Can anyone stop the rot in SL Foreign Service?

For several decades now, Sri Lanka missions abroad have been converted into places of refuge for political appointees. Those with the right connection to the political party in power can enjoy three to four years of a fully paid holiday at Government expense in some of the best capitals in the world from Washington to Paris to Tokyo to Rio de Janeiro. 

It’s difficult to pinpoint when the rot began in the Foreign Service because things are rotten to the core now and restoring it to the prestigious service it once was may never happen given how the recruitment process to the service itself has been tainted with allegations of political interference and favouritism.

And while Governments may change, the old practices continue.

Former Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya is tipped to take up appointment to head the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York. He replaces another retired Chief Justice Mohan Peiris who served for three years. The NPP came to power, mainly to undo the ills of the Rajapaksa administration but has appointed a retired CJ to replace another retired CJ. The problem there is not with the credentials of ex-CJ Jayasuriya. He’s a respected member of the Sri Lanka judiciary and served the institutions he worked in with integrity. But the question that arises is why the NPP thinks it fit to continue the bad precedent set by the Rajapaksas.

Enticing members who are in the highest echelons of the country’s judiciary with post-retirement benefits will raise doubts in the mind of the public if those occupying such posts are able to act independently if they are looking for a life of comfortable retirement in a salubrious capital of the world? The same is true of retired military chiefs, almost all of whom have been given diplomatic posting post-retirement.

Sri Lankans know by now that for any Government that comes to power, it’s payback time where those who backed them in their election campaigns are concerned. These include businessmen, artists, retired public officials, etc. They want their pound of flesh and one of the easiest to push them into is the Sri Lanka overseas missions.

The reason that people voted for the National People’s Power (NPP) was with the hope that they hand over a clean slate to them and they get to write the chapter of a new political era for the country in which we see no corruption, nepotism, favouritism and other such unsavoury happenings.

But less than six months into this administration, it is evident that what the country is having is more of the same but at a less exorbitant scale. We have less delegates on the President’s overseas tours, we have less troops at the Independence Day celebrations, we have less ministers and deputy ministers and less VIP vehicles on the roads but we also have price wars over rice and coconuts and other essential goods, we have broken promises to reduce fuel and power costs and we have political appointees to most of the Government institutions and now, a long list of political appointees awaiting confirmation to take up jobs in Sri Lanka missions overseas. Their diplomatic skills may be zero, but they would have served the party well.

Political appointments to foreign missions are not all evil but what we’ve seen are the most unsuitable persons being appointed to such positions unlike in the past when men and women of eminence occupied these seats. G.P. Malalasekera was Sri Lanka’s first Ambassador to the Soviet Union (now Russia), and Sir D.B. Jayathilake was the country’s first High Commissioner to India. They were political appointees but that in no way diminished their ability to represent the country in any international forum with confidence and pride. For a Government hard pressed to deliver on many of its promises, a good place to start is to ensure that career officers are given priority when making appointments. Filling up Lanka’s overseas missions with Party loyalties will serve the Party well, but not the country.