Play it right - Part II:

Foreign Ministry taking-up issues proactively

Udeshi AMARASINGHE

Q: Do you think the entire machinery of the Ministry of External Affairs is efficient?

A: Well, I would say that we are very efficient from what we were sometime back. Our entire machinery is working towards achieving a common objective of what the Minister G L Pieris has made out as policy.

Sajin De Vass Gunawardena

We may have short comings. One thing is that the Ministry of External Affairs does not have many good people and numbers in staff. All the seniors have retired, there has been no proper succession for sometime and even the people who are there to succeed are very young.

Of course they have now been given opportunities and more responsibilities at the level of director generals and directors. You can see that people are performing well, because there is a very clear policy agenda that we have to achieve and most importantly team work is at play. Personally as the Monitoring Member of Parliament assigned to the Ministry of External Affairs, I can say that there is tremendous progress.

Q: In June 2011 of Business Today too we asked this question, shouldn't Sri Lanka be more proactive as opposed to being only reactive?

A: We certainly are not only reactive but proactive as well, but the problem is that the media does not recognise that. If you look at the media, they have some grouse against the Ministry of External Affairs. I do not understand why. Perhaps it is the personality. Therefore, what I would request is that these people who write critically to write the positive as well.

Ministers come and go. Each government has different ministers of external affairs or in any other ministry. I feel it is not right to compare one minster to the other. Personalities differ. But at the end of the day, if the objectives are fulfilled and if the people of the country, the President and the government are satisfied then due credit should be given.

Minister G L Pieirs does a tremendous amount of work. He has travelled all over the world on behalf of the country. He may now be physically tired but, he manages, supervises, convinces our friends, our allies and our enemies at the same time in recognising the actual position that Sri Lanka is faced with.

This criticism on the part of the media on the Ministry of External Affairs is not helping Sri Lanka. We are being proactive. In fact it is because of the fact that we are being proactive that we have come so far. I saw some articles criticising the President's travelling. People might think that we are going on joy rides, but we are not. If you look at the amount of work that the President has undertaken in the international forum for the last three months, its tremendous.

Where is our problem today? Our problem is with the international community in terms of the reconciliation and accountability. How are we going to address that situation? By going and meeting people, by going to forums, by meeting leaders of other countries, explaining to them what Sri Lanka has done and showing them the factuality of our post war development.

In that area we have been very proactive and we have generated the results that we desire. You can see that the pressure that has been mounted on Sri Lanka is reducing drastically. But at the same time we have to be reactive also. We should have a good equilibrium between these two.

Q: Strained relations with countries especially our trading partners affect the economy as well. It seems like a vicious cycle. How can we proceed?

A: There has been no adverse affect on our trade relationships as a result of the human rights accusations or because of the resolution passed at the UN Human Rights Council. Our relationship with each country consists of different components, that is the case with every country.

The GSP petition that was taken up against Sri Lanka was discontinued and normalcy restored in terms of the US GSP. That is a great achievement that Sri Lanka has had and at the same time it is a great recognition on the part of the US in terms of progress that Sri Lanka has made.

We have our free trade agreements with India, Pakistan and other countries. These relationships work in different ways and it has not been affected. Of course the global economic situation is such that there is a retraction of the quantum of trade. But in the Sri Lankan context, our trade deficit has increased drastically. People are importing more items like never before.

There has been a 34 percent increase in the credit market. Therefore, you see an overall progress in the Sri Lankan context. I do not feel that the international trade and investment relationships that we have with countries have taken any setback just because of these other issues.

Q: If we look at the country, do you think there are too many players involved in all areas?

A: I will give you a very personal reply irrespective of any political relativity. The problem in Sri Lanka as I see, especially the Opposition parties look at every single matter in a political perspective and on an electoral basis. This is where we go wrong. If you take the economy, if you take politically, if you take socially, if you take any other issue, every single thing is equated to politics.

Through our government's approach, we have brought about long lasting peace, we have brought about economic prosperity and we have brought about rural infrastructure development, we have done all of this regardless of party colours.

We have not differentiated people. But when you look at the Opposition, when you look at the things that are happening within the Opposition and those who are opposed to the government for the sake of being opposed to it, everything is looked at from a political perspective and criticised from that perspective. We should get out of this habit.

Having civil society and business entities in this country, the personalities of this country should rise up and tell, “whatever it is right or wrong we have permanent peace now. We don't have terrorism in this country and economic opportunities are there for people to develop. Let us recognise that and let us work in that context without politicalising every single issue.”

If you ask me whether too many people are involved in too many things, that is a democracy. If we try to curtail that then they will turn around and ask me, “why is this is a dictatorship, why are you not permitting these people to get involved and have a more expanded approach.”

Therefore, we have proved the fact that we have democracy in practice. But whether we have to listen to all of those people is another matter. We have received the peoples’ mandate to govern this country.

Q: But we end up listening to everyone?

A: You have to listen to people. You have to take on board what they have to say. But the decision that we make as a government - people talk in compartments, people talk which is beneficial to individuals, communities or religious factors - but as a responsible government we have to look at it across the board so that it will benefit the whole country at large.

Therefore, democracy remains in Sri Lanka, it is because of the democratic process that we listen to people. And that is our strength. Sometimes too many players are good. But you should know when to stop so that it doesn’t spoil the soup. That is the decision of the government.

Q: What can you tell us about the progress with the TNA?

A: Once again this is a very personal view having been involved in the process. The fundamental reason that I attribute to the attitude of the TNA today, and their reluctance to sit down and sort this issue out, is because we have made critical progress during the one year that we have had discussions with the TNA.

We have made massive progress in terms of the issues that we discussed. For over one year we did not just sit and wait, we spoke about all issues and it is at this last stage where they had to come and commit to the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), which has a time frame of six months, within which time we can conclude all of this, that the TNA is prolonging the process.

The TNA had to deliver in terms of reaching a final solution and that is why they are behaving in this manner.

I must say in fairness to certain senior members of the TNA, I have a feeling that they are also keen to finalise this and to put an end to this matter. But there is fraction in the TNA that wants to go back to the ideology of the LTTE and make this process a failure. The failure of this process will be the starting point for their next struggle.

We have committed ourselves and said we will settle this within six months. There are 21 different political parties represented in Parliament. And for us to bring a lasting solution it has to be inclusive. It is a time bound process and the UNP has also come on board.

Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has met with the President and took the responsibility to bring the TNA into the process.

The UNP has recognised the genuineness of the government.

To be continued

Courtesy: Business Today