Recruitment to Foreign Service

6 Monday 5th June, 2006 The Island Published by Upali Newspapers Ltd. Colombo’s new Mayor 223, Bloemendhal Road, Colombo 13. Tel: 4609000, Fax:4609198 E-mail: [email protected] Independent Group 3, after his team’s nom- Citizen. ter experience of the late President Branch Advertising Office: inations for LG polls were rejected, and his Accidents do occur in politics and we Premadasa, whose futile efforts to readjust No. 6, Sir Chittampalam A. Gardiner Mawatha subsequent footboard ride have served lit- have to come to terms with the results. his genealogical table to suit his new sta- Colombo 2. Tel: 2330944 tle purpose for him. He may have denied There is a misconception among some peo- tion took precedence over his mission to Monday 5th June, 2006 victory to the UPFA in the CMC—even a ple that only the elite is fit for being lead- build the country, is a case in point. But for political greenhorn could have accom- ers. (History, as Pareto said, is the grave- his vainglory, which made him pugnacious, plished it in that seemingly impregnable yard of aristocracies.) But the question is envious, and paranoid, he would have been utting one’s political eggs in someone UNP bastion—but he appears to be at his whether the elite has taken this country the best leader this country has ever pro- else’s basket is always a dicey affair. wit’s or cunning’s end as to how to make a anywhere: It is still the white man’s burden duced. So, be what you are and do your best POnce a powerful UNP minister, who, backdoor entry into the CMC. He is desper- and mired in poverty. We see deplorable to improve the conditions of more than one after his defection, became a hero to many ate in what could be considered a last ditch attempts being made in some quarters half of the city population living in slums and villain to his former party, and was battle to keep some jumbos who are all out including a section of the media to look and shanties without, at the same time, accused of having ‘swallowed ships’, to remove him from their path, at bay. down upon the humble origins of the new neglecting the needs of the affluent sec- entrusted some of his confidants and confi- Desperation knows no bounds and makes Mayor. In a country, where cattle thieves, tions of society; throw the corrupt officials dantes with most part of his wealth (which people very innovative either for good or bootleggers, drug barons, chain snatchers, and politicians out of the CMC windows; he had acquired through questionable bad. Cooray has made some unorthodox murderers, robbers, bribe takers, rapists get the garbage disposed of systematically; means) for safekeeping. That he had made political moves like swearing in the new and the like have entered Parliament, attend to infrastructural problems plaguing a mistake in reposing his trust in them was Mayor to show that he is in control of the Provincial Councils and Local Government the city and you will be able to win a future known only after his demise. The money situation. How many more rabbits he is left institutions, we think a driver of the poor election on your own. If you become a pup- was never returned to his family or the new with in his hat, we will see in time to come. man’s limousine—three wheeler—is all pet in the hands of wily politicos with hid- party by the wily custodians who now have He is in an unenviable position. qualified to run a municipality. On the den agendas and choose to act according to apparently disowned him. (We stop short of Some people have luck thrust upon them. other hand, we have had a president who their whims and fancies, the place reserved naming and shaming them, as exposing The new Mayor of Colombo Mohamed sold laveria (a kind of pancake) in his for you will be the political dustbin. them is not our objective.) Uvais Imthiyaz is one of them. One is younger days; a child who sold peanuts Finally, whether Imtiyaz will be a good Former UNP strongman and ex-cabinet reminded of a folk tale where a royal went on to become a US president and the mayor or not, we don’t know. But we know minister Sirisena Cooray, who, having long tusker sent in search of a king kneels down incumbent President of Bolivia is a former for sure that he couldn’t be worse than his been in oblivion, wanted to be somebody in before a farmer (Appuwa), who finally coca leaf grower. predecessors who over the years turned the politics once again by being Colombo ascends the throne. Appuwa is Prince Now Mr. Imtiyaz, this is for your lord- premier municipality into one of the most Mayor—it is like going back to kinder- Gemunu in disguise. Imthiyaz is not of ship’s consumption: Those who try to dis- corrupt and inefficient institutions—on the garten after university graduation—has royal lineage and the tusker which knelt own their origins and stake claims of a admission of former ruling party council- made a somewhat similar mistake. The before him is also far from royal but the bogus pedigree, after reaching great lors themselves. political investment he made in the fact remains that he is now Colombo’s First heights in life, end up being jokers. The bit- Good luck Mr. Mayor! Recruitment to foreign service – I by Bandu de Silva dwelt on the implementation of policy by was recounting to me how he had pro- about a few matters relating to foreign pol- achieved well within one year.He had been the career service of the government in gressed from a junior government servant icy, finger printing at the British High exposed to the copious reports I sent some he subject of recruitment to the general, Secretary of State Kissinger receiving a monthly salary of Rs. 60 to one Commission and recruitment to the of which like the nuclear issue are topical Foreign Service, and recruitment to placed emphasis on the role of the Foreign where his remunerations came to nearly Foreign Service. today, and intelligence on LTTE arms pur- Tthe Public Service in general for that Service in the foreign policy making Rs. 100,000 a month. He did not forget to I realised the Minister had limited time chases in the region, particularly, on matter, has not generated sufficient inter- process itself. (These quotations are taken include in it the sumptuous meal at the for me and had to skip much of it. More Kittu’s purchases of Afghan arms through est in our country in contrast to the situa- from the unpublished manuscript of the Parliamentary restaurant available for a significantly, getting that appointment sit- Pakistani sources, which, of course, the tion in countries like the U.S. where as one Monograph entitled “Fifty Years of few rupees! His ultimate aim, as he said, ting in queues for days, going past a hier- then Pakistani government denied. sees, far more all round interest. U.S. Foreign Policy Making in Sri Lanka”, I was an Ambassador’s post! He had already archy of self-important hirelings and the Former Foreign Minister, A. C. S. President John Kennedy once observed: prepared a few years back at the request of come closer to it even before he became a Minister’s co-ordinating Secretary, a for- Hameed, who had been reappointed by “The success of this government, and Dr. Lorna Dewaraja, Director of the Parliamentarian! mer Army Officer, as I was told, (To sug- Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe thus the success of our Nation depends on, Bandaranaike Centre for Diplomatic This is while the subject of representa- gest he could have been from the Salvation after President Premadasa’s death, did not in the last analysis, upon the quality of our Training). tion abroad has assumed greater impor- Army as Sir John Kotelawale might have believe in such things as consulting a for- career service. The legislation enacted by The recent editorial in The Island on tance today in the context of the country’s quipped would be an insult to that organi- mer Ambassador who had returned from a the congress as well as the decisions made the appointments of Heads of Mission and national crisis and international interfer- sation!), who did not know the difference new post. The truth is that when I was by me and the Department and Agency the several responses to it from the public ence. For example, right at this moment between a fish-monger from Moratuwa or appointed Ambassador to Iran, the heads must be implemented by the career are to be welcomed in the absence of a the retired Japanese U.N. Civil Servant a driver without a driving license seeking Foreign Ministry did not have a scrap men and women on the Federal debate in our country on the all important who came here as a good Samaritan, about appointments in our missions abroad from of paper on that country and I had to Service.....We are dependent on their service subject of recruitment to the Foreign whose intentions I went to warn the then a former senior Ambassador, itself was a get a brief from the then Director of (if loyalty and responsibility as well as Service though these are no substitute to a Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando, at a pointer to the degree of low priority Commerce before I joined Prime their competence and energy.” (Quoted from national scale debate.

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