Columns

Over in Colombo, the Attorney General has changed gear and what some call direction and is hunting for his “Gang of Twelve”. Those are the people he believes have been involved in the so-called “Bond Scam”. That includes former minister Ravi Karunanayake who not too long ago fell from his then residential penthouse to the doghouse, so to say.

Baroness Scotland posing for a picture with Lord Patel as controversy raged over an award of a contract to her bosom friend

Other legal matters, considered so very important by some, can take a backseat as the huntsman begins to hunt from a department that in the last decade or more has been characterised as a parody in action.

But he is not the only hunter. While the tonsorially-attention drawing Dappula de Livera lets loose his dogs of war in this land like no other, over in London another former attorney-general and minister is very much in the news but not for virtuous performance on behalf of the 53-nation Commonwealth that she currently represents.

Unlike Dappula de L the performing artist she is not the hunter but the hunted. And there is a whole pack from the 53-member nation worldwide organisation baying at her heels hoping that she can be cornered when the next Commonwealth Summit known by the acronym CHOGM, is held in three-months in Kigali, Rwanda. For those not particularly knowledgeable of Africa or tutored in geography Rwanda is a landlocked country in central/eastern Africa. Some members angered by the former AG’s conduct want to see her deadlocked in defence of her postures like the landlocked country hosting the summit.

Trouble began in the early days of Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Scotland of Asthal, a former attorney-general and minister in Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour government after Tony Blair left. How she came to office is interesting and shows how Britain tries to manage Commonwealth affairs as though London owns the organisation or believes it has prescriptive rights over it.

She succeeded India’s Kamalesh Sharma who served the customary two terms of four years each. With the current furore in some Commonwealth circles over Secretary-General Scotland’s conduct of affairs at the secretariat, her inclination to push other officials out of the organisation like she did to the deputy secretary-general Dr Josephine Ojiambo, a former Kenyan Ambassador to the UN and to Ram Venuprasad, a former deputy head of office of the Secretariat who was forced to resign after he raised concerns about Baroness Scotland’s decision to spend £50,000 on a garden party and hire various political associates as consultants and advisers.

Both of them were paid compensation on decisions made by tribunals.

In London’s diplomatic and journalist circles, Scotland has been talked of for her highhanded and aggressive approach to secretarial and other Commonwealth matters. This conversational criticism seems to be confirmed by an internal tribunal which said in its judgment in the Venuprasad case: “We also trust that this judgment will encourage the secretariat to reflect on the uncompromising and aggressive manner in which the disciplinary process and this litigation were conducted”.

It is also well known that Lady Scotland spent a huge sum described as “extravagant” to have her official residence refurbished for which she did not pay personally, of course. The sum mentioned is £ 330,000 hardly an amount to scoff at when the organisation is cash strapped with major donor-nations re-evaluating their commitments.

If the Labour Peer and one-time minister relishes living in a newly modernised residence in fashionable Mayfair she has also not forgotten her one-time colleagues in the House of Lords or in ministerial ranks.

So one of the first things she did on assuming office is to present a gift-wrapped contract to a friend, Lord Patel of Bradford. It is true that the UK is full of Gujarati-origin Patels but this was apparently a special one judging by the way she has been accused of bending the rules in awarding him that lucrative contract.

Last November the Commonwealth’s Internal Auditors criticised her for awarding this contract to a company run by friend and fellow peer — Lord Patel. A colourful photograph of the two appeared in the media underscoring their close relationship.

The Commonwealth Audit Committee accused her of “circumventing” usual competitive tendering rules by awarding a £ 250,000 to a firm owned by Lord Patel. The Committee report claimed that the Patel firm was in quite some debt.

However, Lady Scotland accused her critics of “biased leaks and “half truths” that were undermining the organisation. Meanwhile, her lawyers argued that the manner in which she gave the contract to the Patel-owned company was fully justified.

To those in this unique land which is also a senior member of the Commonwealth it would seem like déjà vu. After all how often have we gone through this process of contractual manipulations, procurement rule and procedure bending, nepotism and cronyism and all sorts of friends handpicked for jobs as Lady Scotland is charged with doing.

What is interesting is the role that the British Government is said to have played to instal persons in the highest office of secretary general and at other times to try to bring them down.

Currently it is to bring down the present one as the Brits did at the turn of the century, trying to oust former New Zealand Foreign Minister Don McKinnon using Lakshman Kadirgamar as a pawn.

I had quite some knowledge about this having been in the know of what was going on, with the Brits looking for a candidate to oust McKinnon who was becoming too hot to handle. I was given the first interview with the new secretary-general as I was writing for the Commonwealth Feature Service and editing it at the time.

One comment that McKinnon made seemed to have irritated the British media. The new SG told me that he would not allow the British media to dictate how he should run the Commonwealth though the printed feature had toned it down.

But that was not all. The British Foreign Office and even its ministers were told a thing or two that did not go down well with the Brits. One of the things that really got the British goat was when McKinnon decided that the UK cannot continue to sit on every reconstituted CMAG — the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group.

So the British annoyed at the intended McKinnon reforms looked for a replacement for him. At one time it seemed anybody would do other than the New Zealander.

Lady Scotland was also brought to fill in a slot. There was the fear that with Queen Elizabeth slowly pulling out as the Commonwealth’s head there were member countries looking at an alternative arrangement. The Brits wanted the position to pass on to the Prince of Wales to which not all members were happy.

So Dominica where Lady Scotland was born though she had moved to London as a kid, her country of birth was more than encouraged to throw her name into the ring.

Now the Boris Johnson government wants the SG who the British once promoted removed. Johnson has made the moves as leaked confidential letters reveal.

How will Sri Lanka vote when the time comes?  Will it go along with Lady Scotland, with whom some Sri Lankan politicians may have common characteristics and perhaps common cause. As they say who knows what or when.

(Neville de Silva is a veteran Sri Lankan journalist who was Assistant Editor, Diplomatic Editor and Political Columnist at the Hong Kong Standard before moving to London where he worked for the Gemini News Service. Later he was Sri Lanka’s Deputy chief-of –mission in Bangkok and Deputy High Commissioner in London before returning to journalism. )