The motto that "Every city or house divided against itself shall not stand" should serve as a warning to the ongoing United Nations (UN) reform.

On Wednesday, the Group of Four presented a revised version of its initial resolution, pledging to forgo veto rights for at least 15 years if they are accepted as new permanent members of the Security Council.

Such a move was apparently intended to make their bid acceptable to some extent. But it still fell short of addressing the basic and most essential issue - how reforms of the United Nations should be approached.

After all, the Security Council enlargement is not the whole of reform of the Security Council, just as the Security Council reform by any means is merely a small part of the UN reform.

In other words, the UN reform should emphasize more urgent issues such as development, poverty and other challenges people are facing, rather than solely Security Council reform.

As for the Security Council reform itself, it is more than simply adding new permanent members to the council.

Rather, it should focus more on enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of the Security Council and improving its capability to deal with global threats and challenges.

There is no denying that the UN reform is badly needed to ensure the world body becomes a more effective platform for collective action to cope with potential threats and play a bigger role to serve the common interests of humanity.

The UN reform is significant enough to affect the future of the inter-government international organization, and there is a vital need to gradually push ahead with the reform in a bid to maintain and promote solidarity among member states.

Just as the sharp disagreement between the so-called Group of Four and Uniting for Consensus suggests, UN member states have yet to reach a broad consensus on the reform scheme.

In fact, disagreements also lie in what issues should be given priority in the reform and whether the representation of richer countries or developing countries, which account for two thirds of UN members, should be increased in the Security Council.

Given the lack of consensus, a rushed vote could jeopardize solidarity, violate the original intention of the reform and even derail the larger UN reform proposal. In no way can the interests of a handful of countries override the common interests of all UN members.

To facilitate the smooth implementation of UN reform, it would be wise and in fact easier to seek consensus through patient consultation.

Consensus on important issues where division still exists is as critical to UN reform as a blueprint for a building. Otherwise, reform will get lost and go nowhere.

As part of the efforts to help build consensus, China has demonstrated its responsibility. On Tuesday, the Chinese Government published its first detailed UN reform position paper, elaborating on the country's stance on the issue and calling for consensus-building before any resolutions are made.

This is an important step towards bringing the reform back on the right track.

There is no time limit and no time frame. It is time we started from the very beginning: design the roadmap and find the direction through consensus building.

Source: China Daily