By Kassapa/Counterpoint

Colombo, March 12 – A few weeks ago, when President Anura Kumara Dissanayake used his good offices to convince Pakistan to send its cricket team to play India in Colombo in the T20 Cricket World Cup after they had initially refused to do so, his loyalists hailed him as a great peacemaker of the region. Truth be told though, it was but a small victory for Dissanayake and cost both India and Pakistan nothing, really. Dissanayake loyalists though were overwhelmed and hailed him as a great diplomat.   No one expected Dissanayake to straddle the world stage weeks later, caught in a titanic struggle between the United States and Israel on the one hand and Iran on the other. That is what happened when the US sank an Iranian navy vessel off the coast of Galle outside Sri Lanka’s maritime boundaries and the surviving sailors asked for help. Thereafter, a second Iranian vessel also asked for assistance, probably fearing a similar fate. 

Sri Lanka views the United States, Israel and Iran as friendly countries. Besides, there are major economic ramifications. The US is arguably Sri Lanka’s largest export market. Iran is a major buyer of tea and a significant proportion of our oil imports come from that country. Lately, Sri Lanka has been importing manpower to Israel which has become a key contributor to our tourism industry.

Therefore, even though hostilities had broken out mainly between the US and Iran with Israel as a key US ally, Sri Lanka was not in a position to antagonise any of these countries.  A flurry of hectic diplomatic activity followed. The government engaged with the Iranian Embassy in Colombo which was liaising with Iranian authorities in Teheran despite difficulties in communication due to the ongoing conflict there.

After hours of discussion, deliberation and legal experts and advisors poring through relevant laws, a consensus was reached which, on paper, seemed straightforward enough: Sri Lanka would stick to accepted international conventions, accept the Iranians’ distress call, provide refuge to the surviving sailors and send the second ship not to Colombo as requested but to distant Trincomalee.

After the conclusion of the negotiations a tired but relieved Dissanayake took it upon himself to address the media. Seated by himself, he narrated the events as much as he could. The decision to send the second ship to Trincomalee, he said, was because the busy commercial port of Colombo needed to kept unencumbered. That he chose to address the media all by himself was not because he wanted to hog the limelight, he knew there were no others who could do the job!

For the next 24 to 48 hours, Sri Lanka and Dissanayake were the focus of the world as news of sinking the ship hit the headlines. At a time when even western nations are baulking at the prospect of antagonising Donald Trump with even the slightest gesture, a small country had stood firm and stated its stance and, as opposition parliamentarian Harsha de Silva said, ‘done what it had to do’.

Prophets of doom in the opposition (Wimal Weerawansa and the Chief Priest of Mihintale, for example) feared that the wrath of Donald Trump would be upon Sri Lanka saying it would be an easy target. That didn’t happen. Instead, the US State Department issued a statement saying it respected Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and it’s right to make decisions in respect of the Iranian vessels and repatriation of the dead.    

It was one of those rare instances where the National Peoples’ Power (NPP) government did everything right. It spoke only after doing instead of vice versa which is what it usually does. The negotiations were done confidentially, involved long hours and many people but the details remained tightly guarded until the talks succeeded. Dissanayake personally supervised every aspect at every stage and made the final crucial decisions.

It was, for once, a great outcome for Sri Lanka, the government and Dissanayake. The President is entitled to his hour of glory and he deserves it but a few unpalatable truths also emerged. They merit some discussion.

Firstly, India failed miserably. The Iranian vessels were in the region at their invitation. Only days earlier, Indian Prime Minister Modi visited Israel. They obviously didn’t mention it to him when he was there. India did offer a safe haven to a third Iranian vessel that was their guest but they wouldn’t have known what was coming, or else they would have accommodated all three vessels.

The Big Brother of the subcontinent who claims to be the ‘Guardian of the Indian Ocean’ could only watch helplessly as the US torpedoed a ship which was their guest. Modi was left with egg on his face and a mess that Sri Lanka had to intervene and clean up for him. It just proved that India may have over a billion people and therefore a huge market but as far as the West is concerned, that still does not matter to them. So much for being a regional power.

The incident also exposed the political naivete of Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa. He took to Parliament and read out a long list of submarines and asked the government why Sri Lanka’s national security was so endangered that it could not predict the attack on the Iranian vessel. Always fond of high-flown terminology, Premadasa was thereafter mocked mercilessly on social media.

Worse still, his inability and immaturity to praise the government when it had done well was exposed. Even Namal Rajapaksa and Champika Ranawaka were able to do that, even if it was done for cosmetic purposes. The bigger question that underlies this performance is, given this attitude and shallow thinking, will Premadasa ever be suited for leadership? At present, the answer is ‘no’.

Last but not least, it has been proved yet again that the government is a one-man show. Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath came undone under interrogation by Indian media personality Palki Sharma, well known for her pro-Indian sentiments. That debacle is too well known to be repeated. He could have avoided that by speaking through an interpreter. It is time the government finds persons of competence for important jobs- or, sheds its arrogance and wakes up to the realities of its incompetence in certain areas. But then, will they ever do that?      

END