-By A Special Correspondent
(Lanka-e-News -03.Nov.2025, 11.30 PM) When former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry proudly declared that he had been officially invited by Cambridge University to deliver an address at the prestigious Cambridge Union in January 2024, Colombo’s diplomatic circles briefly hummed with pride. A Sri Lankan minister, it seemed, had made the intellectual stage once graced by Roosevelt, Churchill and Gates.
But a closer look reveals a very different story. Sources in both London and Colombo confirm that Sabry’s trip to the UK between 23rd and 24th January was not an official engagement sanctioned by the Sri Lankan government or recognised by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). His appearance at the Cambridge Student Union—an independent debating society, not a formal arm of the university—was, in fact, a private invitation.
The distinction matters. If the visit was private, why was public money spent? The Sri Lankan E-News platform has reportedly sought clarification from both the FCDO and the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry, urging an official statement confirming whether the visit carried any diplomatic status. As of yet, there has been no explanation of how the trip was funded or why a taxpayer-funded ministerial entourage was necessary for a personal appearance.
Critics argue that Sabry’s Cambridge appearance mirrors the pattern of extravagant “official visits” that have long plagued Sri Lanka’s foreign service—lavish travel justified under the banner of diplomacy but serving little national purpose. Legal observers now suggest that, should the visit indeed lack official authorisation, the NPP government must act with the same rigour it has applied in investigating former President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s spending controversies.
Sabry’s professional record provides further fodder for scrutiny. Though elevated to President’s Counsel during Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s tenure, Sabry has rarely been associated with academic or intellectual circles within Sri Lanka. Allegations have long circulated about the authenticity of his law college admission, and his critics point out that he has never held a teaching or research role in any Sri Lankan university.
If the financial questions were not troubling enough, Sabry’s performance at Cambridge added insult to injury. Attendees described his English delivery as halting, awkward, and poorly constructed, prompting visible discomfort among Sri Lankan professionals and students in the audience. “It was like watching a five-year-old struggle through a school recitation,” one Cambridge attendee remarked.
For a country whose diaspora includes highly articulate scholars, diplomats, and economists at world-class institutions, Sabry’s appearance was, as one observer put it, “a national embarrassment.” Many wondered why, if he lacked confidence in English, he did not choose to speak in Sinhala, Tamil, or Arabic, languages in which he might have delivered a more dignified address.
What rankles most among critics is the symbolism of the affair: a former foreign minister allegedly using public funds to indulge personal vanity, projecting himself on an elite platform while Sri Lanka continues to wrestle with debt, austerity, and calls for fiscal discipline.
As the NPP government tightens its anti-corruption agenda, the case of Ali Sabry looms as an early test of principle. If Ranil Wickremesinghe’s conduct is under judicial review for misuse of state resources, then, in the interest of parity and credibility, Sabry’s “Cambridge excursion” must also face scrutiny.
Because if Sri Lanka is to rebuild its battered international reputation, it cannot allow ministers—past or present—to turn the country’s finances into a personal travel fund or its diplomacy into a theatre of self-promotion.
-By A Special Correspondent
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by (2025-11-03 19:54:04)
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