Moving again. No, it is not a complaint – it is merely a statement of fact. Every three years or so, the diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs move house – some to a foreign country, others to return home for their stint in Malaysia. We often call it a ‘stint’ even though we are technically ‘home’ because it works the same way as a posting abroad: it is temporary, and one fine day, we will again be called…
We have all been urged to read voraciously – whether it is an X feed, or a text excerpt, or even an old-fashioned book – reading is always a good thing. Reading, they say, opens the mind and expands your horizons. I won’t disagree with this. What I would like to add to the discourse about reading is that there is also a necessity to READ ALOUD. The usual benefits to reading aloud include: the opportunity to correct one’s pronunciation,…
One of the easiest jobs of a diplomat is to inform the host government of the appointment of a new Prime Minister, or a new Cabinet line-up. It always fell to the diplomat to explain the democratic process that took place, the constitutional rules that were adhered to, and the protocol-laden ceremony that saw a new Head of Government being sworn in. The purpose of such explanations are two-fold: the first is so that the host government would be apprised…
His Majesty the Yang DiPertuan Agong, Sultan Mizan of Terengganu, presenting the Letter of Credence to a Malaysian Ambassador Ambassador ↗ For a rank-and-file diplomat (what we elegantly term ‘career diplomat’) to become an ambassador, these are the steps that are taken, procedurally. Bear in mind that different countries will have different processes, depending on the type of government in place. These differences are often very small, however, since most countries have a similar process in place. Step One: A…
The way we tell a story (see The Storyteller In Us) will capture the audience’s attention. Beyond that, however, you need to also have a good and substantive story to tell. More and more, people resort to visual aids such as the series of pictures above. If you start with just those pictures, the story can be almost anything: Interesting images captured Architecture – Buildings and structures Colours Creativity Dubai Expo 2020 Most people will start with the story instead…
Once a person is appointed and received as an Ambassador, very few incidents can happen that would dislodge the person from the post. Even if the whole diaspora literally detests the ambassador, or the ambassador commits some gross transgression, the person remains an Ambassador. However, if the sending country recalls their ambassador, then the person’s tour of duty is effectively ended. The recalling of one’s own ambassador signals a country’s displeasure at the other country, not at the ambassador. This…
Not everyone who works in an embassy is a diplomat. Most embassies are staffed by what is known as “locally-recruited staff” (LRS), meaning that the individual lives in that country and applied for a job at that particular embassy. The LRS holds no diplomatic rank, and do not get assigned to another embassy in another country. I often say that it is the LRS that provide the institutional memory of an embassy; while diplomats come and go, the LRS remain…
