Diplomatic Manouverings For Personal Agendas
Cannot Victimise A Patriotic Intellectual Of High Office And Repute.

In Retrospect By Sarath Kumara For LankaWeb
Feb.15th 2008

It certainly appears that Sri Lanka's out going High Commissioner in London, Mrs. Ksenuka Senewiratne a controversial figure in her own right who is purported to have been pre-empted from her staus in the UK by another diplomat for very definite Governmental contentions that apparently did not require her services for the post any longer seems to have somehow squirmed into the favour of another Sri Lankan big wig equally controversial with a touch of bourgeoisie to moot to find a quick fix to her current employment dilemma.

It might not have been of much consequence, as such occurences are quite commonplace in the diplomatic jockeying of developing countries where patronage amd favouritism are often the criteria for selection over qualifications and merit but this time around it seems to be something which cannot be shrugged off as bureaucratic bungling or a simple diplomatic faux pas as it involves one of Sri Lanka's most charismatic and intellectual sons who has been in the news lately!None other than Dr Dayan Jayatilleke.

Due to an ongoing rift between Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and the outspokenly eloquent and mercurial Dr Jayatilleke, said have fallen out of favour with the Foreign Minister there is great speculation in certain circles that Dr.Jayathilleke might be replaced as Ambassador to the United Nations Permanent Mission in Geneva by Mrs Ksenuka Senewiratne who appears to have indulged in a bit of personal skull duggery but has probably made a grave mistake in targetting Dr.Jayatilleke for reasons which are neither treasonous notr Nation unfriendlt as he is one of the most eloquent campaigners for Sri lanka's elimination of the LTTE Terrorists and is viewed i great admiration by many for his outspokenness which does not include random conjecture nor a lackey mentality! and to the contary has objectives and idealogies which are in the nation's best interests and could prove to be astutely wise towards the Nation's future and posterity!

This speculative and perhaps dastardly entrepreneurial exercise by the collective manouverings of the Senewiratne~ Bogollagama association towards evicting Dr. Jayathilleke from his diplomatic appointment has come to light through unconfirmed but reliable sources that Mrs Senewiratne is thought to be the favourite choice of Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama to become the ambassador of the island nation's permanent mission of the United Nation's in Geneva which if she reaches this position will be through an "un" official squeezing out of Dr, Jayatilleke by the assumed powers vested in the Foreign Minister whether through fair of foul means and needs to be considered a travesty of justice if the action was ever successful.

The current ambassador, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke is" said to be in hot water albeit loosely coined to suit the circumstances which indicate displeasure by the Foreign Minister and his chief consort Mrs Senewiratne after the former wrote an article attacking the British Foreign Secretary David Milliband , entitled "Mind your Language" in a daily newspaper which was also repeated in Sri Lanka government news portals, according to Ministry of Foreign Affairs sources.

Now the story goes from the sublime to the ridiculous, if the news reports are to be in anyway believed as the article "Mind Your Language" refered to and written by Dr Jayatilleke is a clear cut indication of his salient patriotism to his Motherland and the response to it by the Foreign Minister indicative of a very negative nature which is amazingly also compounded by an attitude of
naive complicity to the British Foreign Secretary Milliband who appears to be very deserving of the criticisms levelled by Dr Jayatilleke as any discerning reader of the text would conclude where Dr.Jayatilleke has spoken out against issues which are very plausible and certainly need inviting attention to.

As the story now gets curiouser, in what seems to be a rank display of opportunism which it seems tantamount to, in London, at a diplomatic officer's meeting at the SL High Commission , Mrs Seneviratne has apparently verbally 'attacked' Sri Lanka's Geneva Ambassador Jayatilleke saying that she had volunteered to "apologize" to the British Foreign office for the "uncalled for" statement of Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke but where does she get the authority to such an entitlement which is not only high handed but also indicaive of the degree to which she patronises the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister?

It would be putting it mildly to describe this scenario as somewhat typical perhaps comical of the goings on at a top diplomatic level with rank disregard to the etiquettes shared by fellow diplomats under the same flag where the definition of the term diplomacy somehow seems to have been circumvented for the term paying homage to an indiscriminate White Sahib of a distinctly autocratic and infamous Colonial past where by her ludicrous attitude she depicts herself in very poor light as does her peer the Foreign Minister both whom apparently prefer to pay the said homage to the British Foreign Secretary rather than stand their ground to affirm what Dr. Jayatilleke has stated unequivocally and courageously on behalf of his country!

In a veritable mish mash of criticisms Seneviratne has criticised Dr Jayatilleke 's criticism of Milliband accusing the former of improperly construing what the latter has said in his article under review that unfair public criticism should be replied to by fair criticism as Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke has emphasized albeit moderately where he should probably have shouted it from the top of a mountain! given to the circumstances.

While it has now come to light that Dr. Jayatilleke has not been in the good books of Minister Bogollagama for some time, apparently common knowledge amongst upper echelons of Government and diplomatic circles, the former Sri Lankan High Commissioner in the UK appears to have capitalised on what she infers as a faux pas by Dr. Jayatilleke who has said , "No self respecting state can respond in private, to criticism of it in public."

Now here's the icing on the cake! Mrs Kshenuka Seneviratne, once travelled with Foreign Minister Bogollagama to the Commonwealth summit in Africa and advised him on saving Pakistan from its expulsion from the Commonwealth but later it became a fiasco when Sri Lanka failed to help its friend, Pakistan. Some attributed the failure to the inexperience of both the minister and the advisor which seems to leave little to the imagination quite unsurprisingly.