Kofi Annan is completing his momentous tenure as UN secretary general soon. The race for his successor is on, and hot. Rightly so.

But we must worry. The signals emanating from world capitals are not exciting. Not that it is all that surprising, nor is it ever going to be a piece of cake. Just that we are heading for a deadlock, willy nilly. Reason? Because we seem to be using the wrong criteria.

We must reinvent the job, the post and the pay if we must have a better world. We must use what we are agreed on (like poverty, terrorism, digital divide, space, environment, diplomacy and world peace) rather than cold war and undue advantages to pick the right candidate. We must get experts into the secretariat instead of politicians. Permanent Missions should be so-staffed.

If the UN is wrongly peopled, our world will be wrongly run! Don't doubt. Why are the world powers, including the US and UK, seeking UN legitimacy after the Iraqi invasion...despite their pre-war arrogance and unilateralism? Why are the world's citizens, including theirs, always insisting on multilateralism...thru the UNITED NATIONS? Because it is right.

This is why we must get it absolutely right this time. No distractive politics, please. And, yes, the UN General Assembly must play a definitve role.