Sunday Times 2
Failed foreign policies and the need for a mega ministry
View(s):Leelananda De Silva, a former illustrious member of our Administrative Service and subsequently an international public servant, has written a thought-provoking article in the Sunday Times last week under the headline ‘Rethinking the role of Sri Lanka missions abroad’. Does he advocate the creation of a mega foreign policy making Ministry? More anon.
Diplomatic missions could and should make a contribution, (when requested), to decide on the foreign policy of a country, but the basic functions of a diplomatic mission as set out in the Vienna Convention would be, of course, representing the country and its interests; next the mission is expected to promote those interests; monitor and report on the political developments and, of course, report on the economic opportunities available for the home country, and to promote investment, trade, tourism from certain countries and technology. Promoting friendly relations; developing people-to-people relations with people of the host country and developing high-level contacts, particularly with the decision makers, opinion makers and the leading citizens of the host country are important functions of a mission. The mission is also required to protect the interests of the citizens of the home country, an important function when, as in the Middle East, we have thousands employed in the host country and last but not least, negotiate with the host country when the necessity arises.
The ministry must set out a programme of work and indicate to the mission the areas of work it considers important for the mission to concentrate on; the ministry must call for regular performance reports, and also the diplomatic staff of the mission must be required to give the names of the new contacts they have established and also give the names and designations of those they have entertained using their entertainment allowance.
As for the contribution of missions towards the formulation of foreign policy, it is only the political reports filed by the mission that may contribute to policy makers deciding on particular approach towards a country but generally in our country our foreign policy has been decided on by the political party which has come into office.
In 1948, the government of Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake perceiving a possible threat from the likes of K.M. Panikkar and likeminded Indians, decided to have a defence agreement with Britain and our foreign policy was pro-West. In 1956 the government of Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike abrogated the agreements with Britain; in 1971 the government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike adopted Non-Alignment as our foreign policy and that continued as our foreign policy till 1978.
Though we were in the Chair of the Non Align Movement, President J.R. Jayewardene adopted a pro-West foreign policy as the socialist governments had pauperised the country and our GDP growth was 2%; he adopted a pro-West foreign policy to attract direct foreign investments, his government certainly succeeded in attracting foreign investment but his policies were perceived as a threat to India during the period of the Cold War.
India armed and trained Tamil militants (read Shekar Gupta’s article titled Ominous Presence in Tamil Nadu in India Today of March 31, 1984) and destabilised our country. Since we had nationalised the British-owned plantations they had no interests in this country and we had no friends to come to our aid even when our territorial integrity was violated with impunity and we were intimidated into stopping the war against the LTTE terrorists, not even the US came to our assistance; our foreign policy had failed our country and our people. The policy towards the other countries of the world was decided on by the political hierarchy, and the missions had almost no say in its formulation.
To conclude, may I suggest that (I have made this suggestion twice before) we must now have a Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Investment Promotion charged with the task of coordinating all government business, a mega ministry, and place it under the Prime Minister himself, to put the emphasis on what we consider to be our vital interests; (the present Minister could be designated ‘Senior Minister’).
K. Godage