Ramos Horta for the UN top position

As many newspapers have been reporting, the run for the UN top position is now under way. I want to cast my vote on Peace Nobel Laureate José Ramos Horta, "foreign minister of East Timor — the newest nation in the world and, until recently, itself a wartorn half-island in the South Pacific administered by the United Nations. Ramos-Horta is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and is well-known internationally, but his country is tiny, with only 800,000 people." (from The Toronto Star)

It would be good to know that the best person for the job is chosen. Ramos Horta is definitely a good candidate but I wonder how many Asian nations could converge behind tiny East Timor? Also, as you can see from the quotes below, Ramos Horta is more likey to send the UN on flames than to sit down and appease UN spirits.

Here are some quotes that may strongly contribute for his dismissal:

"In almost 30 years of political life, I have supported the use of force on several occasions and sometimes wonder whether I am a worthy recipient of the Nobel Peace prize. Certainly I am not in the same category as Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu or Nelson Mandela."

"Some may accuse me of being more of a warmonger than a Nobel laureate, but I stand ready to face my critics. It is always easier to say no to war, even at the price of appeasement. But being politically correct means leaving the innocent to suffer the world over, from Phnom Penh to Baghdad".

Read the whole article "Sometimes, a War saves People" here , at the Wall Street Journal.

"Look at what the Belgians have done in Congo, or France. How many governments has France overthrown in Africa? The only thing you can say about the French is that they are a bit more efficient than the Americans, because when they try to overthrow a president they bring along in the plane with the paratroopers the new president. So they don't wait a few months of consultations and a people’s assembly, they bring a ready-made president in the plane, as it happened with the Central African Empire about 15 years ago. The Russians were equally efficient, when they went into Afghanistan in the late 1970's they brought along the new president. They picked him up in Prague. He was the Afghan ambassador in Prague, and they made him the new president. So these are only minor nuances, but they all were involved in overthrowing governments. The French are notorious for saving Mobutu. How many times did they not intervene in Zaire to save Mobutu?"

All interview here.

"China today is no longer a socialist, Marxist country. It is more a fascist, Leninist capitalist system. So where is the legitimacy of the leadership?"

"Supported by everybody--United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan--everybody support Indonesia, not only with money, but with weapons as well. Weapons were used in East Timor. We're only 700,000 people, and no one supported us. All alone fighting on the ground in East Timor, and we are winning. It is Indonesia's collapsing, all over--all around it, all around the dictator--it's collapsing. We are going to win this battle. And that must be some sort of miracle. And that's why I'm also convinced that Tibet one day will find its place in the community of nations. Its history, the power of its convictions, its long--thousands of years--civilization, will survive all these temporary doctrines like Marxism and the challenges from the Indonesian--from the Chinese communist party and so on."

All interview here.

"The ASEAN countries are a club of dictators, oligarchies that are alien to their own people, that live in luxurious palaces, away from the peasants who in the streets of Java, and many other places in Indonesia, are battling the security forces, who want freedom, who want labour rights, who want better pay. In Thailand, in Malaysia it is the same. Mahathir talks all the time criticising the West. But he is the biggest hypocrite of this region. He criticises the West for not doing much on Bosnia in the past. But he himself has done absolutely nothing on the Achinese in Sumatra. Thousands of Achinese, are being raped, killed in Sumatra, just a few minutes flight from Malaysia".

All interview here.

You have to admire the man!