聯合國祕書長潘基文 Ban Ki moon: An easy scapegoat
The head of the United Nations glides silently into a waiting room at the organisation’s New York headquarters wearing a sombre dark blue suit, a white shirt and a pale blue tie with a UN tie Ki-moon, 71, has just been on the phone to British prime minister David Cameron, pleading with him, “as an important leader of Europe”, to take more refugees from Syria.
聯合國祕書長潘基文(Ban Ki-moon)悄然步入聯合國紐約總部大樓的一間等候室，他身穿白色襯衫和深藍色西服，淡藍色領帶上面彆着一枚聯合國領帶夾。現年71歲的潘基文在來之前剛剛和英國首相戴維慍蕓倫(David Cameron)通過電話，懇請他“作爲歐洲的一位重要領袖”，接收更多敘利亞難民。
It is a topic close to Ban’s heart. Sixty-five years ago, as a child in Korea, he was forced to leave home when his village was sucked into the country’s brutal war. Ever since, he has felt a particularly strong affinity with victims of violence.
潘基文心繫這些難民。65年前，還是一個孩子的潘基文所在的村子被捲入韓國殘酷的戰爭，他被迫背井離鄉。此後，他一直感到自己和暴行的受害者有一種特別深切的聯繫。
“I was six years old,” he recalls. “I had to flee with things on my back. It was big difficulty finding something to eat. I was always crying, crying, crying, without knowing what was going on. All the schools were destroyed. We were just sitting under the shadow of a tree, on the ground.”
“當時我才6歲，”潘基文回憶道，“我必須揹着東西逃難。找不到什麼吃的東西。我不停地哭，不懂得發生了什麼事。所有的學校都被毀了。我們只能坐在樹蔭底下的地上。”
He looks me in the eye. “I was not really refugee,” he adds, speaking with the precision of someone who has spent hours studying legal definitions. “I was displaced person. But for us the United Nations flag was the protector.”
他直視我的眼睛。“我算不上真正的難民，”他補充道，用一種花了數小時研讀法律定義般的精確感說。“我算流離失所的人。但對我們來說，聯合國的旗幟就代表着保護者。”
The Korean peninsula was the first place in the world where UN peacekeepers, wearing their distinctive blue helmets, intervened to protect civilians. As a child, Ban idealised the United Nations — set up after the devastation of the second world war — as “a beacon!” But today, as it prepares to host its 70th General Assembly, pulling together representatives from all of its 193 countries, the organisation seems less beacon and more behemoth, and Ban, its secretary-general since 2007, has learnt the cruel limits of political power.
戴着獨特的藍色頭盔的聯合國維和部隊首次介入執行保護平民任務的地方就是在朝鮮半島。還是一個孩子的時候，潘基文將從二戰的廢墟之上建立起來的聯合國視作“一座燈塔！”193個成員國代表全部到場的第70屆聯合國大會於9月15日開幕，但是這個機構似乎已經不那麼像一座燈塔，而更像一隻巨獸。自2007年以來一直擔任聯合國祕書長的潘基文也認識到了政治權力殘酷的侷限性。
The UN can still help deliver good; Ban has been pushing European leaders to face up to the Syrian refugee crisis. “Cameron told me that the UK would take 20,000 more,” he says. “I also called Angela Merkel, Fran Hollande — everyone!”
聯合國依然在一些善舉中發揮作用；潘基文一直敦促歐洲各國領導人直面敘利亞難民危機。“卡梅倫告訴我，英國將再多接收2萬難民，”他說，“我還給安格拉默克爾(Angela Merkel)、弗朗索瓦攠朗德(Fran Hollande)——給所有人打了電話！”
But the organisation has become a sprawling mess: it has 15 specialised agencies, 12 different funds, and a secretariat that employs more than 40,000 people, costing $5.5bn in 2014-15. To complicate matters, all members have an equal vote on issues — and the five members of the “security council” that serves as the UN’s inner sanctum (US, China, Russia, France and Britain) have a veto over decisions. That leaves the institution mired in gridlock.
