Objections over dual citizen as Lanka’s envoy to Oslo

The parliamentary committee on high posts this week urged the Foreign Ministry to clarify whether persons holding dual citizenship are eligible to be posted as Sri Lanka’s heads of diplomatic missions abroad.

This was after a discussion on the appointment of Professor Arusha Cooray, a Sri Lanka born lecturer in economics, who has served several Australian universities and is also a citizen of that country. President Sirisena named her as Ambassador to Norway in July last year.

Since 2002, the 52-year-old academic has been at the University of Macquarie, University of Tasmania, University of Wollongong, University of Nottingham and University of New South Wales. From 2017 till now, she is a Principal Consultant at Opt–Us Holdings, Australia where her husband is a director. She holds both a BA and an MA in economics from the Colombo University and a PhD (Economics) from the University of New South Wales.

‘Joint Opposition’ leader in Parliament, Dinesh Gunawardena, TNA’s M.A. Sumanthiran and Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe were among those who raised issue over her eligibility.

Although it was pointed out that there had been earlier appointments of Sri Lankan dual citizenship holders, like Palitha Kohona (also an Australian national) to New York and Jaliya Wickremesuriya (US national) to Washington DC, it was different now. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution forbade persons serving as MPs if they held dual citizenship. Thus, Geetha Kumarasinghe (who also held Swiss citizenship) was disqualified by courts.

Dinesh Gunawardena argued with the support of his two other parliament colleagues that a Sri Lanka envoy represented the President of Sri Lanka. Since they are debarred if they hold dual citizenship from contesting elections to represent the people now, the question arises whether it would be appropriate to have dual citizens represent the country abroad.

In forwarding Ms Cooray’s nomination, the Foreign Ministry has remained silent on the issue. The ministry has now been told to clarify both the official and legal position.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya is the chairman of the High Posts Committee