United Nations Radio

Narrator: UN General Assembly president Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann says the General Assembly is a UN organ that has suffered from a drive to concentrate all power in the hands of a few. Instead, he says, this has to be changed so the majority decides:~

BROCKMANN: The UN is supposed to be a democratic institution based on the principle of equality and sovereignty of all member States. But that doesn't suffice. And also the principle of one state, one vote. That is good but not enough. Votes don't mean anything if they are not taken into account. So we've got to move so the majority really decides. The only real representation of those 'we the people' in whose name the UN was created is the GA; and also the most democratic and representative body. Powers that have gone in one direction or another should be rescued and brought back to where they logically belong, which is the GA. The GA is not the only organ that has suffered from this drive to concentrate all the power in the hands of few.

BAILEY: But in practical terms, countries that have the power are not very likely to give up that power. What you're calling for would be perhaps making the resolutions of the GA legally binding like those of the--

BROCKMANN: Look, it doesn't happen--has never happened during history--and will certainly not happen here that the excessive power that might have accumulated in the hands of a few will be willingly relinquished. That won't happen. You know, tomorrow we are commemorating the international Day of Non-Violence. We will be honouring the memory of Martin Luther King and Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi believed that life had to be a struggle; that we have to fight for what we believe in a non-violent way. But we have to fight. And here also we've got to among the sister nations that make up, there has to be a struggle otherwise we are all responsible for not achieving the changes that have to be achieved.

BAILEY:Now many would say the selfishness that you're speaking of is exemplified in the financial crisis that the US and, by extension, the rest of the world is undergoing at the moment. How will you convince people whose heroes are more often than not maybe the Bill Gates and Warren Buffetts of the world than the Gandhis or MLK Jrs?.....

BROCKMANN: It is very difficult. I have already quoted, I think, what Jesus said when he was asked how do you change the mentality of the very wealthy? And then he said: it's very difficult. In fact, he says it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man or a rich nation to change its way of thinking. They get hooked on power, and strength--economic or military--and they should be hooked on brotherhood and love. But that's a reality. But nothing is impossible for God. And if we all strive together, and with love for those who we are trying to help to change, then we will be instruments of peace. But we cannot do this-- and this is a fundamental lesson from Mahatma Gandhi: unless you have love for your adversaries, and are even willing to lay your life down for them, you will not be an instrument to bring about this change or transformation that you are asking about.

Narrator:General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann[was interviewed by UN Radio's Diane Bailey].

Producer: Gerry Adams

(duration: 4'10")