Columns

Speaking at the budget debate the other day, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath announced how within a year in office Sri Lanka had entered into 70 MoUs with countries across the globe.

Though he did not employ the rhetorical skill of one of our distinguished foreign ministers, Lakshman Kadirgamar, perhaps for lack of the skills that the late foreign minister used during his time, including in bilateral negotiations at the highest level, Foreign Minister Herath seemed boastful of the achievement.

How triumphant, how ecstatic, how silly.

Having conquered 70 nations, Foreign Minister Herath seemed to believe he was some sword-wielding Sir Lancelot, who, before his term had run out, would have the globe under his feet. Perhaps reading out the names of the 70 states he had subjugated in our country’s name was too onerous a task.

After all, only a few days earlier he had beaten a retreat from Geneva, refusing to do battle with a motley group of hardened troops, including several from among NATO forces from the western world. Perhaps he was too shy to mention all the names, skirting all the world like an ambitious Trump in the making. One supposes he was convinced that the 22 million or more people in this country would understand what he had sacrificed for the Sri Lankan nation by saving so much from the public purse.

If the many thousands who once fell for Aesop-like tales sold to our citizens were equally gullible today—carried away by hollow oratory and promises now proved as empty as Mother Hubbard’s cupboard—one might expect some still to be inspired by the fables of yore.

Alas, that is why I find the Foreign Minister’s adventurous exploits round the world, urging fellow nations to sign MoUs for their mutual benefit, so very tiresome, not to mention irksome, to listen to.

I mean, just hearing that within one year this government had signed 70 MoUs makes one wonder whether during his diplomatic travels he carried a few unsigned, ready-made MoUs sans names and signatures – blank pages – in his jacket pocket, hoping to run into some foreign minister of similar ilk who would gladly put pen to paper, hardly thinking what misery could befall his nation, or receive enough plaudits at home for the quid pro quo for a base at Trincomalee, or for a few highways to India, or a few dollars more.

Aye, and there is the rub. As foreign minister, Herath probably knows how hard he worked with his highly intelligent diplomatic bag carriers to round up 70 nations, and he was too exhausted to read out nothing more than numbers.

In an effort to rescue his colleague from a contretemps, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake stepped into the breach as Defence Minister, so that Sri Lanka could receive its tenth Bell 57 helicopter from the US next year for naval training.

Moreover, the US and Australia would provide two C-130 Hercules transport planes – one in 2026 and the other one year later.

What generosity, what camaraderie, what sheer salesmanship for a piece of our country’s sacred soil.

Is it not curious that neither the president nor his ministerial colleague did not think it was transparency and accountability that they emphasised during election time—that the NPP would introduce transparency and accountability as necessary in the clean system of governance they would stamp on their way of doing things?

Of course they would not reveal it themselves that most of what has been placed on the people’s dinner trolley was not the result of great mental discharges from the long-held ideas of NPP intellectuals. Perhaps it would be better appreciated if all this talk and walk about cracking down on corruption in politics and bureaucracy were clearly stated in the IMF’s 16-point Governance Diagnostic report proposals that the Sri Lanka government was expected to implement.

Not all of them seem to have been implemented in the way prescribed. But where it might have pressed on the accelerator more than necessary, it becomes a well-organised crackdown on bribery, corruption and the narcotics trade, which some in the opposition say is very much the handiwork of the NPP sleuths.

That might well be welcomed by some who could benefit from government actions in different ways. But there are concerns that worry people of this country, for they are legitimate shareholders of this country and not passing presidents and unnecessary garbage in the form of contaminated politicians.

They have a right to seek information. That freedom encapsulated in our constitution might not last long, for those who yelled for freedom of dissent, speech and the right to information are now sharpening their knives to cut deep into an important piece of legislation that has been applauded internationally.

All these legal rewrites will be done in the name of the people, not because they are necessary. But actually necessary for those who finally crept onto the saddle and wish to remain there by curbing public dissent and the right to freedom of speech.

And one reason the government’s pursuit of such a craze for entering into MOUs is becoming increasingly suspicious is that among some innocuous agreements would be the ones that today’s delirious want signed: MoUs with the USA and other militarily ready big power nations that want to control the world—at least large chunks of it—and are ready to coerce, bribe, and use military pressure to force or win over the leaders and governments of those that love to hang on to the coat tails of the powerful and wealthy.

If we have a clean and transparent government, as proclaimed by the high and mighty traversing our land, they might tell us how much of that is Sri Lanka land. Our government, which came to power signalling a turn to the left, as they indicated to other road users, has been covertly turning right, as I said in this column several weeks back.

They would be reluctant to do so because they have much to hide. That is why the government is anxious to have the RTI law amended as quickly as possible.

If not, there will be many, if not in Colombo, but nations and organisations around the world which would also want to know whether the Defence Partnership MoU we entered into the other day is not the old SOFA deal which the US embassy here tried to smuggle through with the help of pro-American ministers of the then UNP and highly dubious Sri Lankan diplomats in high places.

This is not to denigrate Foreign Minister Herath’s diplomatic achievement with one year at the crease at a time when the Sri Lanka cricket team is unable to find a steady middle-order batting side after all these years.

Having done a Muralitharan, which even Muralitharan could not, even though he had to undergo rigorous tests, the Foreign Minister took just one year to flourish his diplomatic achievement, a task that even Metternich and Kissinger could not achieve.

How brave, how very competent to drag so many countries into his spider net. Come the day when the MoU with the US—called the Defence Partnership MoU with the US National Guard, Coast Guard and the Department of War—comes to light, now or later, we will know whether this is a rehash of the SOFA agreement which some covert officials tried to push through.

Had it not been for the sharp journalism of the Sunday Times and its political correspondent who exposed the deal, it might have happened. Now, like Lazarus, it has been resurrected again under another name, but still, efforts to turn Sri Lanka into a vassal state have not ended and will continue till those who have no real love for the country and care little to protect its sovereign matters sell their souls – and even half soles – for a few dollars more.

But the truth will be out now or later. That is when those responsible will need to hide their heads in shame. If they are still here, that is.

(Neville de Silva is a veteran journalist who was Assistant Editor of the Hong Kong Standard and worked for Gemini News Service in London. Later, he was Deputy Chief de Mission in Bangkok and Deputy High Commissioner in London.)