GL reacts angrily to Canadian Senator's comments

Here is an abject lesson on how Sri Lanka's diplomacy is being conducted. No matter if it pays dividends or not.

Canadian Senator Hugh Segal is in Sri Lanka on a 'fact finding" tour for his country's External Affairs Ministry (EAM) ahead of the Commonwealth Summit in Colombo in November.

After ending a tour of the North, Senator Segal gave a talk at the Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies this week.

He spoke of the positive developments, notwithstanding some setbacks that he witnessed, prompting those in the audience to get the distinct impression that the Senator would give a somewhat favourable report on Sri Lanka to the EAM in Canada.

Came question time and a journalist in the audience asked for his views on the independence of the judiciary. The Canadian Senator replied that in his country, courts often gave judgments against the Government, but they did not impeach the Chief Justice as a result. He said he was proud of the independence of the judiciary in his country.

Who should get irked? It was Sri Lanka's number one diplomat, External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris. In a burst of anger, Peiris was to tell the Senator in the presence of all, that had he not been a guest of the Government, he would have known how to deal with him.

Naming, shaming and issuing threats seem to be now part of Sri Lanka's megaphone foreign policy that rises like a lion at home, but is like a pussycat abroad.

"Now", said a distraught member of the audience " wonder what the Senator will have to report on Sri Lanka".