Ignoring presidential directives

Acontroversial statement this week by the Tourism Minister while in India has come in for criticism. Contradicted by his Cabinet colleague, the Aviation Minister, it focuses on the need not only for the Government to speak with one voice but also to change this habit of ministers acting on their own volition to promote their departments—and in these pre-election times, even their electorates with foreign entities without any self-respect.

Several Sri Lankan ambassadors abroad have complained of ministers, governors (like the former and present Eastern Province governors) and even officials like ministry secretaries making direct requests from foreign governments or asking the missions for assistance and those governments seeking clarification if such requests are official, and if so, what priority is to be given to them from other requests.

Not long ago, there was a minister who wrote directly to the King of Saudi Arabia and Prime Minister of Pakistan highlighting the plight of one community and seeking financial help for housing and other projects. The then government looked the other way hoping it would benefit from votes at the next election.

Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the principal institute for the conduct of foreign relations for any country is the Foreign Ministry. Today ministers, officials and even political parties deal directly with foreign governments and entities sans any consultation with the Foreign Ministry.

That is not the case in advanced democracies. Whenever US bipartisan Congressional delegations go abroad, they get briefed by the State Department. In India, even officials are expected to fill a form by their External Affairs Ministry where they have to state the purpose of their foreign visit; if it’s an invitation who is inviting them—and why their embassy in the country they are visiting cannot handle what they are going for. An Indian embassy officer is often required to be present at their meetings abroad. These requirements are meticulously adhered to.

It is a free-for-all here. Though there are detailed instructions from the Presidential Secretariat and parallel guidelines on seeking foreign assistance, they are ignored. These instructions apply even to written communications and MoUs with foreign parties but are practised in the breach. Recent tender contracts from pharmaceuticals to fertiliser imports have been riddled with corruption bypassing these instructions.

The Tourism Minister clearly violated the instructions from the President’s Office not to make media statements “of whatever nature” concerning foreign relations without clearance from the Foreign Ministry. These instructions say this is to avoid unwarranted bilateral developments evolving and to streamline a consistent approach towards Sri Lanka’s foreign policy. His loose cannon faux pas that Sri Lanka is part of India and that Sri Lankan airports have been taken over by Indian companies is exactly what the presidential directive seeks to avoid.

Unless the Government cracks down on even more dangerous violations of its own directive by its own members, the damage to the country can be worse than what exists.