Foreign policy: Too many cooks will spoil the broth!

Sri Lanka is currently in a transitional phase with a new President swearing in on 18 November, after a hard-fought Presidential Election and a Parliamentary Election looming on the horizon. 

This is time for new political alignments, jockeying for power and seeking plum positions in the new administration. Those who have supported the Presidential Election with the genuine desire to help the country will be joined by others, who have been waiting for nearly five years in anticipation of personal benefits. 

While the former would be justifiably happy of the contribution made to their motherland, the latter group will seek choice rewards from chairmen’s positions in Government corporations, banks etc., to ambassadorial positions in our diplomatic missions abroad.

This may be a natural phenomenon, when one administration yields to another and the latter is obliged to accommodate those who helped it on its way to power. However, when it comes to foreign policy, one has to be doubly careful as vital national interests are at stake. 

For example, just one week after the inauguration of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka was confronted with an alleged abduction of a female local employee attached to a foreign embassy based in Colombo. With that, fears of abductions, disappearances, torture intimidation, etc., which was part of Sri Lanka’s past, have resurfaced. 

The issue of alleged abduction was something that had to be dealt with by the police and judiciary in cooperation with the foreign mission concerned. Handling that matter with the foreign mission concerned and the media should have been the responsibility of the Foreign Ministry. 

However, what happened was individuals, both politicians and officials, coming forward to provide their own accounts of the alleged incident and volunteering information on the motives behind the incident. This clearly is not a good beginning for the new administration.

It is time for the new administration to take control of the situation. Both politicians aligned with the Government and errant officials must be told not to venture into domains of others and start turf wars. 

For example, ACSA and SOFA are security related matters that should be the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence, just as much MCC should come under the purview of transport, lands and finance ministries. 

In respect of all these, the Foreign Ministry has an important role to play. Other institutions may have their own views on these issues, but such matters should be discussed, and consensus reached within the Cabinet, and certainly not in public.

In three months’ time the Human Rights Council will meet in Geneva. At some point during its deliberations, the Council would give consideration to the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, flowing from the original resolution 30/1 adopted in 2015.However, negotiating a new resolution is due to take place only in March 2021. 

The previous administration, in its wisdom decided to co-sponsor that resolution, which in hindsight was an uncalled-for decision. What Sri Lanka should do, is to carefully manoeuvre its way out of Geneva by taking meaningful steps to improve the human rights situation in the country during the intervening period. 

There are steps the Government should take to improve the human rights situation, and it is hoped that political parties aligned with the Government would not come up with their own prescriptions what Sri Lanka should do at the 2020 March session, instead of dealing with the matter one year later.

Managing foreign relations in a globalised world is not an easy task. Foreign relations should be handled by professionals, who have had exposure to vagaries of international relations over a period of time. Our foreign relations have to be handled deftly and mishandling the situation could impact adversely on our national security and economy, and consequently wellbeing of our people. 

Right now, Sri Lanka is confronted with multifaceted issues, including the alleged kidnapping saga; British courts delivering a verdict against the former military Attaché, who was assigned to our High Commission in London; attempts by political parties in Britain to prescribe solutions how Sri Lanka should take care of its internal affairs; conflict with the United Nations over Sri Lankan Peace keeping Forces in Lebanon and Mali due to the decision taken by Sri Lankan President to appoint a new Commander of Sri Lanka Army and deciding on Sri Lanka’s stance at the Human Rights Council in March 2020. This indeed is a quite a long catalogue. Sri Lanka should be wary of adding more issues to this already long list.

Beyond the Foreign Minister and the ministry, there are two other institutions that could provide guidance to the Foreign Ministry to carry out its responsibilities. Those are the offices of the President and the Prime Minister. They should develop a consultative mechanism to address serious international and bilateral issues confronting the State. 

Busybodies should not be allowed to venture into foreign relations to the detriment of interests of the country and the new administration.

(This is a Pathfinder Alert of the Pathfinder Foundation. Readers’ comments are welcome at www.pathfinderfoundation.org)