Jomo Ka UN
Recently a Malaysian was appointed to the post of UN Assistant Secretary-General (Economic Development) by the UN Sec-Gen, Kofi Annan. This appointment was announced on 8th Nov 2002. Usually one would have expected much joy and much news to be made out of such a UN appointment in the mainstream media, but there was little or none. Usually one would expect the gomen to have played a part in this appointment, but again strangely, none. It was only on 11th Nov that our Foreign MINIster, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, had this to say :: "The government did not play any role in this appointment. Annan has the prerogative to appoint anybody he wants." And he must have sounded quite proudly when he added :: "We have never lobbied, proposed or submitted any letter of recommendation to the UN for the appointment of any individual from Malaysia to the position."
Asked on the appointee's record as being critical of the government, Syed Hamid said: "We did not choose him. Anyway, the appointment is an honour for the country." Now did he say this grudgingly, we wonder. According to the STAR, Prof Jomo Kwame Sundaram described the appointment as a great honour and challenge.
The STAR has this to say about Prof Jomo and his distinguished career ::
With such a distinguished background and being recognised as one of the world's top economic brains, surely the nation must have picked his brain and benefited from having done so. Did we, have we, will we?
Links ::
Asked on the appointee's record as being critical of the government, Syed Hamid said: "We did not choose him. Anyway, the appointment is an honour for the country." Now did he say this grudgingly, we wonder. According to the STAR, Prof Jomo Kwame Sundaram described the appointment as a great honour and challenge.
The STAR has this to say about Prof Jomo and his distinguished career ::
Prof Jomo has had a distinguished career and is recognised as one of the world's top economic brains.
He is the founder and Chair of IDEA or International Development Economics Associates and has served on various academic and professional committees as well as Malaysia's National Economic Consultative Council (1989-91).
Prof Jomo did his Bachelor of Arts at Yale and his Masters and PhD at Harvard.
A prolific writer, he has authored over 35 monographs and written over 50 books.
Among his books are Malaysia’s Political Economy (with E.T. Gomez); Tigers in Trouble; Economic Development: Theory and the Asian Evidence (with Mushtaq Khan) and Sustaining Development in East Asia.
Prof Jomo also has had a wide and varied teaching career, having worked at Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Universiti Sains Malaysia and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He was also a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge.
With such a distinguished background and being recognised as one of the world's top economic brains, surely the nation must have picked his brain and benefited from having done so. Did we, have we, will we?
Links ::
posted by Lone @ 11/15/2004 10:58:00 AM
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