The issue with the UN

In his recently published book on reporting 40 years from the United Nations, our special correspondent Thalif Deen, often called Sri Lanka's 'permanent ambassador' to the world body, writes; "Come September, Sri Lankan Presidents or Prime Ministers routinely visited New York to address the annual sessions of the UN".

The Bandaranaike family had three members address the UN General Assembly (UNGA), a record parallaled only by the Nehru family of India. Now Sri Lanka has two brothers who have addressed it. There were a few exceptions though. Presidents D.B. Wijetunga and R. Premadasa never bothered. President J.R. Jayewardene -- "Yankee Dicky" to his political opponents -- never even stepped in to meet the UN Secretary General when he was in New York during a state visit to the US.

Mr. Deen relates a story of President Jayewardene's brother, H. W., when he was in Geneva at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights during the northern separatist insurgency at home trying to upstage a resolution against Sri Lanka instigated by the West. The telephone rang at "Braemar', the Ward Place residence of the President seeking instructions. Towards the tail-end of the conversation those in the hotel room in Geneva heard the Queen's Counsel saying to his elder brother, the President; "Yes, Dicky, Yes, Dicky, No, Dicky, we can't do that, Dicky". Asked what President Jayewardene's instructions were, they were told; "the President wants us to leave the UN".

Such exasperation with the UN was not confined to President Jayewardene. One-time Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed would go to the UN and slam the West for "manipulating" the organisation. Former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who would get under the skin of his former colonial masters bluntly referred to the domination of the UN by the "white skinned". Sri Lanka's former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, an erstwhile UN bureaucrat himself, once asked a nosy UN Resident Representative in Sri Lanka who had exceeded his brief, to limit his engagement in the country to fighting mosquitos.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in his UNGA address this week pointedly said all states big and small should be treated “equitably”. When he had his meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the UNSG's office statement said the SG "reiterated the UN's view on the importance of ensuring protection of minority rights and civic engagement" in Sri Lanka but one wonders if he would have ventured to tell the US President that 'Black Lives Matter' or that desperate refugee seekers from Haiti should be treated more humanely!