A Little War And No Peace
Is Not Desirable
LMD’s ‘Sri Lankan Of The Year’ Jayantha Dhanapala tackles
the vexed issue of resolving the ethnic conflict.

n December 2006, former UN Under-Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala was nominated as LMD’s ‘Sri Lankan Of The Year’. And in an exclusive interview with BENCHMARK shortly after, the retired career diplomat elaborated on why – despite being a firm favourite initially – he did not win the race for UN Secretary-General.

“It was a very gruelling and intense race which came into conflict with some of my cherished ideals – which is not to advertise myself, and to try to maintain some dignity and decorum. But when you are engaged in a race like that, you have to talk about yourself and, perhaps, I didn’t do a good job of it – as the results indicate. But more than that, I thought that some of the press criticisms – not necessarily in Sri Lanka, but in other parts of the world – were rather unfair. I think the fact that Sri Lanka had an ongoing conflict was wrongly used as a stick to beat me with – when, in fact, conflicts are raging in many countries; and so, it was not fair by my country,” Dhanapala asserted.

Refuting claims that Sri Lankan diplomatic missions could have done more to promote his candidature, the long-serving ambassador stressed that the government and our embassies overseas did a “splendid job to the best of their capabilities”.

However, he conceded: “Let’s face it – Sri Lanka is a small country with limited resources. We have approximately 50 diplomatic missions abroad and to compete with a juggernaut like the Korean diplomatic mission or the Indian foreign policy infrastructure was an enormously tough task.”

Dhanapala elaborated: “We gave it our best shot, but we have to face the fact that global politics has changed. In Sri Lanka, we tend to be rather sentimental about matters, but people do hard-headed calculations. Twenty years ago, China and Russia would probably have vetoed a Korean candidate, because of the Cold War and the fact that Korea has a mutual security pact with the US. But today, Korea is the number-one trading partner of China and it is good business. Therefore, it makes good politics. So, globalisation and the end of the Cold War meant that China was not going to veto a Korean candidate and not even an Indian candidate – even though China and India still have unresolved border issues. And so, our sentimental link with China meant that the Chinese would support me and vote to encourage me in the straw poll, but they would not do what was vital – and that was a vetoing of other candidates, to enable me to emerge as a compromise candidate. And that is the hard reality.”

Commenting on the country situation, he asserted: “Two changes in Sri Lanka are essential. Firstly, we have to checkmate LTTE terrorism, and protect our national security and our civilians – whether they are Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims or Burghers. But we have also got to produce a political solution. The president – in my opinion – is faced with a historic opportunity of finding that solution, which he himself has described as maximum devolution within an undivided Sri Lanka. We now have the MOU between the SLFP and the UNP, which is a historic opportunity.”

Dhanapala conceded: “There will always be spoilers and hawks who will want a military solution – which for over 30 years – we have not been able to achieve and which anyone in the military will tell you is unachievable. So, we have to find a political solution which will be acceptable to the majority of the minority people – that is, the Tamils and the Muslims.”

The veteran diplomat concluded: “We have to find a solution that will, of course, then be endorsed by India and the international community. Once we have that, it strengthens our position enormously. And even if the LTTE rejects that solution, we will be on moral high ground – because we have got a nationally-endorsed political solution of which we can be proud. At that stage, if we use a barrage of violence to eliminate terrorism, we will be supported by the international community and the Tamil people of Sri Lanka. Right now, in the absence of a political package on the table, our position is weak… today, we have little war and no peace – and that is not a desirable situation.”