{"id":74397,"date":"2013-02-20T16:48:20","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T16:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=74397"},"modified":"2013-02-23T19:03:14","modified_gmt":"2013-02-23T19:03:14","slug":"two-cheers-for-nanda-godage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/two-cheers-for-nanda-godage\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Cheers For Nanda Godage"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Tissa Jayatilaka<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Tissa Jayatilaka<\/p><\/div>\n

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.-\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>L.P. Hartley, from the Prologue to\u00a0 <\/span>The Go-Between<\/em><\/strong> (1953)<\/span><\/p>\n

I was pleased to read Nanda Godage\u2019s most perceptive piece titled \u201cLet\u2019s be diplomatic<\/a><\/span>\u2019<\/span>.\u00a0 It is a relief to see Ambassador Godage\u2019s return to his true colours and best lights. Long may he continue to reside therein.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do good sense and practical thinking mean anything these days to those of our politicians and public servants responsible for the conduct of our international relations?\u00a0 Judging by the little of the subject that is in the public domain, it is apparent that the above-referenced qualities are \u00a0evident \u00a0today \u00a0only by their absence.\u00a0 We seem to have lost a significant part of our national self-respect of late.\u00a0 Official statements made by highly placed politicians and officials are contradicted by their counterparts in foreign governments and international organizations no sooner than they appear in print domestically.\u00a0 Press releases of our government are so doctored by those in office that there is more vicious spin to be found in them than in the sharpest deliveries of a Muralitheran, Warne or Ajmal on a turner!<\/p>\n

The world today is a far more complex place than it was in the Cold War era.\u00a0 Life was a touch more predictable then as there were two clear power blocs led by the then Soviet Union and the United States.\u00a0 Non-alignment was a viable option for those countries who did not wish to be a camp follower of either bloc.\u00a0 Of course there were the usual tilts to one side or the other given the reality that there are no absolutes in life.\u00a0 Enlightened self-interest sometimes called for approaches in the conduct of international \u00a0\u00a0affairs that made us deviate from permanent friendships or enmities.\u00a0 The concept of \u2018the balance of power\u2019 or occasion does trump morality or ideology in the sphere of international relations.\u00a0 As we ought to know only too well from some of our past and recent foreign policy misadventures, \u00a0the business of international relations is no \u2018Morality\u2019 play.<\/p>\n

In the post-Cold War world of today, the international arena is murkier than it used to be.\u00a0 Caution and pragmatism, attributes useful in any era, are today among our most relevant needs.\u00a0 Countries that used to be political adversaries or enemies are today together as never before.\u00a0 The Indo-U.S. partnership is a good example of such change.\u00a0 India that blatantly interfered in our \u00a0domestic \u00a0affairs \u00a0\u00a0in the 1980s willfully misperceiving and distorting (to suit India\u2019s convenience) our then relationship with the United States is today one of America\u2019s key allies.\u00a0 President Obama<\/a><\/span> describes his country\u2019s connection to India today as an \u2018indispensible partnership\u2019.\u00a0 This is the reality we need to accept and adjust ourselves to, as cogently argued by Nanda Godage.<\/p>\n

It is the same sense of reality that prods some of us to note that Sri Lanka is not getting its diplomatic act together.\u00a0 Time was when we had the kind of sophisticated political and diplomatic service leadership that made it possible for our \u2018small state\u2019 to hold our own against all comers.\u00a0 In South Asia in particular, we were known as a country that was sane and pragmatic in our approach to international affairs. Sri Lanka then had, deservedly, a reputation in the diplomatic world for unusual success in explaining and clarifying to the North the concerns, concepts and complaints of the South. We won the admiration of \u00a0the \u00a0states\u00a0 the world over \u00a0on the basis of our balanced and nuanced approach to global affairs.\u00a0 Whenever we were critical of any power, we were constructively so.\u00a0 We said what we had to say with verve and finesse.\u00a0 By doing so, we raised the interest of outside powers, not their ire, in the various international forums.\u00a0 India and Pakistan, often at loggerheads, would bash each other in these same forums.\u00a0 Ceylon\/Sri Lanka was a voice of reason, good sense, calm and moderation.\u00a0 This aspect of our national personality not only won us plaudits but rewards as well.\u00a0 These rewards could be seen in the number of top posts Ceylonese\/Sri Lankans held in international organizations in the 50s, 60s and the 70s.\u00a0 These numbers were far in excess of those usually afforded to geographically small states like Sri Lanka.\u00a0 We then had a deserved reputation for sobriety, grace under pressure, wit and humour in our many performances on the international stage.\u00a0 There were, happily, no signs then of the \u2018bull in a china shop\u2019 mentality that today mar our incursions and excursions into domestic and foreign policy issues.<\/p>\n

We could than seek to play honest broker between competing powers.\u00a0 We were taken seriously during all such endeavours.\u00a0 For example, we pleaded Japan\u2019s cause against war reparations in San Francisco (1951); we mediated in the violent conflict between India and China (1962); we received material assistance from one and all during the insurrection of April 1971; later that year, during the then East Pakistan crisis we let West Pakistani war planes use our airspace without being excoriated by India who respected our middle of the road position.\u00a0 Our national reputation for sense and sensibility was then high.<\/p>\n

As was evident in the post- \u2018Black July<\/a><\/span>\u2019 of 1983, and during the 1990s when we were fighting the intransigent LTTE<\/a><\/span>, the quiet diplomacy executed by our then Foreign Ministers and our seasoned career diplomats saved us from national disaster.\u00a0 There is thus no substitute for calm, rational and pragmatic diplomacy.\u00a0 Sabre rattling, childish posturing and duplicitous conduct might help to dupe our electorate but will not help us win friends or help us acquire the moral high ground necessary to influence our international partners.<\/p>\n

So the choice before us, as Nanda Godage points out, is as plian as day.\u00a0 We need to change and return to basics for our own sake, \u2018in our own interest\u2019<\/em><\/strong>, if we are redeem our country from the unholy mess we have got ourselves into.\u00a0 We have to recognise our true strengths and weaknesses and figure out dispassionately who our true partners in progress are (i.e., who we trade with, who is likely to invest meaningfully in our country, materially and otherwise, and who will come to our assistance when the chips are down).\u00a0 We need to understand the fact that we are not big blokes on the block; that belligerence in reality is weakness, especially when we lack the muscle to back up such belligerence with; that prudence and pragmatism in our international relations are not to be incorrectly thought of as national subservience.<\/p>\n

A balanced and prudent re-appraisal of our national priorities is called for \u2018in our own interest\u2019<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 The clock is ticking away furiously.\u00a0 Time and tide wait for no man or woman.\u00a0 The time to re-chart our foreign and domestic policy is right now.\u00a0 Tomorrow may prove a touch too late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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