{"id":41634,"date":"2015-06-10T20:48:34","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T00:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=41634"},"modified":"2015-06-10T23:04:09","modified_gmt":"2015-06-11T03:04:09","slug":"maheshini-colonne-sri-lankas-first-female-foreign-ministry-spokesperson-brings-breath-of-fresh-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=41634","title":{"rendered":"Maheshini Colonne: Sri Lanka’s First Female Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Brings Breath of Fresh Air"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Bandula Jayasekara<\/strong><\/p>\n

Everyone likes the wind. Everyone, at some point, likes the winds of change, something new and different in any arena. A breath of fresh air! That is exactly what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sri Lanka has done with the appointment of a new and a competent Spokesperson, Mahishini Colonne and the weekly press briefings held every Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"pic<\/a>

pic via: twitter.com\/MFASriLanka<\/p><\/div>\n

She is also the first female Spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry, that, too, without holding the position of Director General of Public Communications at the Ministry. It is a real change and a first.<\/p>\n

This is something new to Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Though many countries including our neighbour India has similar type of press briefings, Sri Lanka has taken a long time to adopt that practice. Having once served as the Director General Public Communications \/Spokesman at the Foreign Ministry, Presidential Spokesman and the Spokesman for International Federation of Red Cross based in New Delhi, I found Mahishini to be excellent and a breath of fresh air.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Some sections of the media were very unfair by her after her first media briefing. They criticised her the day after without appreciating the effort of the Foreign Ministry and that she was new to the job. She did a damn good job of it as a newcomer. She was cool, calm and considerate. She had the time for everyone and corrected whatever errors she had made earlier with sincerity. She wore a smile, gave an ear to everyone and proved her competency. Most Spokespersons lose their cool. Mahishini didn\u2019t. I am sure she wouldn’t and she simply cannot. <\/p>\n

One must understand that it is not easy to be a spokesperson. They do not have answers at their fingertips. If the media wants answers the spokespersons must be honest and truthful. They cannot be evasive. For that he or she requires time to consult several other people, in this instance the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Minister, Foreign Secretary, other officials or even the President. It is very difficult for any spokesperson to help meet media deadlines. I have been on both sides of the river hence my understanding of it. I also know that they do try very hard. They have to. So, let\u2019s understand the new Spokesperson of the Public Face of the Country- Ministry of Foreign Affairs. <\/p>\n

It is also important for Sri Lanka to have professionals as spokespersons rather than politicians who mostly go off track, drive round the bends and have huge egos and plenty of bad, smelly baggage. Sri Lanka can learn a lot from India in this regard. It is not easy to deal with the aggressive Indian media. But, the authorities in India select the right people, train them and get them to face the media. Most of them end up doing a very good job and also developing an excellent rapport with the press. <\/p>\n

Thanks to the former Indian Foreign Secretary, Nirupama Rao (who was also an Indian External Affairs Spokesperson\u2014if I am not mistaken she was the first female Spokesperson of India\u2014I had the opportunity of working with them to understand the role of the Spokesperson. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs and United States State Department have produced excellent manuals for Spokespersons. <\/p>\n

A former Indian Spokesperson, Vishnu Prakash\u2019s (my counterpart at the time) colleague Prakash Gupta is credited for standing up to Obama\u2019s all powerful Press Secretary at the time Robert Gibbs, who threatened to pull out Obama from talks with Manmohan Singh. Prakash had told Gibbs to go ahead and stuck to his grounds on the number of persons allowed in to the meeting room on the Indian soil. It was Prakash who was with me throughout my visit to India and I got to know the story first hand and had a good laugh. But, the story here is that spokespersons and communications people who coordinate state visits should not get pushed by Uncle Sam or anyone else for that matter but, handle media events the interest of the host country; the country and the Ministry should back them fully. <\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s Ambassador to Geneva, Ravinatha Aryasinghe, as Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did an excellent job under very difficult circumstances during the time of LTTE terror and of course under the best Foreign Minister Sri Lanka ever had and will never have the late Lakshman Kadirgamar. Ravi as a former print and television journalist understood the media very well. Most of them were his friends. He knew the pains and needs of the foreign correspondents. I remember how he turned his car back and came all the way to help a BBC team I worked with headed by the wonderful Mike Wooldrige with Cameraman Fred Scot. The team was led by Anna Averkiu from London. Mike had nothing but praise for Ravi for going out of his way. Ravinatha continues to be the same taking care of his media friends old and new, wherever ever he may be. <\/p>\n

It was Ravinatha who introduced Mahishini Colonne to me at a function at the then Indian High Commissioner Shiv Shankar Menon\u2019s residence saying, ” She is a bright young star with a good future.” I am sure Ravi must be very proud of Mahishini if he has watched the videos of her conducting the weekly press briefings.<\/p>\n

I wouldn’t be surprised if Mahishini goes on to learn Tamil and become a trilingual Spokesperson. It is the need of the hour. We wish the new girl on the block well.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Island<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bandula Jayasekara Everyone likes the wind. Everyone, at some point, likes the winds of change, something new and different in any arena. A breath of fresh air! That is exactly what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sri Lanka has done with the appointment of a new and a competent Spokesperson, Mahishini Colonne and …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Maheshini Colonne: Sri Lanka’s First Female Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Brings Breath of Fresh Air’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41634"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41642,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41634\/revisions\/41642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}