What wannabe Presidents need to know
By N Sathiya Moorthy
If there is one job that is more difficult than being the CEO of a global government, it is being the elected Executive President of Sri Lanka – or, any other democracy of disproportionate sizes. Notwithstanding what incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe has since said about the future of Executive Presidency – conveniently, he put the economy as the main subject for national debate, once more – the man occupying this particular seat has to be omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. There is only one man scriptures say that has all three powers. Mr God himself!
The reasons are not far to seek. There had been occasions in the past when an incumbent would drive straight to the airport from the funeral of a next door neighbour’s mother-in-law of a party heavyweight, proceed to address the UNGA as Head of State, meet with a host of foreign dignitaries while in New York, fly down to Washington for a chit-chat with the US President in his Oval Office, having come thus far, proceed to Europe, finish a couple of long-pending official visits, return home after a week or ten days (with hopes that no second-liner had conspired with the official Opposition), go straight to sign as a witness at the wedding of a dear nephew’s dear friend, who had always addressed you as ‘Uncle’, then proceed to your original constituency, where in your absence, a class room was waiting to be inaugurated after some repairs and refurbishment.
The red carpet rolled out on the occasion would have cost more than the repair works, at least in some cases. Then, there is another wedding, another funeral, another State visit, a host of officials, trade union leaders, hangers-on and genuine constituents with genuine problems waiting for your darshan… The cycle goes on with the President of Sri Lanka having lil’ time for himself, meaning to take a nap or stroll, or just breakaway and sleep a full night’s sleep! If that happened, then woe behold, the media would tell the world that the President had stomach cancer or throat cancer – purportedly ‘incurable’ form of cancer is the catch-word here, and over drinks, veteran journalists would burn the midnight oil, building up future scenarios without the incumbent. The game goes one! It will have to, as the adage goes: ‘The King is dead! Long Live the King!’
Embarrassingly visible
Why such a long intro? It is for the likes of SJB Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, who became embarrassingly visible by his absence at the recent State dinner hosted for the visiting Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his team-mate telling Parliament that the nation’s Leader of the Opposition’s request for a private meeting with the visitor was not granted.
According to reports, Premadasa, Jr, had confirmed his participation, and he was allotted a seat on the head-table along with the Presidents Raisi and Wickremesinghe, but his absence was noticed closer to the proverbial last minute and another SJB leader among the dinner invitees was upgraded, to do the honours (for himself, so to say). It is sad that such an elegant and critically important State event had to have such an avoidable conclusion. It is anybody’s guess what the visitor would remember, especially if Premadasa were to become President in October elections –or, even on another occasion – and came face-to-face with
Raisi, who inshallah, may continue in his present job.
All diplomatic engagements for as important for the nation’s Leader of the Opposition as for the incumbent President and team – not just from a personal stand-point but from the nation’s stand-point. In many democracies, there is a system for a senior government official to take the Leader of the Opposition into confidence on the salient points that were discussed during official visits of the kind so that the nation as a whole was seen as walking in tandem, and that there was no mis-step for the visitor to apprehend, when it came to the future course of action.
Likewise, there have also been Opposition leaders who request for a private official briefing before they meet with a foreign dignitary, nearer home or elsewhere. Again, for the very same reason.
Sending out a message
What makes the Iranian visit doubly important or even more critical for the nation? First, Raisi was risking his life and his nation’s leadership by flying out of the country, even if for a day, when Iran is at ‘war’ with a more determined Israel, which had not spared any length in the past to get out its political targets, if only to send out a ‘message’. Secondly, he was visiting the country to inaugurate the Uma Oya irrigation project, funded by his country.
Maybe, you can argue that Raisi was trying to be brave in the face of real-life threats, if only to send out a message to his adversaries – and Israel is only one of many and is in the forefront just now, in the aftermath of the Gaza War – and also to his home constituency, so it’s for him to take the risk. Such arguments, if any, are frivolous here. He is the President of Iran, he came to Sri Lanka, to inaugurate a project that his government has sponsored, full-stop.
If nothing else, there are basic lessons in diplomatic courtesies and protocols that wannabe Presidents in Premadasa’s place need to learn and follow at every turn. For him to have ‘boycotted’ the State dinner for the visitor and still expect his government to clear a private appointment for him exposes the inadequate knowledge of protocol by his aides and advisors. It would have been a double-embarrassment for any visitor in Raisi’s place as someone in Preamadasa’s place has insulted him by abstaining from a State dinner in his honour, and yet he received him at a private audience.
It’s just not on. Maybe, Premadasa’s team thought that they were out-smarting not only the Sri Lankan government leadership but also the visitor’s team by seeking a private appointment when the intention possibly was to boycott the State dinner. Maybe, going by scheduling, State dinners are a high-point in a visitor’s itinerary, and they seldom have official engagements afterwards during a State visit.
Hence, it is possible to assume or argue that Premadasa decided to avoid the State dinner only after there was adequate confirmation that his request for a private meeting had been declined by the Iranian side. Either way, it was a faux pas that the Premadasa side should have avoided, in the larger interest of bilateral relations.
Pettiness has no place in diplomacy, bold rebuttals have. There is also the dividing-line, where your domestic politics ends and diplomatic niceties begin. For Team Premadasa to now explain away his absence from the State dinner by saying that he had always boycotted those were the Wickremesinghe government is the host does not simply sell!
Worse would it be in cases where Premadasa as the Leader of the Opposition is invited not by the Sri Lankan government but by the other party. Assume that there was a return dinner by the Iranian side…Premadasa’s presence then in that one would have been a double-whammy in terms of additional embarrassment that he would have heaped on all concerned!
(The writer is a Chennai-based Policy Analyst & Political Commentator. Email: sathiyam54@nsathiyamoorthy.com)
