by Our Diplomatic Affairs Editor
Nothing to be astonished about; we are merely witnessing the inexorable fulfillment of a grotesque prophecy—the culmination of hollow propaganda, meticulously crafted to hoodwink the public. The masquerade of so-called integrity has finally unraveled, exposing the puerile arrogance and unrefined opportunism at the core of this administration. Whether one acknowledges it or not, reality has intruded with an unforgiving vengeance.
The National People’s Power (NPP) government, which once donned the sanctimonious garb of reform, has descended into the abyss of self-serving duplicity. Having vociferously condemned the politicisation of Sri Lanka’s Foreign Service under previous regimes, it now unabashedly indulges in the very same chicanery. The regime’s posturing as a vanguard of professional rectitude has proven to be nothing more than an elaborate ruse, a grandiloquent deception perpetuated to pacify a naive electorate.
In an ostentatious display of fabricated virtue, President Anura Dissanayake ceremoniously recalled all politically appointed heads of Sri Lankan missions who were installed by the Wickremesinghe government, under the pretense of restoring professional dignity. This theatrical charade was lauded by sycophantic diplomats and naive optimists alike. Yet, the facade crumbled with unrelenting speed as the administration shamelessly replaced them with its own cadre of political loyalists, discarding seasoned career diplomats with contemptuous ease.
The government’s hypocrisy is nothing short of breathtaking. Mahinda Samarasinghe, a political appointee, inexplicably remains as Ambassador to the United States, his retention justified through feeble pretexts of necessity in IMF negotiations—an assertion so transparently disingenuous that it insults the intelligence of even the most politically indifferent citizen. The selective application of ‘professional integrity’ reeks of cronyism, fueling the justified indignation of career diplomats who now watch their vocation being relegated to a mere token of political expediency.
Compounding this farcical debacle, the administration is now orchestrating a fresh round of political patronage in key foreign postings. Among them, Prof. Janaka Kumarasinghe is set to helm the Sri Lankan Embassy in Tokyo, former Air Force Commander Udeni Rajapaksa is en route to South Africa, and Nimal Senadheera—an academician from Scotland—has been handpicked as the High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Prof. Arusha Cooray is slated for the UAE, and in a move laden with convenient optics, Sonali Samarasinghe, the widow of slain journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga, is being positioned at Sri Lanka’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York. In yet another eyebrow-raising appointment, the next High Commissioner to Pakistan is not a former Commander of the Navy, but Rear Admiral Fred Senaviratne (Retired), a Naval Infantry officer who retired in 2015 and has been heavily involved in NPP politics. He is now serving as a Coordinating Secretary at the Deputy Defence Minister’s office. Adding to the pattern, the NPP regime has selected a journalist—who later became a vocal supporter of their cause—to lead the Sri Lankan mission in Cuba.
This sordid debasement of Sri Lanka’s diplomatic apparatus is not merely an act of hypocrisy—it is a calculated desecration of institutional sanctity. The foreign service, once an arena for competent statesmanship, is being systematically reduced to a haven for servile political operatives. The rhetoric of reform, once trumpeted as the government’s raison d’être, now rings hollow, an expired promise crushed beneath the weight of insatiable political avarice.
Sri Lanka is being subjected to an unrelenting cycle of deception, orchestrated by an administration that thrives on the complacency of its citizens. If this egregious distortion of governance remains unchecked, the country will bear witness to the complete erosion of its institutional frameworks, leaving in its wake a hollowed-out carcass of what was once a credible state apparatus. The time for passive observation is over; the nation must awaken to the reality of its orchestrated ruination.