但這個機構正變得越來越龐雜：聯合國擁有15個專門機構、12個基金、還有一個僱傭了4萬多人的祕書處，2014到2015年雙年度開支預算爲55億美元。更爲複雜的是，所有成員國都對議題有平等的投票權，而聯合國核心組織“安全理事會”的五個常任理事國（美國、中國、俄羅斯、法國和英國）對決議擁有一票否決權。這讓聯合國深陷僵局。
The question that hovers over the UN as it faces its big birthday is whether it has now outlived its purpose. Does Ban have an utterly hopeless job?
在聯合國成立70年後，懸在這個組織頭上的問題是，聯合國是否已經失去了其存在意義？潘基文的這份工作是否是毫無希望的？
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He gestures for me to follow him into the place on the top floor of the UN skyscraper that he has chosen for our lunch: a small official dining room, decorated in a bland corporate style with pale wooden walls. There is a stunning view of the Manhattan skyline but the only decoration of note is a gigantic blue UN flag.
他示意我跟着他去聯合國大樓頂層，這裏是他爲我們的午餐選擇的地點：一間小小的官方餐廳，採用樸素的企業式裝修風格和淡色木牆。從這裏看到的曼哈頓天際線令人驚歎，但我特別注意到一面巨大的藍色聯合國旗幟。
“Time is very limited,” he says, apologising for his choice of location. “I am dealing with 193 nations, and civil society and business community. There are almost unlimited actors who I have to have harmonious relations with.”
“時間不多，”潘基文說，爲他選擇的午餐地點致歉，“我要和193個國家、公民社會和商界打交道。我必須和數不清的人和機構保持融洽的關係。”
Waiters silently appear and present our first courses on white bone china plates with a blue UN logo. Before the meal, I was asked — in accordance with UN protocol — to complete a form indicating what I wanted to eat. I notice Ban has chosen the same starter as me: a smoked salmon and avocado salad. “I followed you,” he says, impassively.
侍者悄然出現，用帶有藍色聯合國標誌的白色骨瓷盤子呈上了我們的第一道菜。在餐前，根據聯合國禮儀，我被要求填寫一張表格，說明我想吃的食物。我注意到潘基文選擇了和我一樣的開胃菜：煙燻三文魚和鱷梨沙拉。“我跟你吃一樣的，”他淡泊地說。
I start by asking why he wanted to take on such a huge job. Suddenly, Ban’s polite expression becomes truly animated. He explains how, after his family escaped to the city of Cheongju, he eventually got an education. “Unesco and Unicef were providing a lot of humanitarian support — textbooks, toys and pencils and stationaries,” he says, waving his hands in the air; a non-native English speaker, he often uses gestures to communicate.
我首先問他，爲何想要承擔這樣的重任？潘基文客氣的表情突然生動起來。他解釋說，在他全家逃到清州市(Cheongju)以後，他終於有機會接受教育。“聯合國教科文組織(Unesco)和聯合國兒童基金會(Unicef)提供了很多人道主義援助——課本、玩具、鉛筆和文具，”他揮舞着手說。作爲一個母語不是英語的人，他常常使用手勢來幫助溝通。
He finished top of his school and, at the age of 17, was selected by the Red Cross to join a 100-strong peace-building delegation to the US of children from around the world. That took him to the White House, where he met US president John F Kennedy. “At that time it was the height of the cold war,” Ban recalls. “But I remember that President Kennedy told us: ‘Although governments are not getting along well, you young people can be good friends — there are no national boundaries.’ ”
他以頂尖的成績從學校畢業，17歲時被紅十字會(Red Cross)選中，參加一個由來自世界各地的100餘名兒童組成的和平代表團並前往美國。這次行程中，潘基文進入了白宮，與當時的美國總統約翰F肯尼迪(John F Kennedy)會面。“當時正是冷戰最嚴重的時候，”潘基文回憶道，“但我記得肯尼迪總統告訴我們：‘儘管政府之間關係不好，你們這些年輕人可以成爲好朋友——這是沒有國界的。’”
The experience left Ban determined to become a diplomat. “[My country] was so poor I was thinking that public service should be the right thing.” Over the next four decades he worked on missions from India to Austria, studied at Harvard’s Kennedy School and then ended up, in 2004, as South Korea’s foreign minister. Generally he avoided controversy; his nickname among Korean diplomats was “the slippery eel”.
