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Speech delivered at the budget debate by Minister of Foreign Affairs Tyronne Fernando recently

Sir, last year when I took part in the Budget Debate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - I am happy that the Hon. Lakshman Kiriella is here and I thought I would start with this story - I mentioned that last year was the 24th year that I was taking part in the debate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Hon. Lakshman Kiriella said, 'Why not you throw a party?'

I just happened to mention very flippantly, 'I will do that next year when I become the Foreign Minister'. I must say that I did not have the slightest hope, I was not all serious because as you know last year at this time we had not even dreamt of a change of government. So, nor had I thought of being the Foreign Minister. But here we are and you can hold me to the party. Sir, I had been, for about ten years the deputy Foreign Minister under Mr. Hameed.

I am very happy to be taking part in this debate for the first time as the Foreign Minister and to follow a very distinguished Foreign Minister that we have had, is the Hon. Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sir, I would like to begin by placing my own appreciation for the role played by the Hon. Prime Minister in initiating, if I may say in giving new impetus to the peace process, and taking us a long way down the road over the last few months. His first visit as you know was to India. I accompanied him on that visit. He strengthened our relations with India.

Then, using the Norwegians who had been brought into the scene by Her Excellency the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the previous government, responded very positively to the unilateral declaration of ceasefire declared by Mr. Prabhakaran. We have now come to the stage of a permanent ceasefire and we are now moving on into uncharted waters for which I am very grateful for the sentiments expressed by the Hon. Former Foreign Minister that he would be continuing with the President to give us bipartisan support. We need that. Whatever ultimate solution you come to, you have come to this House for a two third's majority and we may even have to go for a referendum.

We cannot do that alone and those who think that we can do that are living in a fool's paradise. We need your support and I am happy that the President has always been very consistent in her support for the peace process. I went with her to the SAARC meeting in Kathmandu and she very positively told our friends of SAARC that she is one hundred per cent with the peace process with the Prime Minister. She wrote to him later saying 'you and I must see this ceasefire working'.

Not only that she also said 'you and I must see to it that this is ultimately taken to the people and their approval got for whatever the solution that we arrive at'. So, the peace initiative as to my personal knowledge received unprecented support from the people of this country and the whole world. We must be thankful not only to the Prime Minister. I would also like to place on record my appreciation for the efforts of Mr. Prabhakaran.

Without Mr. Prabhakaran we would not have done that. Let us be realistic about it and Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe has earned the trust and confidence of the LTTE leadership which they did not have in previous governments. So, as a result, by a shrewd diplomatic handling of the situation, by non aggressive approach, the Prime Minister has managed to take us where we have come to. Sir when I was in Jaffna with the diplomats last week I mentioned something what Pandit Nehru taught to me, in my speech to the diplomats as well as to the Members of Parliament, to the Government agents and to so many others.

I reminded them of what Pandit Nehru told to us at Oxford university, our old university, when I was president of the MAJLIS, the Asian Society. He came to address us, way back in the early sixties taught me my first lesson in diplomacy.

"If an enemy extends his hand to you, for god sake grab it. Do not let it go. If it is a friendly hand you have got a friend. If it is a mala-fide move you have still got one of his hands in yours. Do not let it go. Engage him." So, that is what we have engaged Prabhakaran and we will not let him go, we will not let him go and I hope that Prabhakaran will not let us go because this is one country.

You mentioned our cricket team. That is one of my proudest achievements. Because in the early 1990s we brought people like Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan, Christians like Romesh Kaluwitharane, from all the communities in this country and that team took us right to the top in the 1990s. So, there is no reason why we cannot leave our differences of race and religion in their proper place. Those players come back to the pavilion, go their own way to the temples, to the churches, to the mosques but when they are out there, they do their best for the country.

I was reading an interview given by a soldier who had been with the LTTE, under their custody as a prisoner. When Sri Lanka won the "Sharjah Cup", he said that all of them got together, the Tamils and the Sinhalese, and danced all night and they were shouting, "come on Murali", and even "come on Sanath". Not only "come on Murali" but "come on Sanath". Well there it is.

The Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe, has managed to strike the right cord among our people, both in the South and the North. We saw that in the North with the Ambassadors. We got down at "Chunnakam" junction. My assisting Minister will bear witness to that. I spoke to some people there. His Excellency the High Commissioner for India was there. I asked them "how was business?" They said that business was picking up and one gentleman in typical, I think, Tamil philosophy, said, "We are in no hurry."

