‘Hullo Machang’ diplomacy won’t work

Hillary Clinton was the target of Rajapakse propaganda hitmen last week as predicted the previous Sunday in our column about ‘potting targets on a revolving stage.’ No doubt, Clinton and America deserved all the vituperation of UPFA politicos and scribes for the massive faux pas of the State Department. The US Secretary of State had while speaking in the UN Security Council on a resolution calling for an end to sexual violence in armed conflict said: ‘We’ve seen rape used as a tactic of war before in Bosnia, Burma and Sri Lanka.’

This naturally resulted in very strong protests being made in Sri Lanka. The  US State Department in a ‘clarification’ to Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said that the US government over the year had detailed numerous cases of  rape and sexual violence in Sri Lanka particularly acts committed against women held by the government. However, Melanne Verveer, the State Department’s Global Women’s Issues Ambassador-at-Large had said, ‘In the most recent phase of the conflict, from 2006 to 2009 we have not received reports that rape and sexual abuse were used as tools of war as they clearly have in other conflict areas around the world.’

Clarification not apology

While some apologists for the Rajapakse government attempted to project this clarification as an apology by the US State Department and Hillary Clinton,  it was clearly not so. What it implied was that numerous cases of rape and sexual violence had been reported in the period prior to 2006 but not after that. Nonetheless, it was a very lame excuse and a colossal blunder from which the State Department attempted to wriggle out .

Verbally bashing Americans, even those such as Hillary Clinton, does much to  Sri Lankan journalist machismo and is an absolute safe exercise unlike bashing our local VIPs and having armed killers trailing them on the road as it happened to Lasantha Wickrematunge. But what should be the main concern of this country, in this instance, has been swept under the carpet. What has the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington whose job is to maintain good, friendly relations between the two countries been doing  while relations between the two countries have been going down the pallang for quite some time?

 Anti- Lanka lobby

As alleged by some in charmed government circles, there appears to be a very effective anti Sri Lanka lobby working against us. Quite obviously details in Hillary Clinton’s speech would have been written by her speech writers or advisors and the name of Sri Lanka had been slipped  into the text of her speech along with other countries accused of rape. Such errors do not usually happen particularly in the speeches of the Secretary of State, we are told.

There could be a very strong anti-Sri Lanka lobby operating in the State Department, White House, US Congress and perhaps other agencies as well.  It could be dollar strapped Eelam lobbyists at work taking advantage of disagreement in policies of the Rajapakse and Obama administrations. Quite apart from  these allegations of rape by our armed forces, there is a report by the State Department on alleged  war crimes now before the US Senate to be debated.

 Washington Embassy

The question arises: What is Sri Lanka’s Embassy in Washington doing about it? Perhaps it  is inadequately staffed in quality diplomats required to grope with the looming problems that have been developing for quite sometime.

Recently the Foreign Minister propounded a new concept of diplomatic practice in an interview given to a Sunday paper on September 13. When asked about shortcomings  in his ministry; high commissioners and staff being recalled mid-way with no reasons given, friends and relations with no known qualifications other than their pedigree occupying high posts… he had said: ‘We have 57 missions in the world, we have 165 members in the Foreign Service. All heads of missions are political appointees. We now intend to maintain a reasonable balance between these appointees and those from the career service. Since I came into office I have been recruiting regularly to the Foreign Service… If you have to appoint somebody you can’t put an enemy, you have to appoint friends because they have to be friendly to us and friendly to the country.’

Hullo Machang

This of course is an entirely new brand of diplomacy which is being put into practice which in Sri Lankan parlance could be described as: ‘Hullo, Machang’ diplomacy. Should only friends be trusted? What about professionals who may not be on  the ‘Hullo Machang’ circuit but based on  the academic performances as well as career achievements? Surely they can do much better than cronies of the Minister or of government VIPs sans any worthwhile qualifications?

Some of our best known diplomats such as Shirley Amerasinghe (Chairman of the Law of the Sea Conference), Jayantha Dhanapala (Chairman of extension of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty Conference),  Neville Kanakaratne and many others,  certainly did not belong to the ‘Hullo Machang’ category. Does it mean that under the present scheme the likes of these outstanding diplomats are to be shut out forever?

Over the past two to three years our relations with the most powerful nations of the world — United States and the European Union have hit an all time low. Our domestic policies of fighting terrorism may have been partly the cause but it need not have been. During 18 years of UNP rule and even under Chandrika Kumaratunga this country had no option but to resort to a military option to curb terrorism just as much Mahinda Rajapakse did. But our relations with the West did not deteriorate and in fact did improve with substantial foreign assistance being extended during these administrations

Other Western embassies

Questions should be asked not only about the performance of the Washington Embassy but  of all other embassies in Western countries where diplomatic relations have ebbed to the lowest possible levels. What have diplomats of the ‘Hullo Machang’ variety as well as professional diplomats been doing to undo the damage done by Eelamists?

Journalist ‘sharp shooters’ appear to be only getting their articles and photographs published in Sri Lankan papers and we have yet to see a significant article being placed in a reputed Western journal. Last week’s  Economist  had an article devastating enough for it to be held up by the Customs even till Friday when this column is being written.

As we have said in previous columns of Serendipity lambasting Western leaders and their governments against anti Sri Lankan policies should not be our primary objective. We have to repair and renew good relations with these powerful countries who are our principal trading partners.