這段經歷讓潘基文立志成爲外交官。“（我的國家）非常貧窮，我當時認爲從事公共服務工作是正確的事情。”在接下來的40年裏，他作爲外交官前往印度、奧地利等地工作，在哈佛大學(Harvard)肯尼迪學院學習過，最後在2004年出任韓國外交部長。通常他會避免爭論；他在韓國外交官中的外號是“滑頭鰻魚”。
His most startling manoeuvre came in 2006, when the term of the previous UN secretary-general — the charismatic Ghanaian Kofi Annan — ended. Ban unexpectedly threw his hat into the ring. His profile was low, his chances looked equally so, but he tirelessly visited all the key stakeholders. “Frankly speaking, I didn’t think that one day I could become secretary-general until very, very late,” he admits.
他最讓人驚訝的一次舉動是在2006年上任聯合國祕書長——富於個人魅力的加納人科菲褠壇(Kofi Annan)——任期結束的時候做出的。潘基文出人意料地宣佈參加競選。他並不知名，贏得競選的機會看起來也不高，但他不知疲倦地走訪所有關鍵的利益攸關方。“老實說，直到非常晚的時候，我都沒有想過有一天我能成爲祕書長，”他坦言。
Has the job been what he hoped? He smiles politely. “I know there is the question of whether, after 70 years, the UN is relevant and properly effective,” he says. “The UN is quite different from what it was 70 years — or even 20 years — ago. The number of members has increased and there is a dramatic increase in communications and technology and migration. And there has been much more individualistic way of thinking and doing business by each and every member state.”
這份工作是否如他當初所願？他禮貌地微笑。“我知道，對於70年後聯合國是否還有意義，是否確實有效率，人們存在質疑，”他說，“現在的聯合國和70年前很不一樣——甚至和20年前也很不一樣。成員國的數量增加了，溝通、技術和移民顯著增多。每一個成員國思考和處理事務的方式都變得更加我行我素。”
What does he think he has achieved? “It is very difficult for me to say something about me. It should be historians and scholars who say it.”
在他心目中，自己取得了什麼成就？“我很難對自己做出評價，這該由歷史學家和學者來評說。”
I groan inwardly. Some colleagues claim that Ban’s “quiet Confucian” style is exactly what is needed to orchestrate deals in a deeply fractured world; critics retort that his approach is too consensus-oriented and uncharismatic to get anything done. Either way, I have rarely encountered anyone as self-effacing in New York.
我在內心嘆息。一些同事說，潘基文“寧靜儒雅”的風度正是在一個嚴重分化的世界促成協議所需要的；批評者則反駁，他的行事方式太以共識爲導向，缺乏魅力，無法完成任何事情。不管哪種說法是對的，我很少在紐約遇到一個如此謙遜的人。
I push him again to talk about his record. He pauses, then explains that he has tried to clean up the operations of the UN. Annan’s tenure was hit by scandals such as the “Oil-for-Food” saga, which surrounded a UN programme to aid suffering Iraqis and exposed deep managerial weaknesses. Ban has forced all senior UN officials to reveal their financial assets, implemented performance reviews, and recently even took the rare step of firing somebody (Babacar Gaye, the former head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic, whose troops were accused of sexual assault).
