Odds and Ends

On 22nd February, Friday, the Foreign Ministry held a meeting at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies at Horton Place, Colombo, with several senior officials as well as politicians from the Central Province to discuss arrangements relating to the upcoming SAARC Summit in Kandy.

However the invitation sent to the many invitees stated the meeting venue as The Light House, 24 Horton Place, Colombo 7. The meeting was chaired by the Foreign Minister who had apparently directed that invitations were sent with the old name of the Horton Place premises, deliberately ignoring the Cabinet decision that designated the venue as the LKIIRS from its original name, SLIIR (Sri Lanka Institute for International Relations).

Sadly, some subservient officials who had once revered the late Lakshman Kadirgamar meekly went along with the directive of the current Minister. Some of the invitees had never heard of 'The Light House', and they wondered how there could be a Light House in the middle of Colombo 7. Some who attended the Friday meeting were heard saying that, if this practice of using old British names for State properties is to be followed, then the President will be inviting people to come to the'Queen's House'instead of the President's House as it is now known.

This also comes with the decision of the Foreign Minister to make the LKIIRS an adjunct of the Foreign Ministry, much against what the late Foreign Minister had envisaged. No wonder insiders are now calling the place not the LK Institute, but the RB Institute. O Tempora O Mores.

During last week’s Cabinet meeting, the issue of the much publicised resignation of ‘Dr.’Mervyn Silva had cropped up along with the topic of his doctorate. President Mahinda Rajapaksa had queried from Professor G.L.Peiris what the difference was between his Professor title and the Doctor title of Minister Silva. The reply to this waa given by another Minister Jagath Pushpakumara.

He said Professor Peiris has earned his doctorate after years of studying, reading and doing research while Dr. Silva has got it doing nothing. Minister Pushpakumara said Dr. Silva himself explains the difference in his own words according to his colleagues as this. ‘‘Professor Peiris with book, Dr. Silva without book.‘’

The Foreign Ministry has sent out a circular to all Sri Lankan missions abroad asking the heads of these missions as well as other diplomats to refrain from making statements to the press as well as writing on sensitive matters that may cause embarrassment to the Government. Additionally a special letter has gone out to a lecturer turned Head of Mission now stationed in a European capital to cut down on his regular letters on such issues as human rights matters.

A Sri Lankan man was beaten unconscious by a German mob of at least 12 men on Wednesday night at Goslar, Germany. The 43-year-old victim suffered severe concussion and bruising in the attack and is yet recovering in a hospital there some 210 kilometres south west of Berlin. It was the German national news agency DPA that reported the shocking incident out of all the international news networks. Up to yesterday, the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry had not been provided with any further details about the victim.

Of course this is no isolated incident. There have been countless cases of similar physical assaults as well as arson attacks on dwellings of foreigners in Germany that have even resulted in many deaths.

It was only some six months back that a German mob chased after eight visiting Indians through the town of Muegeln and beat them up attracting international headlines. They survived by taking refuge in a pizzeria, but it too was badly damaged It was probably time the Germans stop lecturing Third World nations on human rights; and turn the searchlight inward, instead.