Nihal Rodrigo of Foreign Service fame

He is a former Sri Lankan diplomat who served as the sixth Secretary General of SAARC, ambassador to Beijing as well as Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka. He is Nihal Rodrigo. Affable is one word that comes to one’s mind when meeting Rodrigo who is frank and engaging. Daily News met up with him to discuss the reminiscences of his illustrious career.

“I was born in Kandy and I went to Trinity College. That was very interesting because Kandy, unlike Colombo, at that time in the mid-1940’s was a relatively closed community and people knew each other very well. There were also natural linkages with traditional culture. I learnt Kandyan dancing in Trinity and one of teachers was Niththawela Gunaya. My Kandyan dancing came in handy in foreign affairs. When I was in Germany at a trade fair, my first major posting, I did a few Kandyan dancing steps and a lot of people were thrilled”, said Nihal Rodrigo with a characteristic smile. The tourist surge, raise-welle, as it was called, started in Germany with major groups like Neckermann, Toureuropoa arranging charter flights to Sri Lanka. His Ambassador was Glanville Peiris, the father of our Foreign Minister.

Buddhist monks

After graduation, he joined the staff at Peradeniya University. For the first time, a sub-department of English was established by Doric de Souza, who was a Trotskyite Senator. In 1960, for the first time, Sinhala and Tamil medium students were admitted to Peradeniya and the sub-department had been created to cater to those students whose knowledge of English was limited. De Souza recruited Rodrigo to the sub-department to teach adequate English in three months through Sinhala to these students. Many of his students were Buddhist monks. Rodrigo said he learnt more from them than they did from him.

After a short teaching spell also at Trinity, he joined the Foreign Service. Rodrigo had four separate postings at the United Nations: three times in New York and once in Geneva with concurrent accreditation to Vienna. He was also ambassador to China. He had memorable experiences in his long career in foreign service.

He said, “There was a Nonaligned Summit in Malaysia when Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was the President. We had a meeting with Fidel Castro. While taking down notes, I also did a sketch of Fidel Castro. After the meeting, I gave it to him to autograph. He rolled it up and put it into his pocket! And he said; “For me, for me.” When I asked for it, Mrs. Kumaranatunga said in Sinhala not to take it back. Then his Spanish interpreter said something to him and he posed for about two minutes, holding back his next meeting, and I did another drawing and he autographed it”, Rodrigo showed me the sketch, beaming with humour.

Historical and cultural sites

Rodrigo also spoke about his experiences when he was posted in New Delhi and Beijing. He visited many historical and cultural sites. However, it was not easy. Sri Lankan missions had small staff, therefore, the workload was always heavy. His last posting in China was extremely heavy, but with much achievements, including preliminary work on the Hambantota harbour, the Performing Arts Centre, Sri Lankan Airlines flights to China, and military assistance. During his tenure, unusually, there were two formal state visits from Sri Lanka – that of President Chandrika Kumaranatunge and President Mahinda Rajapaksa. This showed the importance given to Sri Lanka by the Chinese government.

Following the fifth Non-aligned Summit held in Sri Lanka in 1976, during Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranayake’s time, Sri Lanka gained stature in international relations. When she went to the UN that year to present the Colombo Non-Aligned Declaration adopted that year, US Secretary of State Kissinger called on Mrs. Bandaranaike at her hotel. Kissinger praised Mrs. Bandaranaike for the balanced Declaration. That was also the time when the West was not very happy about Sri Lanka since we were perceived as inclined too much towards the socialist bloc.

The Summit helped Sri Lanka develop a close relationship with a whole lot of developing countries. This helped Sri Lanka tremendously. Apart from Mrs. Bandaranaike being Chairperson of the Non-aligned Movement, Shirley Amerasinghe, the Sri Lanka Permanent Representative at the UN, was the chairman of the Law of the Sea Conference. That year he was also elected President of the UN General Assembly. “Sri Lanka then developed a high profile in international affairs,” said Rodrigo.

Memorable incident

Nihal Rodrigo was also Secretary General of SAARC in Katmandu when the Nepali King Birendra was assassinated. Virtually, His Majesty’s entire family was killed in one night. As SAARC Secretary General he had many meetings with him and his family. His daughter was a superb artist. After the 10th SAARC Summit in Colombo, the next Summit in Kathmandu was delayed due to bad bilateral relations between India and Pakistan. When the time came for the summit, the Maoists were opposed to the government and obstructed road constructions and other preparations for the Kathmandu summit. Rodrigo spoke to some contacts close to the Maoists and asked them why they are doing this and said that it was against best interests of Nepal. “The message got through, the Maoists’ disruptions were halted and the summit took place,” explained Rodrigo.

Another memorable incident was a conversation that took place between Mrs. Bandaranaike and Shirley Amerasinghe in Colombo at a Meeting following the Non-Aligned Summit in 1976. Amerasinghe needed a diplomat to coordinate work that Sri Lanka, now as the Chairperson of the Movement, had to do. Mrs. Bandaranaike had already decided on a very senior public servant to be sent to New York and when she came out with his name (Rodrigo declined to reveal the name), Amerasinghe had bluntly said: “No, I don’t want him; I want Nihal.” Mrs. Bandaranaike said that she has already issued the letter of appointment. But Shirley didn’t budge and Mrs. Bandaranaike, despite her formidable personality, finally agreed. As a result, Rodrigo had to go to New York. That was the courage of a public servant matched by the wisdom of a politician.