我請他再談一談自己的成就。他停頓了一下，然後說，他試圖讓聯合國的運作更爲廉潔。安南在任內遭到了如“石油換食品”等醜聞的打擊，這樁醜聞與聯合國對遭受苦難的伊拉克人的援助項目有關，暴露出聯合國深層的管理問題。潘基文已經要求所有聯合國高級官員公開自己的金融資產，開始實行績效評估，最近甚至還罕見地解僱了某位官員（巴巴卡爾蓋伊(Babacar Gaye)，聯合國在中非共和國的維和部隊的前長官，他的部隊被指控進行性騷擾）。
He has also been trying — belatedly — to tackle the deep bureaucratic silos that make the UN hopelessly inefficient. “We are now finally connecting our computer systems,” he offers, as evidence. “It has taken us five years — five! ”
他還試圖解決——遲遲未能解決的——下屬不同機構各自爲戰的問題，這讓聯合國的運作低效得令人絕望。“我們現在終於把電腦系統連接起來了，”他主動提出一個證據，“這花了我們5年時間——5年！”
What about influence in the wider world? Climate change, he offers finally. “When I came here in January 2007 the climate change was not really very much appreciated or understood. So as a way to raise awareness I travelled to all the places of the world, from Antarctica and then the Arctic.” Carefully, he lists his trips, thanking different governments for their assistance, taking care to not mix up their names.
對於更廣大的世界的影響呢？他最終提出，氣候變化。“當我2007年1月來到這裏的時候，氣候變化不是很受重視或者理解。因此，爲了提高人們的認識，我走訪了世界各個地方，從南極到北極。”他仔細地羅列了他去過的地方，感謝各國政府的支持，並注意不把名字弄混。
“When I went to the Arctic I got full support from the Norwegian government — we took an aeroplane and then ice-breaking ship for 11 hours overnight. The thickness of the ice they had to hit — boom!” he claps his hands. “Two years ago I went to Greenland first, with prime minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt. I saw falling chunks of ice — boom!” He claps again. “It is very important for me to sound alarm bells about climate change.”
“我去北極的時候，得到了挪威政府的全力支持——我們乘坐飛機和破冰船，連夜行進了11個小時。冰太厚了，他們必須撞擊冰塊——砰！”他擊打了一下手掌。“兩年前，我就先去過了格陵蘭島，和丹麥首相赫勒堠腢-施密特(Helle Thorning-Schmidt)一起。我看到掉落的冰塊——砰！”他又擊打了一下手掌，“對我來說，拉響氣候變化的警鈴非常重要。”
Our first course is taken away, and two more identical plates appear with blandly inoffensive piles of sea bream, beans and rice.
第一道菜撤了下去，又是兩盤一模一樣的菜餚端了上來，盤裏面盛着口味清淡的海鯛、豆子和米飯。
Ban insists all this talk and travel has yielded results: last year, under UN pressure, the US and China finally signed up to an international climate-change deal and this year the UN will launch an initiative to provide $100bn of technological assistance to poor countries to help them cut emissions. “But it has been very difficult because governments have been focusing on their narrow national agendas.
潘基文強調，這些對話和走訪取得了成效。去年，在聯合國的壓力下，美國和中國最終簽署了一項國際性氣候變化協議。今年聯合國將發起一項舉措，向貧窮國家提供1000億美元的技術援助，以幫助這些國家減排。“但這種事一直非常困難，因爲各國政府一直以來都只狹隘地盯着自己國內的議程。”
“If everything goes wrong, I become an easy scapegoat — we joke that “SG”, or secretary-general, is now standing for scapegoat,” he continues. “I don’t complain about this. But when there is a unity of purpose and solidarity among security council members, particularly the five permanent members, you can make real things.”
“如果出了問題，我就成了替罪羊——我們戲稱聯合國祕書長的縮寫‘SG’(secretary-general)現在成了‘替罪羊’(scapegoat)的縮寫了，”他接着說，“對此我並不抱怨。但是，如果安理會成員，尤其是5大常任理事國能夠統一目標、團結一致，我們就能夠做些實事了。”
When did that unity last appear? “Two years ago,” he sighs. That was when the security council briefly agreed to monitor chemical weapons in Syria. Ban is now imploring the group to take wider action in that country. But, to his disappointment, Russia and China have vetoed this.
