Of political appointments and disservice to the nation

 Let none presume to wear an undeserved dignity,

Of that estates, degrees and offices were not derived corruptly

And that clear honour were purchased by the merit of the wearer

William Shakespeare –The Merchant of Venice disservice

The recent defeat of Sri Lanka at the vote taken to pass the US sponsored resolution on the protection of human rights in Sri Lanka points to a set back in the diplomatic efforts taken on behalf of Sri Lanka to counter the move

made by the United States at the behest of the Tamil Diaspora to put into effect foreign interference in the internal affaires of a sovereign nation.

Career vs Political

The members of the Tamil Diaspora with their boundless financial resources and the political clout they exercise in the United States , United Kingdom and countries of the European Union due to their substantial vote bases in those lands have successfully convinced 24 nations to vote against Sri Lanka . When one observes the qualifications and experience of persons serving in our diplomatic service, it is sad to note that a good majority of such persons who are political appointees have little or no experience in the diplomatic service as such persons are not career diplomats.

Countered

If sufficient diplomatic efforts were made, the tactics and propaganda of the Tamil Diaspora could have been countered with equally or more powerful means whereby an efficient campaign could have been launched to make these countries aware of the atrocities committed by the LTTE and the welfare efforts of the Government of Sri Lanka in reformation and rehabilitation of the former LTTE combatants in order to re-integrate them in to Sri Lanka society. When Channel 4 scheduled the screening of the second video for the international community, a more powerful video footage on the carnage committed by the LTTE could have been launched in order to counter the allegations made in the said video.

Replace diplomats

Diplomacy is not a field in which inexperienced political appointees could perform any valuable service to the Nation. In the past political appointments to the Diplomatic Service was minimal and career diplomats performed this service. The Government should call for reports from all our diplomatic missions in order to evaluate the extent to which efforts had been made to counter the US backed resolution and submit such reports to a panel of experts in diplomatic service to determine whether sufficient efforts have been made in this regard. The political appointees in these missions who have failed to render an efficient service should be replaced in the public interest with career diplomats with expertise to deal with any future difficulties that may arise due to the operation of the US backed resolution. The resolution permits foreign interference in the internal affaires of our nation and the future follow-up actions by the sponsors of the resolution have to be closely monitored by our diplomatic service in order to avoid a major mishap from surfacing and causing havoc in our country such as the unfortunate occurrences in some Middle Eastern countries in the recent past.

Law unto themselves

Even in the public and the corporation sectors political appointees become a law unto themselves and tend to engage in corruption and unnecessary waste of valuable public funds. On assuming high office such appointees commence by purchasing expensive official vehicle and refurbishing their office-spaces at colossal costs to the public institution such persons become the Chairpersons or Chief Executive Officers resulting in phenomenal waste of public funds and the institutions running at a loss and becoming burdens on the Treasury. Recently it was reported that some such institutions engaged in air travel have resulted in large sums of money being advanced from the Treasury to cover the losses.

Waste of public funds

The past records of persons with political patronage before being appointed to such positions must be examined by the State to ensure their suitability and national mindedness to hold such positions. The recently appointed Inspector General of Police set up an example to such persons by distributing all the excess vehicles assigned to him to Police divisions that were in need of such vehicles. An incident was reported sometime ago where a Cabinet Minister had traveled in an Air Force Helicopter to Colombo when the official vehicle broke down whereas the Minister could have traveled in one of the back-up vehicles. This trip was a waste of public funds. It is time that the Government re-thinks and re-visits its past actions and learns from its mistakes and rectifies its faults for the benefit of the Nation.

As usual I conclude with an amusing anecdote.

When the band began playing at an embassy function, a drunken politician asked “Beautiful lady in red will you waltz with me?’ ”Certainly not.. First you are drunk. Second it is not a waltz but the Venezuelan national anthem. And third I am not a beautiful lady in red, but the papal nuncio.”

1 Comment to “Of political appointments and disservice to the nation”

• Vis8
  May 1, 2012 at 4:39 am

  Lakshman Indranath Keerthisinghe: If you are so critical, why dont you go and do something for your country, instead of writinf utter crap to mislead the masses?
  Go get a life, moron