By Easwaran Rutnam

Former Sri Lankan Ambassador to Geneva Dr. Dayan Jayatillaka says it was President Mahinda Rajapaksa who invited him to be part of the Sri Lankan delegation to Vietnam recently and refuted speculation that he was to be appointed as another Presidential advisor.

"I have absolutely no desire to be yet another Presidential advisor," Dr. Jayatillaka said adding however that he as always would be ready to express his views frankly on any subject that the President may choose to talk to him on.

“The President invited me for a chat over breakfast, after which he invited me to accompany him to Vietnam the next day on the first ever state visit by a Sri Lankan leader to that country. After a moment's hesitation I accepted. Vietnam was once an epicenter of world politics in my lifetime and the Vietnamese revolutionary leaders, most notably Ho Chi Minh, were my heroes. Our former Ambassador to Vietnam, Mr Ratnapala told me that his tenure was made more succcessful by the high esteem that the Vietnamese officials had for my speeches in support of the coutry at the UN Human Rights Council. For me it was partly a secular pilgrimage.  I felt privileged to visit Ho Chi Minh's humble residence where he stayed during the war years, see the volume of Lenin's Selected Writings on his table, stand next to the table at the which the Politbureau, which included the greatest military genius alive on the planet, Gen Vo Nguyen Giap, met, and see the desk at which Uncle Ho wrote his last testament before his death 40 years ago. It was unforgettable for me to be able to give a clenched fist salute before Ho Chi Minh's preserved body, at the mausoleum,” Dr. Jayastillaka told Daily Mirror online.

Responding to reports his name had been omitted from the joint statement by the Foreign Ministry following the visit to Vietnam Dr. Jayatillaka said that if such reports were true then it would not come as a surprise as it would have been done by the same incompetent and petty minded personalities who constantly lobbied for his dismissal from Geneva.

“I have no knowledge of this matter and it is not my style to take up so trivial a matter with the President. After all this pales into insignificance given the unfairness of my dismissal from my ambassadorial post in Geneva, and when I was sacked by Foreign Ministry fax I didn't complain to the President either.  If this news report it true it is hardly surprising, because this action would come from the same incompetent and petty minded personalities who constantly lobbied for my dismissal,” he said.