PM’s China visit et al.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's visit to China will be a significant one for many reasons. China has been, to borrow from a cliché, a friend-in-need and a friend-indeed.

This big brother has come to our aid especially when the chips were down, and no one (other than Pakistan) helped Sri Lanka when the Northern insurgency broke out.

One must not easily forget the bad old days of not so long ago, and the role the Chinese Government played all along in the defence of Sri Lanka's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

That's particularly why it somehow seemed that the Sri Lankan Government did not do enough to show its regret when the LTTE fired on some Chinese fishermen recently, killing some of them, off the Eastern seaboard. Probably the Government did not want to rock the peace boat too much by taking severe measures.

There is no gainsaying that foreign policy is an extension of a country's domestic policy. But latterly Sri Lanka has been adopting an unprofessional laissez-faire or a free-lance policy on international relations.

Insofar as the peace process is concerned, the Government has succeeded in getting the international players into the act. This has been articulated as the "safety net" theory - an orchestrated cornering of the LTTE into the peace process.

On the other hand, unfortunately, the Government seems quite un-principled in the foreign policy decisions it takes. We can refer back to China. By not issuing the world's best known Buddhist monk, the Dalai Lama of Tibet a Visa to visit Sri Lanka to offer flowers and pay homage at the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy we have reneged on our position as a Dhammadvipa, when in fact any Western tourist can do this for the mere asking.

Take also the case of Iraq.

And when the British government got the bright idea of finger-printing Sri Lankans for visa purposes, we gave-in without a whimper to their demands. It was manifest that in our policy we were keener to appease the British than we were concerned about the self-respect of the nation and her people.

Even though big powers may have no principles in international relations and engage in double-speak and duplicity, we as a nation need not necessarily have to lose our identity and character in the process, succumbing at will to their persuasive powers. Quite apart from the moral issues involved there also is a growing danger that the Foreign Office may be losing its way these days.

While the Minister is on a 'trip' of his own - canvassing for the UN Secretary General's post and evoking resentment from Mission Heads around the world for fixing his square-peg constituents into round-hole jobs around the globe - others are usurping his portfolio with abandon.

The Minister does not seem to care about this usurpation saying the peace process is not exactly his job. The packing of foreign missions with deadwood by his colleagues is not taken seriously either because his sights are now on bigger stakes - for himself.

With the affable incumbent Secretary to the Ministry (who was at least a sheet-anchor while the Foreign Office was drifting aimlessly) being posted to China, and sketchy reports that his successor may handle the work of the Peace Secretariat in addition to his day job, one would be justified in being paranoid about the Foreign Office.
There is this great need to ensure that the Foreign Office does not falter and stall.

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