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If Alice could say curiouser and curiouser to happenings in Wonderland what would she have said if confronted with Sri Lanka’s foreign policy or what passes off for it? Foreign it is but policy it is not, if by policy is meant a clearly articulated position that would be central to its international and bilateral relations.

In a post-Geneva interview after the Resplendent Isle was soundly defeated at the UN Human Rights Council last March — unless you agree with the mathematical wizardry of some government ministers whose addition turned defeat into victory — Rear Admiral (Ret) Jayanath Colombage, the country’s foreign Secretary, referred to a freshly minted 20-point programme.

“I don’t see a major shift in our foreign policy. Towards the latter part of 2020, Sri Lanka launched its first-ever written, documented foreign policy directives for 2020 and beyond. This 20-point foreign policy is there and I don’t think it needs major changes because of the resolution.

“The 20-point foreign policy directives were designed to economically develop Sri Lanka and maintain social harmony. We need to continue that rather than responding unnecessarily to the UN resolution. We need to move on for the sake of Sri Lanka.”

The Bible says that Moses was presented with Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. Foreign Secretary Colombage has provided us with 20 directives but not from such a historic place or elevation as Mount Sinai. The retired Rear Admiral has alas left many, if not all, of us at sea.

The Ten Commandments we can read at any time. Who has actually read this 20-point document which the good Admiral says “is there”. Pray where? In a hamus pettiya?

He does not seem to think this ‘sacred’ document requires “major changes” because of the resolution. That is his view and he is entitled to it. But for the rest of us to judge whether it does or not, whether it is clear enough or not, whether it makes sense or not and whether it is sustainable or not as it has no expiry date, surely depends on what it says when read by those knowledgeable, qualified and experienced in international politics and how it is panning out.

I doubt the people at large with whom sovereignty lies according to the country’s constitution, are aware of the existence of the Twenty Commandments that have been done and dusted on their behalf without their knowledge or the input of stakeholders as they are called, in its preparation. It all seems to have been in secrecy possibly with the help of some path finders.

The foreign secretary says, “Sri Lanka launched its first-ever written, documented foreign policy directives for 2020 and beyond”. It may not have the moral authority and sanctity of the Ten Commandments as Christians believe, but surely Colombage’s 20-point document has historical value as the first- ever written document, in the foreign secretary’s belief, containing what stands for Sri Lanka’s foreign policy of the Gotabaya era which the president expects to extend for another eight years at least.

So it is all the more necessary the country should be aware of its contents. After all the manner in which the former Rear Admiral talks of it, this is so historic and precious that it seemed like he dived into the waters of the Dead Sea and emerged with the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Being a historic document and having been told earlier that Sri Lanka would follow an “India First” policy and wishing to know what all these pronouncements entail and where the earlier statements fit into the new scope of things, I wrote a polite email to our High Commissioner in London on April 7, requesting a copy of the 20-point document.

After all if the country is hacking a new path in foreign policy, if it has been recast or at least updated, the public including the Sri Lanka community in the UK, would surely like to know where the country is headed in its international relations.

At this writing on July 29, more than three months after my first email to the High Commission on this issue, I have not had the courtesy of a reply. It has been like waiting for Godot though even Godot would have made ‘contact’ by now.

In a way it is understandable. It is quite possible that our diplomats, or some of them, appear to be in the dark about it as most of us are. Either our diplomatic missions have not been provided with the 20-point directives or the missions have been told not to disclose the contents, which surely is strange. Either way it must surely be embarrassing that our diplomatic frontline is silent on this or being silenced.

But if the document was “launched” in the latter part of 2020, two questions arise. Who launched it and more importantly where is it? The fact that it does not seem to have been discussed by professionals and other talking heads on the country’s numerous TV channels or commented on by interested circles that usually discuss foreign policy in the print media makes one wonder whether this first-ever document has been discarded on the way to finding another new path to international relations.

One possible explanation is that foreign policy making has now been outsourced to an NGO or NGOs which some in the current administration and outside it have decried over the years as foreign-funded organisations whose intentions are dubious.

In this constant transmogrification, the Foreign Ministry is being treated as useful an adjunct as the appendix. Consider for instance the meetings that new Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa had with two groups of Colombo-based envoys including the major powers. Neither the Sri Lanka Foreign Minister nor senior representatives of the Foreign Ministry were present which is very odd, to say the least.

Does this indicate a downsizing of the role of the Foreign Ministry into an employment agency for the progeny of relatives and acolytes, as the new Finance Minister charts his own path in international dealings, leaving the Foreign Ministry to sort out whether its policy is neutral, non-aligned or aligned to one?

What made me recall Foreign Secretary Colombage’s earlier words about an “India First” policy and then a “neutral” policy and the absence of any reference to Sri Lanka’s traditional policy of non-alignment seemed to suggest that the new administration had dumped non-alignment in the waste bin, is his most recent declaration.

The other day I read the same foreign secretary say in a keynote address that Sri Lanka followed what he called “a foreign policy of neutrality whilst remaining non-aligned amidst strategic competition in the Indian Ocean”.

Now suddenly non-alignment is being resurrected like Lazarus. But what exactly does this new definition of our foreign policy mean?

Both “India First” and neutrality have proved to be fiction. Is non-alignment stealthily creeping back into the Foreign Ministry’s nomenclature having witnessed how some non-aligned nations reacted to our so-called neutrality when it came to voting on resolutions in Geneva?

Even trusted ally China does not see us neutral — obviously. China’s statement after its Defence Minister Wei Fenghe’s visit to Colombo said, “China appreciates Sri Lanka’s independent and non-aligned policy…….”

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