Diplomatic efforts in Australia and New Zealand reap dividends
Wednesday, 27 November 2013 00:00
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As a Sri Lankan expatriate currently residing in Australia and having also lived in New Zealand, the outcome from the recently-concluded Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is an opportune time to reflect on the sterling efforts of our diplomatic representatives in these two trans-Tasman countries.
Sri Lanka’s high commissioner in Australia Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, ably supported by the Honorary Consul for Sri Lanka in New Zealand Aruna Abeygoonesekara, has worked tirelessly over the last few years to ensure that key leaders in these Commonwealth neighbours, as well as the public, are presented with an accurate representation of the situation in Sri Lanka. We should be grateful to their efforts in countering the formidable and coordinated anti-Sri Lanka campaign unleashed over the past few weeks.
Despite the barrage of misinformation and intense lobbying from various quarters in the lead up to CHOGM, both Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his New Zealand counterpart demonstrated their unequivocal support for Sri Lanka and the efforts of the current Sri Lankan Government during CHOGM. Both Prime Ministers publically acknowledged the impressive progress Sri Lanka has made in the post-conflict phase and backed up these sentiments with much appreciated assistance.
At the conclusion of his visit, Prime Minister Tony Abbott formally gifted two Bay-class patrol boats to the Sri Lankan Navy in a clear sign of his Government’s close cooperation and good relationship with the Sri Lankan Government, as both nations work together to combat illegal people smuggling.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key’s visit to Sri Lanka coincided with the signing of a new dairy cooperation agreement and the announcement that Sri Lanka would be gifting an elephant to New Zealand. Although both these initiatives have been in the pipeline for some time, they undoubtedly reflect the culmination of successful behind-the-scenes diplomatic engagement and dialogue by High Commissioner Samarasinghe and Consul Abeygoonesekara.
The actions of the Australian and New Zealand Prime Ministers stand in marked contrast to the unfortunate stance taken by UK Prime Minister David Cameron. Sadly, it appears that the British Prime Minister’s decision to unilaterally castigate Sri Lanka and threaten it with an ultimatum is a reflection of his poor understanding of developments on the ground.
He has, it would seem, failed to do his homework before visiting Sri Lanka, choosing to listen to the voice of the LTTE-rump and its NGO beneficiaries rather than give due heed to the factual representations by Sri Lanka’s diplomatic core in London led by the eminently capable High Commissioner Dr. Chris Nonis. In this regard, one cannot but agree with the assessment by Sri Lanka’s favourite cricketing son, Muttiah Muralitharan – Prime Minster Cameron must indeed have been misled.
As Sri Lanka assumes Chairmanship of the Commonwealth for the next two years, we must acknowledge and thank the vast majority of member states that gave their support to Sri Lanka during CHOGM 2013. We are especially thankful to Australia and New Zealand for their constructive engagement and support of our motherland.
Behind this successful outcome, we should not forget the hard and often challenging work undertaken by our diplomatic representatives. Rather than engaging in public posturing, extravagant distortion of facts or the issuing of ultimatums, both Admiral Samarasinhe and Abeygoonesekara have gone about their task with dignity, diligence and perseverance. This is the essence of successful diplomacy. All Sri Lankans should be thankful for their efforts.
Patricia de Silva
Future policy direction for Sri Lanka’s exports
The tone and the arguments presented at the recently-concluded forum ‘Whither exports in the next five years? – Future policy direction for Sri Lanka’s exports’ appears that the only culprit for the volatility of the export sector in recent years is the public sector.
Contrary to these arguments, a series of initiatives have been taken by the public sector in the past few years to create a stable macroeconomic environment with the supportive infrastructure in order to create an investor friendly market environment with a view to making our private sector globally competitive.
In particular, significant investments have been made in both physical and social infrastructure to create new opportunities and enhance capacity in many areas in the economy to move to a high growth path. Therefore, what is important now is to seize these emerging opportunities to harness maximum social and economic benefits to all stakeholders in the economy.
I feel that promoting exports is a collective responsibility of all stakeholders. Therefore, it would have been much more beneficial if the deliberations at this forum would have led to a road map with specific recommendations which can be implemented by all stakeholders to diversify exports, introduce value added products and further promote competitiveness of our industries to expand exports.
A progressive exporter
