More egg on our diplomatic face

By Neville de Silva

The panjandrums that run the foreign ministry who believe they are god's gift to diplomacy don't seem to learn elementary lessons. Three weeks ago when I wrote that despite all the vainglorious talk about rallying the international community against terrorism, the leading lights of the ministry had failed to utilise the one body in the 53-nation Commonwealth dedicated to tackling terrorism internationally, I was subject to charges of "erroneously" portraying Sri Lanka as being inactive in the Commonwealth in this regard and of being "badly informed."All the diplomatic gobbledegook emanating from the foreign ministry could not obscure the fact that it had indeed failed to make use of the Commonwealth Committee on Terrorism (CCT) set up in 2001 by Secretary-General Don McKinnon in which Sri Lanka was and continues to be a member, since it went into abeyance after November 2003.I thought that the new brooms at the foreign ministry had not considered activating this 10-nation committee because it had failed to recognise its importance in this internationally-declared war on terrorism.Now, new evidence suggests that the reason for this neglect is even more serious than I first suspected.

Last month Secretary-General McKinnon invited a few journalists from Commonwealth countries and Commonwealth media organisations for lunch, to discuss this month's Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting in Kampala Uganda.It was in the course of the pre-lunch conversations I had, that the truth about Sri Lanka's abominable performance on the question of the CCT emerged. Highly- placed Commonwealth sources( they requested anonymity) told me that when Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and his ministry secretary Palitha Kohana called on Secretary-General McKinnon during their visit to London in March one of the issues that came up was terrorism. According to this source, McKinnon had asked the visiting duo why Sri Lanka has not called for a meeting of the CCT since Colombo is obviously concerned about gaining support for its own fight against terrorism.

Apparently, our foreign ministry's leading lights that shine brightly in the night skies over Europe or anywhere else where a visit is made possible, did not seem to know about the existence of this committee. Seeing the bemused look on the faces of the minister and his foreign secretary, Don McKinnon has reportedly pointed out that Sri Lanka is a member of this committee. Apparently the bemused look turned to one of bewilderment. It seemed that neither the minister nor his foreign secretary seemed to be aware that Sri Lanka was a member of this all-important committee which is the only Commonwealth body whose existence is because of international terrorism. Naturally McKinnon who had set up this committee at ministerial level and had fought off western members-UK, Australia and Canada- to downgrade it to officials, was surprised not just at Sri Lanka's lack of interest but even more, its ignorance about the existence of the CCT and its own position in it.

Other Commonwealth secretariat sources told me that McKinnon had again wondered about Sri Lanka's seeming nonchalance when he was in New York in September for the UN General Assembly sessions during which the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) met as usual to review matters and discuss the forthcoming CHOGM. McKinnon had wondered why Sri Lanka had not called for a meeting of CCT in New York at the same time as foreign ministers, or at least representatives of the member-countries of the CCT would have been present. This is an issue I had also raised in my column last month that earned a rejoinder from the foreign ministry.

But now, the sheer incompetence of the ministry is coming to light. As Don McKinnon said when I publicly asked him during the lunch, he or any member of the CCT (of which Sri Lanka is a member) could call for a meeting. That is even conceded in the foreign ministry's response to me. Apparently, McKinnon's curiosity was roused in New York when he was made aware of a paper Sri Lanka was circulating proposing a Commonwealth ministerial meeting in Colombo some time next year on the subject of terrorism. Senior officials at the Commonwealth Secretariat appeared to be somewhat puzzled why Sri Lanka had not first tested the waters for such a meeting at the Committee on Terrorism and is trying to get it on to the agenda of CHOGM. Whether such a proposal will get the nod from the summit will depend on whether it will pass muster at the foreign ministers' level meeting preceding the summit. Colombo could easily have canvassed support at CCT first. Instead it wanted to go to the top in one shot.

The CCT was not the only issue on which we seem to have committed a serious faux pas. At the same March meeting in London when the issue of CMAG (of which we are a member too) and Pakistan arose, Bogollagama is said to have praised President Musharraf for the manner in which he was running the country, much to the surprise of the Commonwealth Secretary-General and his senior officials.

CMAG is monitoring Musharraf's performance because he has failed to keep the promises that he had held out earlier about relinquishing his military role.When CMAG met in New York in September Bogollagama went ecstatic at the meeting and extolled Musharraf. Bogollagama went to the extent of issuing a press statement following the CMAG meeting which said on Pakistan: "Further the Foreign Minister welcomed the progress recorded in the democratic process in Pakistan and maintenance of the rule of law. Noting the recent submission in the Supreme Court that the posts of President and Army Chief would soon be separated, Sri Lanka was of the view that with these positive developments Pakistan could soon be taken off the CMAG agenda."

The other members of CMAG were certainly not as optimistic or naïve as Sri Lanka's Bogollagama. The press release after the CMAG meeting said: "CMAG recalled the CHOGM Communique of November 2005 and reaffirmed in particular 'that the holding by the same person of the offices of Head of State and Chief of Army Staff is incompatible with the basic principles of democracy and the spirit of the Harare Commonwealth principles….until the two offices are separated the process of democratisation in Pakistan will not be irreversible.'

The CMAG further recalled that Commonwealth Heads of Government had 'urged Pakistan to resolve this issue as early as possible and not beyond the end of the current presidential term in 2007 at the latest."Bogollagama's total misreading of the situation or his attempt to please Pakistan by singing the praises of its president publicly instead of conveying what he had said at CMAG privately to Pakistan, has left Sri Lanka looking utterly foolish just one month later.

Musharraf's desire to cling to power-something that would not be strange to Bogollagama and some others in government-and to leave his path to autocratic rule strewn with broken promises to the Commonwealth and others, has now prompted McKinnon to call an extraordinary meeting of CMAG for tomorrow in London.It would be best if Bogollagama and his ministry secretary who is again to take to the skies over eastern/central Europe (what on earth for?) are not seen anywhere at or near the CMAG meeting.

Apart from having to eat his words Bogollagama will have to wipe all that egg off his face. If Sri Lanka is to be saved from such diplomatic incompetence and general amateurishness (the Karuna issue is a case in point) the only hope is for a change of guard at the foreign ministry and diplomacy being returned to professionals from mediocrities parading in accustomed plumes.