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It’s called diplomacy, stupid
View(s):From the sidelines By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya
The communications activities of the Ministry of External Affairs got off to a flying start this week with Secretary Karunatilleke Amunugama declaring that Sri Lanka had been confirmed as the venue for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in November –only to be contradicted the very same day.
“Contrary to some media reports, Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma has not made any statements today with regard to Sri Lanka as host venue of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November 2013″ said Richard Uku, spokesperson for the Commonwealth Secretariat in a statement on 11 Feb.
One would have expected the MEA to have got at least the basics right — like when and how to make statements about dates, venues etc –especially since Sri Lanka is supposed to be hosting this conference? But this is not the case.
The approach seems to be that in a context of uncertainty,the public must be given a ‘positive’ picture at all times. In the absence of any coherent strategy to face certain challenges that lie ahead in the international arena, there seems to be merely a show of bravado by the Government. Meanwhile there are indications that quite the opposite orientation — of seeking to ingratiate itself with otherstates no matter what the cost, is being adopted in the actual conduct of bilateral relations.
A case in point is the soft-pedalling of the Government’s response to poaching in Sri Lanka’s northern territorial waters by large numbers of Tamil Nadu fishermen in trawlers. While the Sri Lanka Navy has been instructed not to ‘harass’ the Tamil Nadu poachers, there is no serious effort to persuade the Indian government to reciprocate, for its part, by putting an end to this obnoxious activity by its nationals. What’s more the SLN has offered refreshments to poaching fishermen detected crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL). The recent Indian media report on this new development has not been contradicted so far.Considering that the SLN would not have suddenly made a behavioural about-turn of this nature on its own, the question arises as to where the instructions came from.
The butter-fingers approach adopted by Sri Lankan authorities in relation to the execution of the Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafeek in Saudi Arabia is another example. And who instructed the Sri Lanka women’s cricket team to tone down their celebrations after they defeated India in the ICC Women’s World Cup? The uninhibited scenes of jubilation witnessed after their win over England a few days earlierwas not to be seen, and the reason given was that India ‘is an Asian and neighbouring country.’Where did the odd directive to the women’s cricket squad come from? It doesn’t get sillier than this.
The problem of poaching by Indian fishermen is so bad that local fishermen say it is robbing them of a livelihood and driving them to seek other forms of employment. The veracity of their complaint is confirmed by independent observers. Researchers fromthe Amsterdam based Centre for Maritime Research,with whom the Jaffna University recently held a seminar on the subject, told IRIN — a UN news service on humanitarian affairs — that fishermen in Vadamarachchi go out to sea just 60 days a year, and in Pesalai, Mannar, they go out 85 days a year. They said many had no choice but to find alternative work.
The India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission statement earlier this year called for the ‘humane’ treatment of fishermen caught trespassing in each other’s territorial waters, without acknowledging that the problem is extremely one sided — most of the trespassing is done by Indian fishermen, attracted by the rich fishing grounds on the Sri Lankan side of the IMBL. The Commission ignores the fact that there is no symmetry in the equation. The Indian trawler fleet– believed to be 5000-strong, and known to use destructive fishing methods– is no match for the smaller numbers of the Sri Lankan fleet comprising smaller craft.
In a recent interview with Rajya Sabha TV in Delhi, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner Prasad Kariyawasam reiterated that Indian fishermen caught trespassing ‘would not be harmed’ and would only be ‘persuaded to leave,’ even going so far as to agree with the interviewer’s assertion that the SLN would be ‘on their side.’
The Joint Commission statement also referred to the Sampur Power Project in Trincomalee.It was recently reported that the Government is to go ahead with a controversial Power Purchase Agreement of the Sampur power station, over which serious reservations have been expressed by energy sector experts. Some have warned of losses amounting to billions of rupees each year resulting from it. There are also unresolved issues of displaced populations.
Is the Government trying to please India ‘at any cost,’ suddenly realising that its support has become crucial in international fora?While there is no denying that the bilateral relationship with India is of paramount importance, is this the way it to set about calibrating it?
The approach being adopted by Sri Lanka in its relationships withinternational actors at this time is problematic for several reasons. It may not yield the expected results to start with. More importantly, it is the people who pay the price for the policy decisions taken, or not taken. It also gives rise to the question as to WHERE policy is being formulated. This activity does not seem to be happening in the MEA, which is too busy issuing media statements on Independence Day celebrations in the dozens of countries where it has diplomatic missions.
While it may not be clear where the directives are coming from, it is apparent that professionalism is sadly lacking in the conduct of diplomacy. Increasingly it seems that professionalism is being replaced by a kind of parochialism. It would appear that Sri Lanka is trying to trade with the rest of the world in a currency minted locally, in the mould of patronage politics. There will be few takers out there.
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