Reorganise Foreign Service

The arrest of a junior foreign service officer at the Katunayake Airport for allegedly attempting to smuggle out two passports should be a matter of serious concern to the Foreign Ministry. We refrain from commenting on this particular issue since we understand that inquiries are proceeding but this incident in addition to such unfortunate incidents that have occurred earlier, call for serious thought be given to proposals made for reorganisation of the ministry as, suggested by many diplomats who have now retired from service.

Till a few years ago, the foreign service had an unblemished and proud record. In recent years we have seen a few transgress the boundary between a cheap unscrupulous scoundrel and a diplomat.

According to well informed sources, a few years ago, the another junior officer, was arrested over what was described as 'an attempt to smuggle'. Yet another, it is said, conveniently 'lost' his diplomatic passport but did not inform the authorities and it was later discovered that the passport had been used no less that forty times. This officer also yet remains in service. There have been reports of inebriated ambassadors who have brought the country and the service into disrepute.

Insiders say that there have been others who had committed serious misdemeanours but yet remain in service not only because they have had political patrons but also because the Public Service rules are weak and effecting a dismissal is a near impossibility.

The Foreign Service of most countries is said to be the creme de la creme, of state bureaucracy. In Sri Lanka in the immediate years after Independence it was the Civil Service and now the plum of state bureaucracy is the Foreign Service. But it is a well known fact that since the beginning of the seventies there has been steady politicization and with it the deterioration of standards of the service.There is also the other dimension of political appointments which in UNP times resulted in Sri Lankan diplomacy plunging into abysmal depths. After the arrival of Mr. Kadirgamar, it is said that the quality or new recruits have visibly improved. But it is alleged that the Foreign Ministry has been indulging in wholesale recruitment in recent times and the question arises whether due care and attention is paid to 'background', because the risk to national security is far greater from a person of dubious loyalty in the Foreign Service.

However, it is also pointed out that even the best foreign services in the world are not immune from being ' penetrated by enemies of the state. The classic case is of the British Foreign Service being penetrated by the Cambridge Five who while spying for the Soviet Union reached the highest rungs. Nonetheless, the situation the country is placed in today demands a system of internal security not only for the foreign service but in other services too such as the armed services and police which deal with intelligence, arms procurements etc.

Former retired diplomats also say that the rules governing appointments, promotions and dismissals too should be re-examined in the light of the ministry's many recent experiences. Introspection would do the ministry and the service much good. They say that a significant problem that pervades the whole public service is its politicization. There is also no supervision of the work of subordinates in the public service. Some supervising officers, it is alleged, play politics and seek cheap popularity.

It is suggested that the government must address the situation by passing legislation in the form of a Foreign Service Act as there is in many countries, which would insulate the service from political interference. Today, there is no system of assessment of the work of officers, neither are there any examinations conducted at mid-career to separate the grain from the chaff. As aconsequence Sri Lanka has had as heads of missions, wholly incompetent and unsuitable persons appointed merely because they have become senior. The country does not owe these persons a living.

Whilst the Foreign Service must necessarily be apolitical and professional, there is also no need to confine appointments to members of the Foreign Service as ambassadors.

The Foreign Minister has in recent days dug deep to appoint diplomats from the.foreign service, but there is no merit in this. The Commercial Service and certain other services do have many able men and women whom the minister could draw upon without the need for apology.Mr Kadirgamar should seriously consider the proposal to have a study undertaken to reorganise the Foreign Service to meet the needs of the emerging century.