上一次團結一致是在什麼時候？“兩年前，”他嘆息道。當時安理會短暫達成一致，同意對敘利亞的化學武器進行監督。潘基文現在懇請安理會對敘利亞採取進一步行動。但是，讓他失望的是，俄羅斯和中國投了反對票。
What about Iran? This at least seems to be one area of real action: this summer a deal was signed for Iran to place its nuclear programmes under the surveillance of inspectors from the UN and other agencies, in exchange for a withdrawal of western sanctions. The deal is wildly controversial in the US and Israel: there are fears that Iran will evade the controls, just as North Korea defied world opinion to create a bomb. But Ban tries to be optimistic. “I know that there is some suspicion that this deal cannot be fully implemented. But based on my own personal experience there is a big difference between the current agreement with Iran and the North Korean nuclear issues,” he insists. “Many sanctions have been lifted but, depending on how the Iranians do, they can be snatched back.”
伊朗問題呢？這至少似乎是一個有實際行動的領域：今年夏天簽署了一份協議，根據該協議，伊朗核計劃要接受聯合國和其他機構觀察員的監督，以換取西方解除制裁。這份協定在美國和以色列廣受爭議：有人擔心伊朗將會規避管控，像朝鮮一樣，無視世界輿論製造出一枚核彈。但是潘基文竭力保持樂觀。“我知道有人懷疑這份協議無法得到充分執行。但是基於我個人的經驗，目前和伊朗簽訂的這份協議和朝鮮核問題有着很大的不同。”他堅稱，“雖然很多制裁已被撤銷，但是這些制裁可以重新實施，關鍵要看伊朗的行動。”
Isn’t that over-optimistic? He smiles. Our conversation moves on to some of the other geopolitical tensions that place the UN — and Ban — in a near-impossible position. Just before our lunch he attended a military parade in China to mark the end of the second world war. The move incensed the Japanese government but Ban insists the Japanese were wrong to complain. “I have been participating in all commemorative events to be fair and impartial,” he says.
這是不是過於樂觀了呢？他微笑以對。我們的談話繼續進行，話題轉向其他一些讓聯合國和潘基文處於近乎束手無策的境地的地緣政治問題。他不久前剛剛參加了中國紀念第二次世界大戰結束的閱兵式。此舉惹惱了日本政府，但潘基文堅持認爲日本對此抱怨是錯誤的。“爲了公正和公平起見，我一直參加各種紀念活動，”他說。
“The Japanese should look at the past and learn [their own] lessons. It is widely believed that they have not done enough [to apologise for the war] as the German government did. They have left large areas of discontent and disharmony with neighbour countries.”
“日本應該回顧過去，從中學到教訓。人們普遍認爲，和德國政府相比，日本（在爲戰爭道歉上）做的還不夠。他們和鄰國之間還有大量不滿與不和的問題沒有解決。”
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The waiter brings two plates of fruit tart with macaroons, and Ban talks about areas where the UN has been unable to deliver “as much as possible”. “The charter stipulated that we were to save succeeding generations from the scourges of war, But we have seen more wars and recurring genocides,” he says. “There is no other universal organisation which has legitimacy and I am quite confident that the United Nations will continue to exist. But it needs to evolve and change.”
侍者端上了兩盤配有馬卡龍的水果塔，潘基文談到了一些聯合國無法取得“儘可能多”的成效的領域。“聯合國憲章規定我們要使後代免遭戰爭之禍，但是我們看到了更多的戰爭和反覆出現的種族屠殺，”他說。“其他任何全球性組織都沒有這樣的合法性，我堅信聯合國會繼續存在下去。但是聯合國需要發展與變化。”
How? One way, Ban suggests, would be to change how his successor is selected when his eight-year term ends in 2016. Until now, this has been done in secret by the security council. But some members want an open vote among all 193 countries. Ban supports this. “After 70 years there should be more transparency. I also think it is high time to have some woman of integrity and experience.”
