Deciphering Tom Vens’ Diplomatic-speak
By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
When diplomats speak on important occasions intelligent people, or those who have darkened or still darkening the Corridors of Diplomacy, will always try to scratch the surface of what they are hearing. They normally do so to know whether or not what is being said is what is truly meant. Diplomats, generally, are known for having the knack for playing Dr Jekyll in daytime and Mr Hyde at night.
Diplomats are trained to master the art of Doublespeak. They most often speak with their tongues in their cheeks to hide their true intensions or feelings in plain sight. And they speak in such sublime language that they will be telling a nation’s leader, or Head of State, to go to hell in a subtle way that that leader, or Head of State, will be looking forward to going to hell after the diplomat would have ended his or her speech. And the true feelings, or intensions, of an Ambassador could only be known in the Situation Reports (Sit Reps) s/he is sending home or to Headquarters. But while an Ambassador is on duty, s/he is always Dr Jekyll in speech and Mr Hyde in the Sit Reps.
So last Tuesday at the European Union (EU) Ambassador’s residence at Spur Loop, in Freetown, while the newly appointed Foreign Affairs Minister, Professor David Francis, and Speaker of Parliament, Dr Abass Chernor Bundu, were clinking glasses to toast to the good health of Europe; I was and still is only interested in three paragraphs in the speech of the EU Ambassador, Tom Vens. The occasion was the celebration of this year’s “Europe Day”.
Clouding the EU’s true feelings about the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), Ambassador Tom Vens notes that, “…on a daily basis I am critically asked if our intended final beneficiaries, the least privileged ones, are indeed receiving their fair share of what we, as partners in development, intended. This is about our need to relentlessly confront wastage, corruption and greed and make sure that we are truly accountable for the resources we manage….” That’s the crux of the matter.
And those who are not dead to language will be able to decipher the true feelings of the European Union about what is now happening in Sierra Leone. If the EU funds, which are being received by the SLPP government on behalf of the people of Sierra Leone, are reaching the “intended final beneficiaries”, then why would Ambassador Tom Vens be critically asked by his employers in Brussels if majority of Sierra Leoneans are “receiving their fair share of what” the EU is sending to the country? Those who say that their SLPP has been distributing EU funds equitably should answer that question. If you read the EU Ambassador’s lips correctly, it seems that the European Union is getting the feeling that its funds may only be benefiting the ruling elites in the form of per diems and other forms of official emoluments not the “intended final beneficiaries”. Not my logic please!
And those who have been engaging in “Long Bench” or “Ataya Base” arguments about their SLPP government fighting corruption should ask themselves why would the European Union sees the “need to relentlessly confront wastage, corruption and greed and make sure that [President Julius Maada Bio and his government] are truly accountable for the resources [they] manage….?” With such euphemistic undertones, Ambassador Tom Vens is diplomatically telling the SLPP government that corruption and greed are pervading the Bio-administration so much so that the EU is not sure whether the SLPP government is truly managing donors’ funds properly.
The EU Ambassador may have known that corruption, under the watchful watch of the SLPP government, is widespread but it appears that the government is paying lip service to it. But since he is trained not to call things by their real names, Ambassador Tom Vens is using cloudy languages to highlight it. But those who are good at reading between the lines might have now deciphered the hidden meanings of his words. The EU ambassador may also be aware of the countless rags-to-riches stories of many members of the ruling elites; he may have known that the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) now appears to be the Defender-in-Chief for corruption in high places, and he may be aware of the many publications of the Africanist Press in which President Bio, his wife, and the current Foreign Affairs Minister are being accused of misusing public funds. But as a diplomat, he will not embarrass his hosts in their presence but to say nice words for their hearings. Isn’t Diplomacy, according to Isaac Goldberg the Jewish American journalist, “is to do and say the nastiest things in the nicest way”? Sure. The EU Ambassador will keep the hasher words about the SLPP government for his Situation Reports to Brussels.
The other paragraph in Ambassador Tom Vens’ “Europe Day 2021” speech which I am interested in is where he says, “When we pursue stability and prosperity, this not only serves Sierra Leone’s interests, but also the EU’s interests….” Despite the EU ambassador is using the pronoun “we”, he is thinly referring to the SLPP government which, since it came to power in 2018, has only been pursuing the All People’s Congress (APC) and its supporters instead of pursuing stability and prosperity for Sierra Leone generally. Calling members of the main opposition “terrorists” and “Ayampi” (“thieves” in the Krio language) that were running “a racketeering enterprise with egregious infractions” will not bring stability to Sierra Leone. In other words, the EU is saying in a clouded language that if there is no “stability”; the SLPP government should forget about “prosperity” because the two are Siamese twins.
And the third issue in Ambassador Tom Vens’ speech under review, which I think should be highlighted, is where he says, “My wish is that in Sierra Leone…the relentless pursuit of dialogue and compromise can underpin the national development agenda. This is particularly true in the political space”. Again, this is an indirect way of telling the Bio-led administration that in order for their so-called “New Direction” to truly take a new direction, the SLPP government has to have genuine dialogues with the APC and other opposition political parties; make few compromises, and open up the political space as dictated by the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone.
The EU Ambassador can only take the horse to the Sewa River or River Rokel but will not force it to gulp water. He has cloudily laid down the basis for stability and prosperity in the country. But it is left with the hawks within the SLPP government to decipher the hidden meanings of those words and work towards them.
It is on that note that I will end today’s One Dropian dropping with a quote from Lincoln Davenport Chafee, the American politician, which says, “In the world of diplomacy, some things are better left unsaid”. And the sentence which Ambassador Tom Vens and others have always left unsaid, in their speeches, is: There will be a Regime Change in Sierra Leone in 2023.
[email protected]/+232-76-611-986