Order, please! The Hon. Deputy Chairman of Committees will now take the Chair. Rome was not built in a day". I remember the His Excellency the High Commissioner for India was highly amused by this philosophy. But "Rome" has to be built and built it will be. It will take time and we need your support for that.

Sir, now we take the question of the foreign service examination. I would like to get on to that headlong because the JVP raised it today. They wrote to me earlier. You, the Hon. ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs raised it today. There have been a lot of complaints about that examination and the interview. That was held during the previous government. I fully agree with you, Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar that interviews are necessary. You cannot choose diplomats for this country by seeing whether they can add two and two together or some essay that they have written without having a look at the man, the personality, the acceptability etc. So, interviews are necessary.

But there was a great doubt about those interviews. We went to the PSC - The Public Service Commission and they have ordered for a fresh interview. The written examination will remain. But they have ordered a fresh interview by a fresh panel. That panel is now being constituted by them consisting of different races, the two genders, different religions. So, that we have again a good Sri Lankan team, an elite team to be selected with one and only criterion that they will make good career diplomats. The Hon. Prime Minister has also decided to raise the ratio of the career diplomats becoming Ambassadors.

When we took over there were only 38 per cent of career diplomats and 62 per cent of non-career diplomats. Now we are going to make that ratio close to 50-50, because, as you say, career diplomats in many countries of the world do not, as of right, become ambassadors representing, not the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but the Head of the country. So, they have to represent the whole country. There is no right as such, but we are increasing the ratio of career diplomats, who will become ambassadors. Certainly, as I said, we will go for the best possible diplomats.

In that context, I have also written to all the ambassadors that we must try to get Sri Lankans into all possible international organizations. We have some such very eminent diplomats like Mr. Jayantha Dhanapala. Diplomats like that should be encouraged to get into and rise up in those international organizations. Unfortunately, we missed the bus in many a field. Our ambassadors have now been alerted to keep sight of such openings in the United Nations, the UN agencies, the Commonwealth Bureau and wherever possible.

Apart from my good friend Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe's efforts at finding jobs at a certain level, it is our aim to look for more professional openings for our people abroad. The Hon. Lakshman Kadirgamar also mentioned that the Foreign Ministry is a place which is dealing with the world day-to-day. In fact, I would say minute to minute. When we are sleeping here, the world is working. So, Hon. Deputy Chairman, we have started a system through which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is kept open 24 hours of the day.

There is a duty roster; there is some officer behind a phone every minute of the day. They are there in the night of working days, Saturdays, Sundays and on holidays. I have also published throughout the world an e-mail number - [email protected] - by which people - Sri Lankans abroad or anybody - can communicate with me directly. I get some very valuable and useful suggestions through e-mails at all times of day and night. In fact, right now, I am very happy to say, I am getting a lot of e-mails from our Tamil friends. I received an e-mail - I am sorry I did not bring that today, but I read it out during the Second Reading of the Budget - from a young Tamil person from Ontario, who says that he is proud of what is happening in his motherland. That is, Sri Lanka.

For the first time he had attended a reception at the High Commission in Ottawa. I replied to him and now I have got a further reply from him asking him to be kept informed of the various developments here. We get this type of e-mails from a lot of people living all over the world. We should be proud of the fact that we have awakened a new sense of Sri Lankan identity. We should not let this opportunity go by. It will never come again.

Sir, I would like to reply to the Hon. Sivasithamparam about the question of passports. It is certainly true that persons who have entered foreign countries illegally seeking asylum are issued with only a limited passport. Instructions have been given not to issue them passports for all countries, but limited passports so that they can return to Sri Lanka. Once they return to Sri Lanka, they can then apply for an all country passport.

I want to make it very clear because I have had another e-mail from a Tamil gentleman in London saying that embassies are not issuing all country passports to anybody. That is not so. This restriction is only for those who have sought asylum. In fact, I have asked our officials to inform our missions again that there are no restrictions on the issue of all country passports in respect of other categories.

The other matter he raised was the question of the Middle East. He asked why the Government was silent Sir. In fact yesterday, we issued a statement on Middle East. I will not take the time of the House to read that out now because we are going to have an adjournment debate on the Middle East - I believe - at six o'clock. I will read it out at that stage.

Then, Sir, with regard to the consular activities and medical examinations, which the Hon. Mahinda dealt at great length, some remedial action must be taken right now. All the people through out the island have to come to Colombo to get their medical tests done. In fact the Foreign Employment Bureau had written to the Foreign Ministry about a year or two ago. But nothing has happened and we have now asked the Saudi Arabian ambassador regarding this matter.

