Editorial | CARICOM should signal Mia Mottley for UN

Sixteen months ago, when The Gleaner last promoted her candidacy we noted that Mia Mottley had not herself declared, or even publicly hinted at, any interest in becoming the secretary general of the United Nations (UN).

But neither has Ms Mottley attempted to quash any speculation, or discussion, of her appropriateness for the job, for which there will be an opening when António Guterres’ second term expires at the end of 2026. Which dovetails nicely with the constitutional end of Ms Mottley’s second term as Barbados’ prime minister. She has not indicated if she intends to lead her Barbados Labour Party (BLP) into another general election.

Even if she does, out of the practical interests of her party and her appreciation of the vicissitudes of global politics, who hope it will be with the understanding of her willingness to embrace the UN secretary general’s position. For if anything, Ms Mottley’s credentials are stronger now than when The Gleaner’s previously made the case for her candidacy in 2023 and first first floated the idea more than a year earlier, when Mr Gutteres, a former Portuguese prime minister, still had four years on the clock.

FORTHRIGHTLY ASSERT

In that regard, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), of which Jamaica is a member, should forthrightly assert its view that the next secretary general of the United Nations should come from this region and, preferably, should be a woman – both of which would be a first for the organisation. In its 80-year existence, the UN has neither been led by a woman nor had a Caribbean national as its secretary general.

Not since Michael Manley, the former Jamaican prime minister, in the 1970s – other than Cuba’s outlier, Fidel Castro – has the Caribbean produced a leader of such global appeal, with respect across ideological boundaries.

Time and circumstances, of course, matter. Ms Mottley, unlike Mr Manley, operates in a post-Cold War and, until recently, largely unipolar world.

For his advocacy of a non-alignment, his campaign for a new international economic order (NIEO), to address the imbalance in global economic/financial arrangements, his trenchant opposition to South Africa’s apartheid, and relations with Cuba, Mr Manley was branded as a dangerous crypto-communist. The divisive dissonance of the time ensured that leaders who advocated those positions made limited, or no, headway.

In many respects, stripped of the ideological overburden of the 1970s, many of the issues for which people like Michael Manley campaigned are very much on today’s global agenda, even if the language they are framed, and some of the specific matters to be addressed, have evolved.

Climate change is now a matter of existential threat to vast swathes of the globe and their citizens, especially those who live in poor and middle-income countries. How these countries finance their adaptation to a hotter Earth, to whose heating they contributed little, is a contentious issue.

And they are faced with this crisis even as they contend with paying for their normal development and a global financial system, over which they hold little sway and which isn’t particularly responsive to their plight.

CONSISTENT, ARTICULATE VOICE

Mia Mottley, charismatic, of sharp intellect, clear perspectives and great courage, has emerged as the most consistent and articulate voice of the existential concerns of the Global South, including the small island development states, such as those in the Caribbean. She readily, and willingly, speaks truth to the powerful – often directly. She does so not in hectoring fashion, but from the perspective of a shared humanity. Apart from the power and legitimacy of her message, her easy engagement with popular culture (she will readily quote a Bob Marley song or from an Achebe novel in her speeches) Ms Mottley has captured people’s imaginations across the world, but especially in the Global South.

Critically, her interventions in global affairs are not merely rhetorical flourishes. She offers concrete solutions, like her Bridgetown Initiative for reforming the Bretton Woods institutions, to make them more responsive to the needs of the developing countries, and proposals for linking institutional money with private capital to help finance developing countries adaptation to global warming. And there is her openness to talking to anyone: Donald Trump’s disdain for global warming concerns notwithstanding, at COP29 last year she declared her readiness to discuss the issues with the then president-elect of the United States.

It is perhaps a year before deep consultations begin at the UN on the next secretary general, but the behind-the-scenes jockey, which has already begun, will intensify well before then.

Apart from Ms Mottley, Michelle Bachelet, a former two-term president of Chile and UN human rights commissioner, as well as Maria Fernanda Espinosa, a former foreign minister of Ecuador, are among those more frequently mentioned for the job. Other women are on the periphery. The field will no doubt evolve as the time for a decision draws nearer.

Even if she can’t do it herself, CARICOM should signal that Ms Mottley is in the race.