By A Concerned Group of Sri Lankans

Farewell to Alms

We are a group of persons of different ethnic groups and religious faiths several of whom have lived in the UK for 30 years or more. Some of us have had close contacts with high commissioners and other Sri Lanka diplomats over these years and have observed how this mission has functioned during those years.

Though we have become citizens of the United Kingdom for reasons that cannot be explained here, we are still sentimentally attached to the country of our birth and so we try to follow wherever possible how effectively our High Commission represents the country of our origin and how it responds to the community’s needs.

We collectively are sad to say that never has our High Commission sunk so low. The Buddhists among us are embarrassed to hear even some of the respected monks in the UK whose opinion we value, publicly ask regular dayakayas attending their temples why it is that Sri Lanka cannot send a high commissioner to the London mission who is capable and could do a job of work without sending their relatives and persons who do not want to associate with those of Sri Lankan origin.

The Buddhists among us were delighted when we read in the Sri Lanka newspapers that a person who they claimed was a devout Buddhist and who patronized several temples in Sri Lanka was to come here as high commissioner.

But the manner in which the new High Commissioner Amari Wijewardene has conducted herself since coming to London some months ago makes us feel ashamed to call ourselves Buddhists and of Sri Lankan lineage, some with dual citizenship.

We list below a few instances where Amari Wijewardene has brought disgrace to our country up to the point that Sri Lankans are wondering what her qualifications are to be appointed the High Commissioner in the UK except that she is said to be Ranil Wickremesinghe’s cousin and has developed the same arrogance that appears to run in the family.

1. Those of us who have lived here for many decades or have read about former high commissioners and their meritorious and responsible acts on behalf of our country and its people know that one of well-known high commissioner was Dr G.P.Malalasekera, an oriental scholar and devout Buddhist. He began the practice of providing dana to the monks of the London Vihara which was in its early stages, on the first day of each month.

Every high commissioner carried on this practice faithfully and so at the beginning of each month dana from the high commissioner was sent to the temple. Even high commissioners of other ethnic communities or religious faiths continued this practice without fail. Some of us remember that from the early 1980s the UK mission had Tamil, Sinhala, Muslim high commissioners. Some of them were Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Catholics. Despite these ethnic and religious differences they continued this tradition of providing the monks of the London Vihara the dana. Those who had read the publicity given to Amari Wijewardene before she came as being a devout Buddhist expected her to be faithful to that tradition and act like the true Buddhist it was claimed she was. Instead our group which includes non Sinhala and non Buddhist persons were shocked and saddened to hear that she has stopped this tradition started in the early 1960s by Dr Malalasekera. Instead she has divided the high commission staff into three groups and forced each group to provide dana to the London Vihara once in three months. On December 1, it was the group the high commissioner is in, that provided the dana. While other high commission staff in that group be they drivers, diplomats, messengers or whoever cooked the curries and transported them to the high commission and from there to the Vihara, what did our devout Buddhist high commissioner provide? Just some cooked rice. Thereby she saved the money she would have had to spend each month and forcing the staff to cook dishes at home whether this was a burden to them or not. So Buddhists or non-Buddhists, whether they want to or not are made to acquire merit by force. On December 1st she is supposed to have gone to the London Vihara thus misleading the venerable monks into believing that the tradition that even Faisz Musthapha, a muslim, and Dr Chris Nonis, a catholic, continued is being practiced by her.

2. But what is happening is reaching the Sri Lanka community at large because she is deliberately keeping away from functions she is invited to. It is said that she will visit and participate in activities only of the Siam Nikaya temples and viharas, bringing caste into her activities when the Buddha himself rejected the division of society on the basis of caste.
3. The Sri Lankan community is beginning to realize that she is deliberately keeping away from events and activities organized by the community because she believes it is below her dignity to associate with those Sri Lankans who organize them. It is said that she is now delegating a diplomat called Yogadasan who has become her lapdog carrying tales daily, to attend events on her behalf.
4. Sri Lankans who attended the Katina Pinkama at the London Vihara say that though Amari Wijewardene was present she sat aside not speaking to anyone because she seemed to consider these people too low for her to climb down a step or two from her pedestal to talk to them. Some of them are highly qualified professionals unlike her. Even at the lunch of the Friends of Sri Lanka” to which she was invited she kept aloof as though some of the former British high commissioners to Sri Lanka and other professionals were below her class.
5. We have come to understand that it is not only because she comes from the different social class as she keeps reminding her staff, that she remains so silent. She does not have the education and the knowledge to engage in political, international affairs and diplomatic discussion or even normal social intercourse. She does not even read a newspaper. So her knowledge is non= existent. She is said to be spending here time looking at attendance registers and writing notes to staff just as it happens in some small time private sector operations run as family business.
6. These few months have shown the Sri Lanka community that Wijewardene is the worst high commissioner that has been sent here purely because of family connections and she does not have the basic qualifications to be in charge of one of the country’s biggest diplomatic missions. So she keeps away letting mediocre career diplomats and promoted clerks to lead her up the garden path.
7. Even more curious and shameful is the reception she held after presenting credentials. It is the normal practice followed by other high commissioners and our ambassadors in other capitals that the person who presented credentials hosts the reception with the allowance and if necessary private money. Even Justice Nihal Jayasinghe who is not accustomed to hosting large receptions having been a Supreme Court judge invited Sri Lankans for his credentials party and paid for it. But Amari Wijewardene did a disgraceful thing. She paid only about 1/4th the cost of the reception which was only for foreigners and got other diplomats in the mission to pay the rest of the money from their allowances when it had nothing to do with them. Can you think of a more disgraceful act, trying to save her allowances and got others to pay. This only proved that she does not want to spend money even for official matters.

There is much more to say but we will stop here for now. As and when we receive information on how she avoided attending a Sri Lankan function to which she has been invited such as the Jana Handa event in Hounslow or the Maathrubhumi Vandana at a church premises in Kingsbury, we will keep the community, relevant authorities and media informed of the unfortunate mess made by the Ranil Wickremesinghe government that promised to end nepotism and family rule. What can the community and the country expect from a person who is unable to make a speech, avoids doing so because she is

ignorant and cannot even read clearly the written words as happened at the Deepavali celebrations held at the high commission according one of our Tamil colleagues.

By A Concerned Group of Sri Lankans

( of different communities and religions)