It is particularly the Gulf Co-operation Council countries, which are insisting that the people should come to Colombo, for some inexplicable reason. A large number of people go for work abroad from Kurunegala District in Wayamba Province. About 70 - 80 per cent of those persons who go for work abroad are from outside Colombo.

Yes. There are people from Eastern Province also. So, we can have medical centers of reputed practitioners in those areas like Kurunegala, Eastern Province, or wherever. So that people can get their medical tests done. But now they have come to all the way to Colombo spending their money, wasting lot of energy unnecessarily. So, we are going to take this matter up. A number of Members of Parliament have made representation to me and we have written to the relevant ambassadors. Actually, I am going to summon them and quickly come to a settlement on this matter.

Sir, there are two other matters that I want to deal with. One is the work of Interministerial Committee on Economic Co-operation. That is being handled by the Minister Assisting Foreign Affairs. They meet regularly, in every two weeks, the people concerned with trade, tourism, plantations that is the Tea Board, BOI, EDB, SriLankan Air Lines and so on. We are doing a very useful work of coordinating and making use of our missions increasing foreign investment, tourism, foreign aid and so on.

The other matter is regarding a programme started by my predecessor for which I am very grateful. That is the Technical Assistance Programme. We have already had about ninety beneficiaries from countries of SAARC and ASEAN and I am also inviting the Afghanistan, to send some of their people for courses in agriculture, finance, management, administration, information technology and English language. Sir, at the request of the Prime Minister of Bhutan, we are going to assist Bhutan with cricket as part of this Technical Assistance Programme.

Bhutan is the only country in the SAARC region, which has not taken much interest in cricket so far. But now the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs both are saying that even the Buddhist priests are playing cricket in Bhutan.

I do not want to mention the names right now. In consultation with the Board of Cricket, I am hoping to send some people there. In fact I am also visiting Bhutan. I am hoping to visit all the SAARC countries. I have already been to India with the Hon. Prime Minister and Nepal with the President and I am going to cover the rest - Maldives, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Pakistan within the near future as well as some ASEAN countries.

With regard to the new missions - you were bang on - I have already thought of the very two countries Nigeria and one of the countries in the CIS Region. In fact I have appointed a small committee of officials to find out which is the best place in the CIS region, where it a Byelo Russia, Uzbekistan or whatever. Nigeria is very much on the cards. We have already started missions in Brazil and Vietnam. We have already named ambassadors for Brazil and for Vietnam.

There are certainly the financial constraints. The Hon. Ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs, the other matter that we might have to go into the question of whether there are some missions we need to carry on with. I really do not want to mention names but very much certain areas where we can perhaps down grade or do away with the missions and move it into areas like West Africa, South America, CIS Region which we certainly need. In the Middle East we have a large number of missions. May be we can rationalise those into three or four because they are all close by. For example UAE, Qatar, Oman and so on.

Actually what is Singapore doing is they are having a few ambassadors but spending more more money on their travelling to those other areas that are linked to them. Nigeria is very much on the line because they are also the next Chairman of CHOGM. Our next Commonwealth meeting will be held there.

Sir, except those matters I want to reply Hon. Athauda Seneviratne I am happy you are here. Hon. Raja Collure you mentioned that when you were preparing the constitution, the UNP had been utterly unhelpful. It is far from the truth. In fact I was in the delegation from the UNP with Hon. W. J. M. Lokubandara and Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe among others. The whole chapter on the Nature of the State has been prepared by Hon. K. N. Choksy, the entire chapter.

I will tell you why we could not support you in Parliament. We agreed at Temple Trees in June 2000 (Interruption) that once we prepare this constitution we would take it to the Maha Sangha and the LTTE and we would not rush into Parliament because we wanted to end this war.

But instead you rushed into Parliament even changing some of the chapters that we had agreed to. That is why we could not agree. More than anything it is wrong for you to say that we did not co-operate when the most difficult chapter on the Nature of State where terms like unitary, federal are dealt with was prepared by Hon. K. N. Choksy.

So those are my submissions Sir, on this matter and I would like to thank the Secretary of my Ministry, the officials and all the ambassadors right down to the minor staff who have made these three months for me, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, a very useful and an interesting time in my life.

I would dedicate myself to furthering the national interest of Sri Lanka which is what foreign policy is all about. Thank you.

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