Diplomats must deliver

It was only the other day that External Affairs Minister Professor G L Peiris enjoined our staff attached to the country's foreign missions to market Sri Lanka aggressively taking advantage of the new climate of peace. He called on them to actively promote Sri Lanka as a new haven for trade, investment, tourism etc.

On that occasion we were compelled to editorially comment on the bitter fact that most of our embassy officials abroad were not upto it. As if conforming this, now Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena has fired a salvo against our overseas embassy officials.

Addressing a function at his Ministry office Minister Sirisena said our diplomats attached to foreign missions were having a good time in those countries adding that they do not carry out the service required of them on behalf of the Motherland. His ire was particularly directed at those responsible for allowing the events in London to get out of hand. He said the London protests were carried out by pro-LTTE elements because 'diplomats attached to Sri Lankan foreign missions were inactive, lazy and ignorant'. He went so far as to say that our diplomats were 'sleeping' while the Government spent millions of public funds for their maintenance and upkeep. He called on the Government to rethink in retaining such diplomats.

The Minister cannot be faulted for his tirade against the doings in our foreign missions. True, there are the real professionals who are performing an excellent job promoting the country to the outside world. But sadly they are in a minority. Time was when our diplomatic service could hold its own with the very best. Names such as Shirley Amarasihnge, Neville Kanakeratne, Dr Gamini Corea, Dr Jayantha Dhanapalsa etc readily comes to mind in this regard. They were not only mere diplomats representing the country abroad but prominent personalities on the world stage in their own right. They did the country proud and won many kudos to the Motherland through their work abroad. They knew their role as diplomats and performed their functions with aplomb and dispatch.

Sri Lanka is today starved of diplomats of their calibre. Instead what we have are mediocre performers who have no inkling of their job. Like we mentioned in our previous editorial and confirmed by Minister Sirisena most of our diplomats see their postings as opportunities to educate their children abroad and generally have a good time in their salubrious surroundings. In a shocking disclosure the Minister also revealed how certain female diplomats had deigned it fit to undergo fertility treatment spending millions of taxpayers money while doing duty in our missions. No wonder the country is being dragged from one embarrassing situation to another with our diplomats completely clueless as to what is required of them.

It will be interesting to ascertain who among our present crop of diplomats have brought investments to the country or caused to increase tourist arrivals through their own initiatives following the end to the war. A list of such envoys should be published so that the public will know whether the colossal amount of funds spent on these diplomats are really worth it.

The focus has now shifted vis a vis the role of our diplomats overseas. Earlier they were required to counter vicious LTTE propaganda directed at tarnishing the image of the country. How far they succeeded in this task is anyone's guess. But going by the adverse publicity received by the country over the years their's had been a failed mission. The LTTE Diaspora succeeded in blackening the image of the country to a great extent with very little by way of defence offered by our emissaries' abroad. The failure to effectively counter the Channel 4 episode is a case in point when considering that the spurious footage is been screened time and again to revive the issue.

Sri Lanka has moved into a new era of independence with the defeat of not only terrorism but all external forces arrayed against it. We have now to start on a clean slate so to speak. In this regard one cannot overemphasize the need to carve out a wholly new image of Sri Lanka while also unveiling the fresh opportunities and scope offered by the country in its new incarnation.

This certainly is not a job for amateurs or those bent only having a good time abroad. We need professionals of the highest calibre men and women who will market Sri Lanka to the outside world successfully. They need not essentially be from the formal diplomatic service. In the past we have had personages from our side the foreign service who have acquitted themselves creditably in the missions abroad. President Rajapaksa would do well to look for the best. Nothing short will bring the new Sri Lanka he has created from the ashes of war into the desired prominence in the international sphere.