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Mammoth delegation, Twitter fiasco, infighting mar President’s UN visit
President Mahinda Rajapaksa was in New York this week for the annual UN General Assembly sessions with his customary mammoth delegation from Sri Lanka and elsewhere. They included Ministers G.L. Peiris, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Athauda Seneviratne, Dulles Allahapperuma, Monitor Sajin Vaas Gunawardene, MP Lohan Ratwatte, several Presidential aides, Deepa Wijesinghe, Sepala and Anoma Lafir, Ambassador (in the US) Jaliya Wickramasuriya, High Commissioner (in Britain) Chris Nonis, Minister Athauda Seneviratne’s son and Ambassador (in the Netherlands), Buddhi Athauda, High Commissioner in Uganda Kana Kananathan, businessman Noel Selvanayagam, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) officials, Sri Lanka’s permanent mission in New York staff et al . It comes at a time when the MEA issued a circular freezing travel expenditure of its diplomats overseas (Sunday Times page 1 story last week).
The estimated cost for a delegation of some 75 persons at USD 500+ a day for their hotel, vehicle/phone hire, subsistence for a week and air fare is a good lesson in maths for readers. Reports from New York indicate a ‘big fight’ in the ‘Big Apple’ over who was to accompany the President for meetings. The sidelining of deputy head of mission Gen. Shavendra de Silva by his immediate superior was the talking point. He was asked to accompany the First Lady instead.
Then, there was the Twitter fiasco. The brainchild of the President’s Media officials was not welcomed by the President, initially. Delegation sources complain that there were far too many gaps in the President’s programme — no lectures or media interviews. The UN mission in New York responded to questions with “what next for the President to do”, by saying it is difficult to arrange any programme with Colombo not wanting too many ‘outside’ (of UN) engagements for the President.
So came the Twitter exercise to play. According to the programme, the President was having a breakfast meeting that was to finish at 9.15 am NY time (SL time 6.45 pm). The Twitter session was to start at 6.30 pm SL time. Thereafter, the President had to attend a UN meeting on MDGs (Millenium Development Goals) for an hour or so. This explains the delay which was also to ‘get prepared.’ Then he had to end the Twitter (9.15 pm SL time) because there was a meeting scheduled well in advance with the Pakistan prime Minister (at noon NY time, SL time 9.30pm).
The higher ups in the delegation were not happy with this session as they felt once the President had addressed the UNGA, it must remain there without getting engaged in answering questions on it. But the session went ahead (at a time the higher-ups were at bi-lateral meetings). Only an interview with Al-Jazeera was arranged hastily to cover lost ground.
According to delegation sources, the President was not too pleased with the Twitter session. He remarked, “mokadda me. Meka karanna thibbe colomba thawa kattiyak ekke ne — what is this? This should have been done in Colombo with some others (officials).” The President’s speech slotted on day 1 of the UN sessions has its ups and downs. While Sri Lanka has been somewhat lucky to get a slot traditionally on the opening day of the UNGA sessions, its downside is that the Sri Lankan President speaks after the US President has addressed the assembly. That takes the shine away from the Sri Lankan President’s address.
This year, additionally, the President missed the opportunity to rebut the remarks made in Geneva by the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Navi Pillay on Sri Lanka. The entire MEA high command, from the Minister to the officials handling UN affairs, was in New York with the President and none had been assigned to Geneva where the UN Human Rights Council was in session.
These senior MEA officials are pressing the point that UN affairs in Geneva must be managed from New York and calling for strong representation at the New York mission. “New York is key to safeguarding Sri Lanka’s interests”, is what they say. Some of them are lobbying for the job as well as the incumbent head of mission Palitha Kohona is earmarked, as of now, to be moved to Washington DC.
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