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The Government’s foreign policy initiatives must be doing something right, judging by the fact that it has won two consecutive multilateral elections of the United Nations recently.

The Foreign Ministry has won the endorsement of the international community firstly by the election of Prasad Kariyawasam, former Foreign Secretary and one-time ambassador to the United States, Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (CMW) for the term 2024-2027.  

At an election in New York, Mr. Kariyawasam won 44 votes out of 57 (77%) co-securing the second highest place with Algeria. He has been on this committee three times.

Most recently, Sri Lanka was elected to the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) for 2023-2027 during the 42nd General Conference of the inter-governmental organisation securing 144 votes out of 188 countries (76.5%) co-securing third place in the region with Bangladesh.

UNESCO elected six members to the Board out of nine candidates for the Asia-Pacific region. Others elected from the region were from Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Australia and South Korea. Sri Lanka last served on the Board during the ‘Yahapalana’ Government period from 2015-2019.

Meanwhile, the US, which withdrew from UNESCO several times before, once in 1984 when the UN agency introduced a ‘New Information Order’ and then later by passing a law to keep out of UN agencies that recognised Palestine as a member-state. Its policy towards these organisations took a still more hardened position under the Donald Trump Administration when the US pulled out of UNESCO and UNHRC.

However, in June this year, the US returned to these UN agencies. It seems the US was concerned with China taking control of them through funding and thereby extending China’s influence among member-states due to the vacuum created by the US absence.

In June, President Wickremesinghe met the UNESCO Director General Audrey A Zouley, a former French Minister of Culture during his visit to Paris.

If they say foreign policy is an extension of domestic policy, the Wickremesinghe Government may hope these election victories abroad also reflect back home in one way or the other.

President meets USAID Chief in Male

On Friday, President Ranil Wickremesinghe flew to the Maldives to be present for the inauguration of new Maldivian President Mohamed Muiz. While there, he took the opportunity to meet briefly with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power, who was also present for the inauguration.

Muzammil participates in C’wealth conference, speaks on “smart and human” cities

Mr Muzammil with a delegate at the conference at Kigali in Rwanda

Uva Governor A. J. M. Muzammil represented Sri Lanka at the Commonwealth Local Government Conference at Kigali in Rwanda this week. The theme of the conference was “Building resilience in local government to build back better.”

The Governor participated at the conference following a directive issued by Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena who also holds the portfolio of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government.

The Uva Provincial Council staff lapsed some four years ago on October 8, 2019. Mr Muzammil was appointed to the post in 2020. He also spoke at the conference on the role of “Creating smart and human cities through public participation and municipal finance.”

The topic of the Governor attending the conference came up during a discussion held among a group of former ruling party Provincial council members representing the Uva provincial council this week. One of them said: “Before the Governor goes around the world pontificating on the resilience of public participation in city finance and local government, he should at least pressure this government to hold local elections first.”

Banners and boquets for Ranil after Budget speech; home ownership and land for millions of people

Banners of the President in Central Colombo after the Budget speech

While President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Budget 2024 received mixed results, there was near universal praise for several of his Budget proposals to give land and home ownership to farmers, low-income families and estate dwellers.

Under Mr Wickremesinghe’s Budget proposals, two million farming families who lost their traditional lands during the British colonial era are due to get ownership of land and farmland, 50,000 low-income families living in government run housing will be given ownership of the houses, and estate dwellers are due to be given land ownership and houses.

Unsurprisingly, Mr Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) went to town over the proposals. Despite President Wickremesinghe issuing a directive not to put up banners, cutouts and posters of his image, some of his party members were quick to note the historic nature of the proposals as they praised their leader for taking measures to secure land and home rights for millions of people even amid such a difficult economic situation.

He said his government was being accused of privatisation of national assets, adding that this was the biggest privatisation programme undertaken by any government.

Banners went up in many places of the UNP’s stronghold of Central Colombo soon after the Budget proposals were presented.

No-balls and body line bowling during cricket rumpus in Parliament

The many twists and turns regarding investigations by Parliament’s Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) into Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) culminated on Friday with the abrupt suspension of all COPE meetings until further notice.

Prof. Ranjith Bandara

Friday’s announcement by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena that COPE meetings will be suspended until an investigation into matters raised by MPs had been completed, capped a bizarre few days since SLC officials were summoned before COPE chaired by Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Parliamentarian Prof. Ranjith Bandara on Tuesday.

Tuesday’s COPE meeting was highly contentious, as COPE members jumped at the chance to grill SLC President Shammi Silva and other officials over the Special Audit report into the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia and other issues pertaining to SLC.

However, it was in the days following the appearance of SLC officials that things really escalated. COPE proceedings are televised and footage emerged on Wednesday appearing to show Prof. Bandara gesturing to someone via hand signal to remain quiet. Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa alleged in Parliament that the COPE Chairman’s hand signal had been directed to SLC officials asking them to refrain from disclosing information to certain questions.

“By using such a hand signal, the COPE Chairman is directly or indirectly influencing witnesses who are giving evidence before his Committee. This is a serious matter,” Mr Premadasa said, urging the Speaker to conduct an investigation.

In COPE, Opposition members said they no longer had any confidence in Prof. Bandara to function as Committee Chair and demanded he either step down or for measures be taken to remove him.

In his defence, Prof. Bandara claimed his hand signal was meant for COPE members, who were speaking over each other, to speak one at a time.

Worse was to follow. Footage also emerged showing Prof. Bandara’s son, Kanishka Bandara, sitting in during the hearing with SLC. Both Mr Premadasa and other Opposition MPs questioned how he came to be there given that outsiders were not permitted to attend COPE meetings. It was disclosed that the COPE Chair’s son was attending the meetings in his capacity as Coordinating Secretary to his father.

No outsiders aside from COPE members and designated officials were permitted to attend such committee meetings. Prof. Bandara claimed his son had been given permission by Parliament authorities to access COPE Committee meetings since October 13, 2022.

However, while Parliament’s Department of Sergeant-at-Arms could grant approval for someone to access the Parliament complex, it could not decide who attends committee meetings. That authority rests with the Committee Chairman, and the allegation is that Prof. Bandara used his position as COPE Chair to allow his son to sit in at committee meetings.

Prof. Bandara was also facing accusations that he did not disclose a conflict of interest given that he had once served as a Consultant to SLC. After this information came to light in Parliament, SLC issued a statement that the Colombo School of Business and Management headed by Prof. Bandara had drafted a concept paper for a proposed SLC University from 2017 to 2018 during the time Thilanga Sumathipala was SLC President. The statement added that while SLC had paid the institution for its consultancy services during this period, it did not make any separate payment to Prof. Bandara.

Senior DIG also dragged into cricket scandal

It is not only the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) Chairman who has been dragged into scandals involving Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), Western Province Senior Deputy Inspector General (SDIG) Deshabandu Tennakoon was forced this week to release a letter he wrote to SLC turning down a security consultant post the Board had offered in 2021 for two years. He is one of the frontrunners for the post of the next Police Inspector General.

SDIG Tennakoon’s letter to the SLC President, dated November 5, 2021, noted that the Establishment Code stipulated that public officers need the approval of their subject Ministry’s Secretary if they were to accept a post outside their permanent employment or position. The Public Security Ministry Secretary had not given approval for the SDIG to accept the post and as such, he was unable to take it up, the letter said.

The SLC had also clarified it did not make any payments to SDIG Tennakoon as he did not take up the post that was offered to him.