Columns

A couple of weeks back I read a glowing tribute to Ceylon’s second post-independence prime minister whose birth anniversary was on June 9.

I have been a great admirer of Dudley Senanayake just as writer Ilika Karunaratne had been all these years. Except of course our interests parted ways.

So while Ilika Karunaratne recalls some of Dudley Senanayake’s past from his schools including his Cambridge days and the later era when he became prime minister after the death of his father from a fall from a horse in Galle Face Green and twice later.

The particular issue that concerns me—and I am certain it would interest others in South East Asia and farther afield, particularly academics who have been debating it ever since some foreign ministers have presented different interpretations on how ASEAN came to be established, who were initially invited to join, was there a clash of verbal arms before the final founder members were settled and who were the final founding five.

It was while I was serving as Deputy-Chief-of-Mission in Bangkok some years ago, that I read in a Thai newspaper a Thai foreign minister dealing with something of the past which I thought was not what I had heard from Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake.

Fortunately, the editor of the paper, a friend of mine, kept a copy of it for me.

After all it was a story for him too—in fact a story that would have most of the region chattering and had some for many years. Not only Sri Lankan citizens but all those who have a keen interest in international affairs and settling world issues, would remember Lakshman Kadirgamar, among other things, for trying to create a professional diplomatic service and rescuing the foreign ministry from the depths to which it was slowly sinking.

Though I did not always agree with him on matters of emphasis and especially the lack of professional competence in some of our missions in dealing with public affairs, Kadirgamar set a tone and standards of excellence which unfortunately have been abandoned by later administrations and those who direct (or misdirect) our relations with the outside world.

In his desire to bring an intellectual content to our diplomacy and instil in the younger generation of career diplomats the notion of ‘thinking diplomats’ rather than a foreign service that merely performed its ‘duties’, Kadirgamar established an institute to provide the environment for research and study in the necessary disciplines.

At one point that institute appeared to be rather shaky but it has picked itself up and discarded its shabby approach; if it has not already been turned into rubble, intellectually more than physically, here is a task I hope it will undertake at least in the memory of its founder if not for the edification of those who guide our foreign affairs today. It concerns an issue that goes way back into more than 40 years to the founding of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It was resurrected some time back in the pages of a Thai English daily as the grouping now consisting of 10 members celebrates over five decades of its existence.

It will be two years today since the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. Much will surely be written in the media these days about him and the foul deed that robbed the country of one who entered the world of politics, perhaps reluctantly at first, and paid for it with his life.

Lakshman Kadirgamar will be remembered, among other things, for trying to create a professional diplomatic service and rescuing the foreign ministry from the depths to which it was slowly sinking. Though I did not always agree with him on matters of emphasis and especially the lack of professional competence in some of our missions in dealing with public affairs, Kadirgamar set a tone and standards of excellence which unfortunately have been abandoned by the current administration and those who direct (or misdirect) our relations with the outside world.

In his desire to bring an intellectual content to our diplomacy and instil in the younger generation of career diplomats the notion of ‘thinking diplomats’ rather than a foreign service that merely performed its ‘duties’, Kadirgamar established an institute to provide the environment for research and study in the necessary disciplines.

If that institute has not already been turned into rubble, intellectually more than physically, here is a task I hope it will undertake at least in the memory of its founder if not for the edification of those who guide our foreign affairs today. It concerns an issue that goes back 40 years to the founding of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It was resurrected the other day in the pages of a Thai English daily as the grouping now consisting of 10 members celebrates four decades of its existence.

“The Nation”, quoting a former Thai diplomat, Sompong Sucharitkul who was closely associated with the founding of ASEAN, claimed that the entry of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) to the regional grouping was blocked by Singapore’s Foreign Minister Sinnathamby Rajaratnam.

That implies that Ceylon, then led by Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake was keen, or at least interested, in joining ASEAN. My recollection of the thinking of our political leaders at the time is rather different. My memory was jogged when reading the comments made by the Thai diplomat who was a close aide of the Thai foreign minister of the day Thanat Khoman.

I remember this particularly well because I had spoken to Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake about it after his return from Malaysia. I think it was somewhere in the early part of 1967, before ASEAN was formally founded in August of that year. Dudley, as he was called even by those who did not know him (not to his face of course, but he would not have minded) had visited Malaysia at the invitation of the then prime minister, the respected Tunku Abdul Rahman.

During the visit there were media reports that the Tunku had invited Ceylon to become a member of the regional grouping that was being planned. It was to be called the South East Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SEAARC). Some time after Dudley Senanayake returned to Colombo he held a press conference at his Senate Building office.

With space running out I must apply the brakes as bus drivers are now told to do.

Admittedly, the most controversial and debateable part of the story is being held back. That does happen with stories—fiction or otherwise. But long did you wait to reach the end of War and Peace.