Foreign Ministry restructuring a big farce?

Mar 24, 2016

Soon after 2015 January 08 Yahapalana government came to power one of the promises that  leaders of the Government gave was to ‘create a professional service and post qualified persons on overseas assignments’ and ‘appointments, both local and foreign, would be based on a scientific basis.’ After assuming the Foreign Minister portfolio for the second time Mangala Samaraweera went on record saying that Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry and the Foreign Service will be modelled after the Singapore Foreign Ministry and the Singapore Foreign Service. 
This is an insult to a service that has been there since the independence of the country. It has been successful governments and the self serving politicians that have ruined the Foreign Ministry and the Foreign Service.

True to his word Samaraweera sent a team of officers to study the system in Singapore to and implement a similar thing in Sri Lanka. When doing so he missed two points. One is that you cannot simply pluck a system or a model from a foreign country and plant it in Sri Lanka. Other one is that for Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry and Foreign Service to become like in Singapore, the political system and the politicians should be like in Singapore. We need not spell out that Sri Lankan politicians and the political system is a far cry from Singapore. Most of our politicians would be behind bars if they were in Singapore.

Samaraweera got the team to do a report made changes and wanted it implemented. The Foreign Secretary sent a circular in February informing the changes to the Divisions in the Ministry. Here lies the problem. Inquiries made by Lanka News Web revealed that restructuring has not been done keeping the long term interest of the country but on ad-hoc basis. The recommendations made by the team that went to Singapore has been overruled and changed. Divisions have been created to cater to whims and fancies of favourite officers, mostly Rajapaksa loyalists. America and Canada, both bilateral desks, have been removed from the West Division where it always was a part of and have been attached to the UN Division, a multi lateral Division. The excuse can be given that it is because of the UNHRC resolution. Then the question should be whether our relations with the two countries are based only on the resolution. Foreign Ministry sources very clearly state that this was done to cater to the personal agenda of a very powerful mid level lady officer and an Ambassador who is a retired career officer. Both were die-hard Rajapaksa and Sajin Vaas loyalists before the rainbow revolution and from 2015 January 09 became Yahapalana die-hards. Creditably a Division called overseas residents/citizens of Sri Lankan origin has been created. But the person who has been appointed to head it, another Sajin Vaas lackey, is very well known within the Ministry and among the journalists for his inability to verbally communicate clearly in any language. Other new Divisions include Ocean Affairs, Strategic Security & Climate Change and Policy Planning. Inquiries revealed that only the name boards have been given to new divisions without giving the areas of work.

Lanka News Web reliably learns that despite Samaraweera wanting to implement the changes Foreign Secretary Chitrangani Wagiswara is dragging her feet to scuttle it. She has made the whole of the Foreign Service come to a standstill by appointing R. L. Ratnapala as Director General Overseas Administration last year despite the protest by career officers. Ratnapala who was made Chief of Protocol by Sajin Vaas carried tales and got plum postings. He is well known for catering to political appointees while victimising career officers. Despite his unpopularity and colourful past Wagiswara went ahead and appointed him. Lot of career Ambassadors were waiting for the Heads of Missions meeting to be held to complain about Ratnapala. Upset that his role has been cut down due to the restructuring together with Wagiswara Ratnapala is hampering the restructuring efforts. He is also hampering the workings of the HR Division by undermining the newly appointed Director General thereby putting into difficulty not only the officers in Sri Lanka but also career officers serving overseas. A senior Foreign Ministry source said ‘on paper the restructuring is taking place. But in reality nothing is happening. Looks like the Secretary is not keen to make the changes.’

Ad-hoc restructuring of the Foreign Ministry to make the presence has been favoured by some of the previous Foreign Ministers. During the time of Rohitha Bogollagama he had a program at the Post Graduate Institute of Management of Sri Jayawardenapura University and a workshop at Blue Waters Hotel in Wadduwa with mandatory participation by officers. Government money was spent but whether any worthwhile outcome was received is questionable. We all know that Bogollagama was most of the time out of the country during his term of office.

Much was expected from Samaraweera when he took office. Sadly he has not done justice to the trust people and the officers placed in him. Today he has become a prisoner of the Rajapaksa turncoats who have been given prominent places in the Ministry. Officers are disillusioned of Samaraweera as under his stewardship good professional officers are side-lined and victimised, junior incompetent tale carrying officers are given very senior positions and the likes of relations of politicians, business persons and party loyalists are given plum overseas postings. Lanka News Web has regularly exposed this in the recent past. Samaraweera seems to be only paying lip service to the so called restructuring of the Foreign Ministry. It would be well for Samaraweera to remember what happened to Bogollagama at the end and make sure this time round the restructuring of the Foreign Ministry is not a big farce