes. History has lessons, but is no justification for continued conflict. In the name of world advancement, people should use the past to build a better world.
No one doubts the terrible suffering of China, Korea and a dozen other countries under Japanese tyranny. But today's Japanese government has tried to conquer no one, and few Chinese can even recall Japanese control. Japan needs to do more to help its neighbours, including revising textbooks and halting its own form of clinging to the past by celebrating its war heroes. History has lessons, but is no justification for continued conflict. In the name of world advancement, people should use the past to build a better world.
>>46 It is ironic, then, that resistance to the reform centres entirely on actions of two generations ago or more. 同時に,国連改革への抵抗が六十年以上前の出来事にほとんど集中していることは皮肉なことだ.