{"id":106093,"date":"2020-08-31T23:22:25","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T05:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=106093"},"modified":"2020-08-31T15:12:41","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T22:12:41","slug":"disclosure-of-foreign-secretary-raises-eyebrows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/08\/31\/disclosure-of-foreign-secretary-raises-eyebrows\/","title":{"rendered":"Disclosure of foreign secretary raises eyebrows"},"content":{"rendered":"

S. AKURUGODA<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

According to the disclosure of Foreign Secretary Admiral Jayanath Colombage to the media, the government is to appoint one time Minister Milinda Moragoda, as Sri Lanka\u2019s High Commissioner of Cabinet rank to India and, once such status is afforded, Mr. Moragoda will be able to interact with the leaders of both the countries directly without the procedure of going through the respective foreign ministries.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, considering the recorded background and chequered history of the person involved, social media have started to raise questions on the government\u2019s intermediaries connected to Moragoda and his Pathfinder outfit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moragoda, founder of  Pathfinder Foundation, served in Ranil\nWickremesinghe\u2019s Cabinet from 2002 to 2004. We are fully aware of his close\nconnections with the LTTE hierarchy including  \nAnton Balasingham, Norwegian Solheim etc and\nthe key role played by him to make infamous Ranil-Prabhakaran CFA a success. (www.tamilnet.com\/art.html?catid=13&artid=7222<\/em>)<\/em>  It would be advisable for the\ngovernment to revisit to that era, for a moment, and see what would have been\nthe disastrous situation of the country today if Moragoda was successful in his\nendeavor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mr. and Mrs. Anton Balasingham with State\nSecretary of Norway, Vidar Helgesen and Sri Lanka’s Minister, Milinda Moragoda\n(right) (Photo: Jorn Tomter)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although we are\naware of the background and what he did in the past since 2002, his links to\nthe USA, and allegations of corruption etc after going through media\nreports, the easiest way to convince\ninformation, acceptable to many, is to refer to Wikipedia.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

US\nGovernment interest and the services rendered by Moragoda are stated as\nfollows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Embassy cables\nreleased by WikiLeaks<\/a> show\nMoragoda to be a long time information source of the US Embassy in Colombo. The\ncables also state the US Government’s interest in Moragoda as their key partner\nin Sri Lanka.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Writing to Washington in 2003, then US\nAmbassador to Sri Lanka Ashley Wills says of Moragoda:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Regarding] the U.S.,\nthe intelligent, articulate Moragoda is a perfect fit. born in Washington, D.C,\nhe is a dual national Amcit (please protect) married to an American, with\nplenty of Washington connections, many from his days as a visiting fellow at\nthe Heritage Foundation and at Harvard. A “big picture” person,\nMoragoda is also highly aware that the U.S. is the most powerful country in the\nworld, and he feels that it is better that Sri Lanka recognize that fact and\nwork within it. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the introduction and \u2018allegations of corruption\u2019 sections, Wikipedia states; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2007 the\nParliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) accused then opposition\nparliamentarian Moragoda of large scale corruption during his time as a UNP\nminister. In a bid to dodge prosecution Moragoda crossed over to the ruling\nUPFA government and was appointed Minister of Justice and Law Reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently dual citizenship is a bar to\nenter the Parliament as an MP or to be a President of the country.  It looks like our politicos who are critics\nof appointing a Central Bank Governor with Singapore citizenship, during the\nprevious government, haven\u2019t learned a lesson from the past. Thus appointing a\nperson with dual citizenship with past records of above nature as a High\nCommissioner of Cabinet rank\u201d is highly questionable. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

S. AKURUGODA According to the disclosure of Foreign Secretary Admiral Jayanath Colombage to the media, the government is to appoint one time Minister Milinda Moragoda, as Sri Lanka\u2019s High Commissioner of Cabinet rank to India and, once such status is afforded, Mr. Moragoda will be able to interact with the leaders of both the countries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-s-akurugoda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}