ALL speculations are over. Ban Ki Moon, the South Korean foreign minister, is all set to take over as the new UN secretary general. Last Monday he won the fourth and last UN Security Council straw poll very comfortably, like the three previous polls. This time he bagged fourteen votes in favour, none against, with one abstention. The ballot papers of permanent members were marked differently this time so that their negative votes (vetoes) could be identified.

Following the vote, the Chinese permanent representative to the UN informed the media that since Ban was not opposed by any of the five permanent members, he would be the Security Council's nominee. Ban has thus crossed the most difficult hurdle and the rest should be a mere formality. The formal voting at the Security Council takes place this week and thereafter it will be placed before the General Assembly for endorsement. So

congratulations to Ban are in order.

Incidentally, his nearest opponent, Indian nominee Shashi Tharoor, once again came out second, with ten votes in favour, three against (which included a negative vote by a permanent member), and two abstentions. Shashi has already issued a concession statement, congratulating Ban on his victory. The rest of the candidates received multiple negative votes of permanent members.

One must compliment the contending Asian member countries, the sole permanent Asian member China, and the other Asian nonpermanent members of the Security Council for keeping in mind the overall interest of Asia. Any divisiveness on their part would have surely encouraged outsiders to field their candidates. Of course, a last minute effort had been made to field the candidature of Latvian President Vike-Freiberga, but it had been firmly opposed by seven Council members, including two permanent members.

As Ban takes over "the world's

most impossible job" next January, the tasks and challenges for him will be enormous and wide-ranging. The first and the foremost will be to restore the credibility of the world body in the post 9/11 era. The menace of terrorism affects all countries, and it must be faced globally on all fronts; at the same time, the central role and authority of the UN has to be restored. No country alone can fight this war. The ongoing devastating Iraq war, the worsening of the security situation and the reemergence of Taliban in Afghanistan have demonstrated that the "war on terror" has failed. A new global consensus must be created to face the challenge collectively under the aegis of the UN.

Ban, in his skillful campaign, made the point quite clear in response to a question about the love-hate relations between the UN and the US. He said that "global challenges call for global responses. The United States cannot do it alone. The United States needs the United Nations and vice versa." As the representative of America's key strategic ally --

South Korea, Ban is in a unique position to bridge the gap between the UN and the US.

The second task should be to reform and revitalize the ailing UN secretariat on a top priority basis. His predecessor, Kofi Annan, neglected this mundane task and was badly bruised by the Food-for-Oil bungling. Although he was personally cleared of all corruption charges by the Volker Commission, he was largely a lame duck secretary general during the last two years. During his campaign, Ban had rightly articulated a comprehensive approach to turn the UN into "an effective, accountable, and transparent global organization." He had also promised to "reform the culture of organization, increase accountability, and toughen ethics." Surely, the member states would extend to him, and his secretariat, greater flexibility, but would expect in return greater accountability from them.

One of the fundamental tasks is to coordinate various development efforts of the UN. Currently, the entire gamut of development work

is done by departments and agencies in such isolated manners that very often, the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. There is a clear need for greater coordination and monitoring mechanism so that the strategic focus does not get diluted. Ban has rightly pointed out that the "strategic focus should be more on achieving the goals already set rather than identifying new frontiers to conquer." The implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) should be on his top priority list.

How much do we know about Ban? Well, the 62-year old career diplomat has all the indispensable qualities for this top most diplomatic and managerial job in the world. His supporters say he is a consummate mediator and a world class administrator.

The Westerners may find him "low profile" and "uncharismatic," but Ban, in a recent interview with the International Herald Tribune, said: "Some westerners don't seem to fully understand the Asian leadership virtue of being tender in appearance and resolute in mind."

His spokesman at the Korean Foreign Ministry described his boss as an "iron-fist-in-velvet-glove" kind of person. A veteran South Korean diplomat who worked with Ban, added: "He knows how to disagree without being disagreeable."

During his thirty-six years of diplomatic service, he has spent nearly a decade at the UN, and has served in South Korean missions in Washington DC and Vienna. He has also served as the national security adviser to the South Korean president, and as vice foreign minister before taking over as the full foreign minister in 2004. He has played a leading role in the six-nation talks aimed at curbing North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

The writer is a former Foreign Secretary.