Chanaka Bandarage

Being submissive in a foreign land is the worst quality that a nation’s leader could have.

In the Group Photos of the 1949 and 1951 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings held in the UK, Sri Lanka’s (then Ceylon) Prime Minister DS Senanayake was afforded a front row seat. Along with the Queen, he sat with the UK, Australian and Indian Prime Ministers. South African, New Zealand, Rhodesian (Zimbabwe) and the few other  leaders were in the back row.

In the Bandung Conference held in West Java, Indonesia in 1955, Sri Lanka’s (then Ceylon) Prime Minister Sir John Kothalawala made a fiery speech and returned to his seat. Seated next to him was Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (the Indian Prime Minister). He asked from Sir John, it was a strong speech; why did you not show me your speech beforehand”. Nehru had made his speech by then. Sri John quipped Jawaharlal, why did you not show me your speech beforehand”.

The moment one shows subservience, the other knows they can take advantage of him/her. Then, the parties are no longer equal.

 (It is stated, nowadays our Presidents call the Indian Prime Minister ‘Sir’. Why being submissive?).

(The writer accompanied two leading Sri Lankan cabinet ministers to meet several Australian ministers to discuss Australian aid to Sri Lanka and other matters. The Australians addressed them in their first names; our ministers continuously called them Your Excellency or Sir).

There are stories that the then Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies and Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew used to make quick private trips to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) to play golf with Dudley Senanayake. This writer is unaware of the authenticity of these stories.

In 1990 R Premadasa had the guts to demand the Indian Army (IPKF) to leave Sri Lanka within a matter of days. India obliged with no questions asked (it was a slap in their face). When R Premadasa died the Indian Parliament held a special session to offer its condolence. Prime Minister Narasimha Rao gave a moving speech.

So were the leaders we had.

We had leaders who could stand tall with any world leader, rubbing shoulders with them.

This is a very important quality especially for a 3^rd world leader to have.

We need leaders who are accepted as equal by world leaders especially the western.

Then, among other things, we will not be bombarded with unfair allegations like human rights violations.

Israel always have strong, assertive leaders; thanks to same that country always gets away with impunity.

The fact that a leader could not communicate in English is immaterial. Chinese, Russian, French, Japanese leaders are weak in English.

What is important is the personality.

Our leaders may be ‘lions’ in Sri Lanka, it is great if they are also ‘lions’ overseas.

But, artificial shows are not necessary.

Any weakness one has, they could be reformed. Practice is important.

When overseas, our leaders  should get rid of their shyness, any complexes that they may have. This is very important.

If a country’s leader demonstrates poor communication skills when overseas, it is the country that suffers.

When the Yahapalanaya President attended the G7 meeting and the UN summits, we saw how uncomfortable he was in the middle of leading  world  leaders. It was a sad scene; he seemed friendless – sitting alone.

Lalith Athulathmudali, Kadiragamar, Gamini Dissanayake, Ronnie De Mel, Tyrone Fernando, GL Peiris, Mangala Samaraweera (all were senior cabinet ministers) had great diplomatic skills. They flew the Sri Lankan flag high in international fora.

A leader when visiting a foreign land must always say and do things in the best interests of his/her home country.

A leader is not required to give security assurances for another country.

Security is a very delicate issue. What we do in Sri Lanka is our own prerogative.

Of course, we will not do things to harm anyone (ie, a friendly country) – that goes without saying. But, we must not outline our security policy publicly.

Experienced leaders know this.

Our leaders must bear in mind – irrespective of size and other differences, all countries are equal.

True foreign governments may throw pittance at us, but our self-respect, dignity, sovereignty and territorial integrity are very important. They must never be compromised.

We are a proud nation; we had proud leaders.

We have a civilization that is greater than others. This is important when we – ourselves and others evaluate us.

It is reported that illegal Indian poaching in our Northern waters has escalated tremendously recently. It seems the government has no solution to this? What did we achieve in India?

Sirimavo resolved the Kachchetivu crisis so well, in our favour. The then Indian and Sri Lankan media dubbed Sirimavo and Indira Gandhi as two sisters. Their relationship was that so close.

 (At the moment, there is no requirement for us to go into Kachchetivu talks; it is a  well settled matter. The fact that some Tamilnadu politicians are raising it for political purposes, it is their problem).