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Double standards

The foreign ministry in Colombo has passed out the word that Sri Lanka will make what a Sunday newspaper last week described as an "all-out bid" to win the prestigious position of Director-General of UNESCO for Prof. Senaka Bandaranayake, our new ambassador in Paris. The first report of this ambitious venture said that no less than the president herself had ordered massive and costly lobbying to back the candidate.

Nobody will question the credentials of Prof. Bandaranayake who has earned a fine reputation as an archaeologist. Many will agree that we have not had a man of his calibre probing and conserving the country's magnificent ancient cultural heritage since Dr. Senerath Paranavitarane. His academic qualifications and personal attributes are excellent and the government perhaps had its eye on the UNESCO job when Prof. Bandaranayake was named ambassador in Paris. Fluency in French is considered very necessary for holding the position of head of the Paris-based agency and Dr. Bandaranayake possesses this attribute as well.

Whether we can win the race or afford the campaign cost is another question. This is Asia's turn for the job and the candidature of Koichi Matsura, Japan's ambassador in Paris since 1994 and Deputy Foreign Minister Rosario Manolo of the Philippines, a sister of former President Fidel Ramos, have been announced. Geographical considerations, obviously, are not iron clad rules judging by some of the other aspirants. They include an Egyptian who is a serving Vice-President of the World Bank, the Romanian foreign minister and a Frenchman who is chief aide to the serving UNESCO head among many others. The Japanese, backed by his country's enormous resources, is considered the most formidable opponent.

It seems that the thinking in the foreign ministry about Sri Lanka's interest in prestigious international jobs has now changed. It was not very long ago when Colombo, churlishly in the view of many, decided not to back Mr. Jayantha Dhanapala to head the United Nation's International Atomic Energy Authority in Vienna. That was certainly a job we could have bagged given Mr. Dhanapala's credentials and track record which even earned him mention as a possible secretary-general of the United Nations. But what was our position then as expressed by Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar not so long ago? "Sri Lanka no longer needs kudos of high international officeÉ"

Mr. Dhanapala has not done badly for himself. His selection as an Under Secretary General for Disarmament was a vindication of his abilities and a further signal that he would have got the Vienna job had Colombo given him the necessary backing. Mr. Kadirgamar insisted at that time that we needed Ambassador Dhanapala in Washington. But trying to tie him down in chains there when a senior appointment in which he was most interested was open to him led to the predictable conclusion of his opting for premature retirement from the Sri Lanka Foreign Service. Although we were reportedly not interested, or did not need the "Kudos of high international office" then, we seem to need it now to the extent that we are sending ministers round the world to lobby for our UNESCO candidate.

It is ironic that politicians often come to office to eat their own words. The many acid comments that were made when Colombo ran Mr. H. W. Jayewardene for a place on the World Court at great expense should be remembered now when we are making a similar effort. No doubt the fact that he was President J. R. Jayewardene's brother would have influenced much of that sarcasm. Obviously, the connection would have prompted greater effort in the foreign office in the cause that was not won also by an eminent candidate. Prof. Bandaranayake too is not without relatives in high places. The pity is that had we backed Mr. Christy Weeramantry for the World Court at the time we ran the president's brother, the race might have been won. Like Dhanapala later, Weeramantry too was able to make good the loss. He is on the World Court bringing honour to himself and his country.

Let us hope that Prof. Bandaranayake will attain a position he richly deserves despite the home government's double standards about these matters. It was not very long ago that we lost an opportunity of taking a seat on the U.N. Security Council and backed South Korea instead in the hope of winning economic benefits. Whether that cheque was cashed or not we do not know, but Seoul after the South East Asian economic debacle is less able to be as generous as she might have been at the time we passed over a real opportunity.

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