如何做到呢？潘基文的一個建議是，當2016年他的八年任期結束後，選擇繼任者的方式需要改變。至今，祕書長的遴選都是在安理會祕密進行的。但是一些成員國希望在193個國家中進行公開投票。潘基文贊同這樣的方法。“70年過去了，聯合國需要變得更加透明。我也認爲如今應該選任一些正直並經驗豐富的女性。”
Ban lives in New York with Soon-taek, his wife of more than 40 years — they have three grown-up children — but spends so much of his life in meetings, or on planes travelling to different disaster zones or diplomatic hotspots, that he almost never gets a day off. What will he do when he leaves, I ask as coffee arrives — might he run for president of South Korea? “I am too busy doing my work here to think of anything else,” he says, as I groan silently once more.
潘基文和結婚40餘年的夫人柳淳澤(soon-taek)在紐約居住——三個子女都已成年——但是，他大量時間都花費在參加會議，或者乘機飛往不同的災區或外交熱點地區上，幾乎沒有一天休息。咖啡端上來後我問到，卸任後他會做些什麼呢？——會競選韓國總統嗎？“我在這兒的工作太忙了，還顧不上想別的，”他說。我再一次暗暗嘆了口氣。
Before we end I ask what gives him most satisfaction in his role. Quietly, he reveals that he gets some sense of fulfilment from visiting refugee camps. That is partly because he is trying to exercise his “power of persuasion” to encourage governments to treat refugees well. But he also wants to spread a personal message about resilience — and finding hope in some unlikely places.
在結束午餐前，我問他，這份工作中帶給他最大滿足感的是什麼？他平靜地說，他從走訪難民營中得到了一些成就感。一個原因是他試圖行使他的“勸說的權力”，鼓勵政府善待難民。但他也希望傳遞個人關於適應逆境——以及在一些不可能的地方找到希望——的想法。
“When I go to camps — and I have just been to Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria and other places I cannot name — I always tell the young people, ‘Don’t despair!’ ” he says, looking animated again. “I say, ‘I was like you at one time. But the boy that I was has become the secretary-general. Don’t despair!’ ”
“當我去難民營的時候——我近期去過了約旦、土耳其、伊拉克、索馬里、尼日利亞和其他一些我叫不上來的地方——我總是告訴年輕人，‘不要絕望！’”他說，他的表情又生動起來，“我說，‘我以前就像你一樣。但我已經從當年的那個男孩變成了聯合國祕書長。不要絕望！’”
As he speaks, a vision of the six-year-old Ban, carrying his possessions on his back, pops into my mind. It is, I reflect, a remarkable tale. But how many other children will enjoy that happy ending?
在他說話的時候，6歲的潘基文揹着東西的景象浮現在我的腦海中。我想，這是個不同尋常的故事。但又有多少孩子能夠有這樣的美好結局？
He admits that he has been horrified by the squalor he sees in today’s refugee camps. What worries him even more, though, is their air of permanence. In the 1950s, being a “refugee” was considered a temporary affair; today it is estimated that more than 60m people are displaced, a record, and many are being tossed into a never-ending limbo.
他承認，他爲今天的難民營裏看到的惡劣條件感到驚駭。然而，更讓他憂慮的是，這些難民營裏瀰漫的一種似乎永無盡頭的氣氛。在上世紀50年代，成爲“難民”被認爲是一種暫時的事情；而今天據估計有創紀錄的逾6000萬人流離失所，許多人正落入永遠無法結束的不安定狀態。
“Today these children think the camps are their entire world. I wonder: what will be the future of those children? What?” His voice trails off. He has no clear answer; nor does the UN. But I know that, once lunch is over, Ban will be working the phones again, trying to persuade reluctant world leaders to act. If only they would listen.
“如今這些孩子以爲難民營就是他們的整個世界。我想知道：這些孩子們的未來會是怎樣的呢？怎樣的呢？”他的聲音漸漸低沉下來。他沒有明確的答案；聯合國也沒有。但是我知道，一等午餐結束，潘基文又將拿起電話，努力去說服那些不情願的各國領導人採取行動。要是他們能夠聽取就好了。
