President Anura Kumara Dissanayake last week met four new ambassadors to Qatar, Russia, Kuwait and Egypt and our first high commissioner to New Zealand who will assume their assignments shortly. All of them are members of the Sri Lanka Overseas Service with no political appointee among them. The heads of mission were selected during the incumbency of the last regime and, in fact, had been cleared by the High Posts Committee of the last Parliament. The new Parliament has not yet appointed a committee to oversee senior government appointments requiring such clearance although, as we report in our news columns today, the ruling party has made its nominations and opposition nominations are awaited. Presumably there will be retroactive clearance of those already in office where necessary.
What the president told the new envoys about what is expected of them was all too obvious. No new thrust in the country’s diplomacy under the new order was revealed. President Dissanayake, while expressing his confidence in the newly appointed diplomats, emphasized the importance of their roles in strengthening Sri Lanka’s bilateral ties and fostering mutual cooperation with the countries to which they had been posted. Other matters covered included giving the best possible service to Lankan working in the countries of accreditation, something that is most important as we are heavily dependent on the remittances they send home. A large number of Lankans today work not only in the Middle East as during the early years of foreign employment but also in countries like South Korea and Japan and now Israel. Also the president urged pushing for more foreign investment, supporting the tourism industry, boosting exports etc.
There is reasonable cause for hope that the new administration, unlike its predecessors, will not make blatantly political diplomatic appointments, not only at ambassadorial level but in other positions in our missions overseas. Barely a month ago, Chief Government Whip Nalinda Jayatissa read out in parliament a list of names of politicians who have drawn money from the President’s Fund for whatever reason and promised to make more revelations. A similar list of progeny and close kith and kin of politicians posted to Sri Lanka’s overseas mission would be as revealing. We do not say that all appointments to Sri Lanka missions abroad should only be from the professional diplomatic service. There have been outstanding performances by those coming from outside, notably Mr. Shirley Amarasinghe, CCS, a former Secretary to the Treasury who chaired the UN Law of the Sea Conference with greatest distinction. So much so, when the 1977 JR Jayewardene government refused to keep him in New York as our Permanent Representative to the United Nations, the UN contrived to keep him in his Law of the Sea role.
Soon after the new regime took office, a total of 16 heads of diplomatic missions deemed political appointments were ordered to wind up their affairs and return to Colombo by December 1. As a state visit by the president to India was pending, the serving high commissioner in New Delhi was asked to remain until the visit was concluded. This was a sensible decision as a new appointee or a relatively junior officer may not have been able to competently handle the work involved at an important juncture. Also the high commissioner who was in place in India was a retired member of the Overseas Service with wide experience serving in important capitals. She was re-appointed post-retirement by the previous administration and this, among others, was apparently read as a “political appointment.” The single exception to the recall was former cabinet minister Mahinda Samarasinghe who quit his ministerial position to go to Washington as ambassador. This was purportedly in view of ongoing discussions with the IMF although it is well known that the embassy is little involved in this process.
However that be, several heads of mission positions, including in important capitals overseas like London and New Delhi as well as the UN in New York, remains to be filled. Whether the existing cadre in the Overseas Service has enough trained and experienced officers to meet this requirement is an open question. The late Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, unquestionably the best foreign minister this country ever had, made some imaginative appointments such as those of business leader SK Wickremesinghe posted to London and eminent lawyer H.L. de Silva who went to New York as our Permanent Representative to the UN. We also had Mr. Mangala Moonesinghe who served in Delhi and briefly in London. The other side of the coin was that there were some rank bad appointments, notably that of a cousin of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Washington. He was caught with his pants down profiting from a property acquisition for the state and returned the loot. Nevertheless the then government proposed to appoint him high commissioner to Canada. Fortunately, Ottawa declined accreditation.
The current political leadership like all its predecessors will, no doubt be pressured by supporters, friends and fellow travelers to make various diplomatic appointments for which there is an insatiable greed in this country. An Additional Foreign Secretary in Mrs. Bandaranaike’s day, obtained cabinet approval to abolish the Sri Lanka Overseas Service and amalgamate it with the SLAS, opening the doors to a vast number of patronage appointments, Mr. Dharmasiri Pieris who functioned as Secretary to the Prime Minister has revealed in his autobiography of which we are running excerpts. This was fortunately nipped in the bud. Finding the right people for the jobs that must be done, not only in the diplomatic service but also in the local administration, will be a monumentally challenging task. Hopefully, there will at least some success in this regard.
