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Lankan expats go for Tyronne
In recent weeks Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando has come under fire from Sri Lankan expatriates-more accurately Sinhala expats- for what they perceive as intemperate remarks made by him in an interview with a London-based weekly "NEWSLANKA" in July.

In that he criticised Sinhala expatriates of "war-mongering and undermining the ongoing peace process".

Moreover the minister reportedly asked why the Sinhala expatriates are concerned about matters in Sri Lanka since they have left the country.

"You are not the people who are dying in this war and you are not the people who will be killed by bombs. So let us settle this issue ourselves", Tyronne Fernando reportedly told Newslanka.

Such words enraged Sinhala expat organisations from several countries. They wrote an open letter to the minister that was published last week in the same weekly. Among the organisations that added their names to the letter of protest were those from Australia, Germany, the UK and US, numbering nearly 20.

The organisations have charged the minister with accusing the Sinhala expats of war mongering but not saying a word about the Tamil terrorists or of Tamil expatriates several of who, they say, are financing the very terrorism that the government is trying to end.

By some strange coincidence the only letter in support of minister Fernando also appeared last week written by a Dr Sankaralingham who also freely refers to Sinhala extremists but carefully avoids mentioning by name Tamil extremists though he makes a passing reference to them.

While some of the observations made during the blistering attack on minister Fernando seem somewhat far fetched-and others spurious- the letter draws attention to Tyronne Fernando's links to Puran Appu, the great hero of the 1848 rebellion against the British.

If the British colonialists shot dead Puran Appu, the Sinhala expats have resorted to verbal sharp shooting, pouring scorn on Puran Appu's clansman. "Today, that illustrious defender of our country must be turning in his grave…..", the letter says.

Two weeks earlier Douglas Wickramaratne, President of the Sinhala Association of Sri Lankans in the UK wrote: "May we also remind the minister that at no time have we said that Sri Lanka is only for the Sinhalese…"

"Perhaps during the minister's next monthly visit to the UK he would be prepared to have a public debate with the Sinhala expatriates".

Wickramaratne's challenge for a debate was thrown in early August. I have been waiting a little longer for a reply from the Foreign Ministry to a series of questions I raised after the ministry's inane response to some news stories I had written about how certain non-diplomatic jobs in our high commissions and embassies were being filled by the ministry.

That was on July 28. If after one month the Foreign Ministry is still unable to reply to some simple and straightforward questions, it is either because the ministry has nobody capable of writing a reply or because the answers would merely expose its faux pas.

Why the expat communities have reacted against Tyronne Fernando is not only because of what he said in that interview. I think it is also because how the foreign ministry has functioned in the last several months. First there was the fiasco when over 30 Sri Lankan diplomats were told to pack up and return home by the end of March. This unprecedented act almost resulted in at least three diplomatic missions losing their top two persons at the same time.

Fortunately wiser counsel prevailed and the transfers were rescheduled.

Then there were news reports of how Sri Lanka's foreign minister, with some help from his Indian counterpart, stopped the Commonwealth from falling apart at the summit in Australia.

Then came the diplomatic stand off with London over the 13 visas and news of handpicked people being sent to our missions while the unemployed youth in Sri Lanka remained in the dark about this.

While all this was happening the ministry was asked to deny that it was planning to send the son of a film star to the London High Commission as Commercial Assistant- a non existent post. The ministry never replied.

But it can now be said that the person has indeed arrived. He is Rishi Randeniya, the son of film star Ravindra Randeniya who, if I remember correctly, had a role in the Sinhala film Puran Appu. I remember seeing the film many, many years ago and I think Randeniya was in it and Tyronne Fernando himself was somehow connected with it. If I am wrong I apologise.

A question that arises from such arbitrary creation of posts is whether this is permitted under the ARs and FRs that govern such matters and who indeed created the post. One would have thought that commercial posts in our missions are filled by officials of the Commerce Department.

Maybe the High Commissioner would clarify, if the ministry's bravado has suddenly forsaken it.

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