Clean governance only for Sri Lankans but not for International Community

DOUBLE STANDARDS: Paul Wolfowitz as President of the World Bank has hit the headlines by favouring a woman friend from the World Bank with whom he had a personal relationship. She has been maneuvered to work in the US State Department while remaining on the Bank’s pay roll with enormous financial perks.

He accomplished his personal agenda while ignoring the Bank’s rules of clean governance. However, Paul Wolfowitz is not the only culprit in such misdemeanours. He got caught, but others have escaped.

It is only a few people who may be aware that there was a similar occurrence in Sri Lanka. It was an ‘open secret’ how a former World Bank Representative in Sri Lanka maneuvered the appointment of his long term partner who accompanied him to Sri Lanka.

She was initially without a job, but within a few months became the UN AIDS Coordinator in Sri Lanka.

There was no advertisement as she was ‘handpicked’. She was handsomely paid by the World Bank, arranged by her partner, the World Bank Representative.

The international community including the then UNICEF Representative who headed the UN HIV/AIDS team, supported this blatant violation of ethics and standards as did other heads of UN agencies who were members of the UNAIDS Theme Group in Sri Lanka.

The couple subsequently married, but the partner never changed her name while working in Colombo to hide the duplicity that had occurred. Anyone is free to check the facts and the truth will be revealed.

Members of the international community who keep pointing their fingers at Sri Lanka in a ‘holier than thou’ attitude should first start cleaning their own organisation before they judge others.

They do not seem to realise that they are not being respected because of such unethical practices. It would be interesting to find out how many husbands and wives/partners/boyfriends and girlfriends are employed in the UN today under the guise of projects for the tsunami and the conflict.

Disasters and the misery of people from developing countries have become the breeding ground for international employment irrespective of need, ethics, capacity and expertise. Is this one reason that the international community aids and abets the LTTE?

As long as the LTTE flourishes and enjoys the protection of the international community, they will continue to wage their bloody war against the Sri Lankan people. As long as there is a conflict, there will be a need for international employment created by the UN.

What is the reason to keep the recent capture of the UN workers ‘under wraps’? The answer is obvious. The UN does not want the government or the Sri Lankan public to know, as it will affect the image they are creating that the government is a human rights violator while the LTTE are victims.

Another reason is that unless the LTTE consider the UN their ‘friends’, they cannot work freely in ‘uncleared’ areas such a Killinochchi. If they cannot work, they cannot get financial resources and employ the innumerable numbers of expat workers flooding conflict affected areas.

If is they who spread disinformation about Sri Lanka and aid and abet the Tigers in their ruthless campaign of terror. It is the innocent Tamils who suffer more than any other community in Sri Lanka.

The LTTE are not the representative of the Tamil people, but their No. 1, enemy. Could the UN workers have been captured as they were helping Tamil civilians to leave LTTE controlled areas? Most Tamils are afraid to talk against the LTTE even in Colombo and even in higher levels of society.

Sri Lanka would be better off without internationals who come here at the invitation of the government but who connive with terrorists for their own personal gain.

Is the UN’s fascination with the LTTE for the personal gain of their rapidly expanding band of UN staff? How ethical are they in the manner they recruit staff? Do they use the ‘Wolfowitz approach’?

Does the international community want to work in partnership with the state or are they too in Amnesty International’s ‘naming and shaming’ business? These are questions which must be answered in the context of our right to preserve Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and integrity.

- P. EDWARDS