| Political Column | ||||||
| |
||||||
The SLFP is no more, CBK is SLFP With the stalemate on reaching national consensus between the President and the Prime Minister the focus has now changed to Parliament with the crucial Defence, Interior and Mass Communication ministry votes coming up for debate on Wednesday (December 17).Despite ealier speculation that the government would not defend the votes, now the Prime Minister has agreed to pass the votes. Even though
the UNF would support the votes in Parliament, they have already
started using their own tactics in controlling the finances of some
of the institutions. Halt of government advertisements to state
run media was one such tactic. Three different lines of thinking have emerged within the party in response to the ongoing efforts to make progress in governance. The dominant ideology of the party till recently was the cementing of an alliance with the JVP and facing a snap poll to take over the government. This was the battle cry of the group led by Anura Bandaranaike and Mangala Samaraweera. Challenges to this came in the isolated form in the likes of Bharata Lakshman Premachandra while even the Opposition leader Mahinda Rajapkase avoided conflict. The Opposition leader always said he did not have a group agenda but only respected whatever agenda the party set. But ironically followers in the party were heard saying "The SLFP is no more, CBK is SLFP". A new resistance movement to the general election fan club within the SLFP is stealthily setting up operations. The new resistance movement is a Dads army which enlists most of the old guard in the SLFP. The SLFP stalwart group will be begin pressing for continued talks with the UNF shortly. The group has one key objective, a single mission and one great enemy. The objective is to give confidence to the President to keep a dialogue going with the UNF and maintain minimal cooperation on the peace process. The single mission is to prevent a general election at any cost. The old guard is supposed to have mustered a group of over forty SLFP MPs. The central binding factor is a general insight of the current political trend of the party being decided by a few. and a possible general election will be advantageous to both the UNF and the LTTE. The hostile enemy is the so-called elite group of Eight which includes Mangala Samaraweera and Anura Bandaranaike. As the SLFP stalwarts see the TNA being blessed by the LTTE and the fact that the Tamil parties accepting the theory of SL Tamils equals the LTTE it is quite possible to increase the pro- LTTE representation in the parliament. While politically the Sri Lankan South is disintegrating into satellite groups the LTTE is bringing the territorially and demographically divided Tamils under a one large organization. Soon the balance between the centre and periphery of Sri Lankan politics may change drastically. Sadly the leaders in the South trying to build mini empires in their own territory may find the conditions to build them suddenly absent with no prior warning. With the UNF-PA national consensus efforts dying a slow death infected with a terminal virus CBK seems to be going back to the old formula. But the reds who got a lecture from Madame President last week met her with a mind set to give her back medicine of their own. As talks between the JVP and the SLFP got under way the two pioneers of the the alliance framework were facing the sword from Kumaratunga. Mangala Samaraweera
and Anura Bandaranaike are in a tragic situation even not being
informed of the talks that were taking place between the two parties
that they laboured to join hands. Monday saw only President Kumaratunga
and SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena and JVP minus Anura
Kumara Dissanayake holding talks. But the reds immediately began
their advance on the defences of the SLFP. Tilvin Silva began to build the case on the repercussions arising from the appointment of a committee to talk with the UNF by Kumaratunga and the sustained leniency she showed them. The JVP reminded the President the campaign SLFP launched through the most successful rally organized recently dubbed the Jana Sena was a fully-fledged operation to topple the government. But the President's actions have created an anticlimax. Two months back both parties were on a mutual understanding to organize a mass protest movement aimed at toppling the government towards the end of the year. Both parties began working on this agenda. Mangala Samarweera laboured months with his re-drafted plan eighteen a secret project to topple the government. The take over of the three ministries was also in this comprehensive plan. It did not have any reference to talks with the UNF to formulate a work program according to national consensus nor the offering of a national government architecture. The JVP had a point in this analysis but President Kumaratunga is a person extremely difficult to be directed to work according to a set of preset guidelines. Secondly the international pressure and the sudden urge to be a force in the peace process made Chandrika Kumaratunga take a U turn. The reds emphasised the need for the alliance to be put online soon and a snap election aimed at taking over the control of the government. President Kumaratunga was not in a mood to fight the JVP delegation as she was not progressing in her preferred flank as well. But she responded saying "What if we lose the election even after signing the MoU", "How can we ever face an election again?" Kumaratunga by saying this offered an alternative formula of her own, more like a systems check but by the blue camp this time. "I will either dissolve all the Provincial councils at once or dissolve ones which are potentially winnable and will evaluate the mandate we get" she said. The JVP earlier anticipating this offer had fired warning rounds declaring the alliance was a solution to install a new government but not a mechanism to be test fired at a selected target. Though the JVP was clearly against Kumaratunga's proposal Informed her that they will get back to her on the next round of discussions. Wednesday as the politburo of the reds met, the argument was that why should go for a provincial councils election. They were critical of this test firing sequence because of two things. The JVP believed that in a provincial councils election the people do not vote with a mindset to change the government and secondly always the party in power has an edge in local government elections. Still the politburo decided to go for another round of talks with the SLFP next week. The JVP still stuck to this line as they perceive that the alliance has positive impact on the party and its future directions. Also with a party with ambitious goals the ability to work with a traditionally well established party is an advantage and secondly the fact that the SLFP is in a process of slowly but steadily disintegrating due to lack of discipline and petty strife may give them an element of control over the party. As an abundance of grass roots resources can be tapped into and the resources that they could absorb from the SLFP and especially the access to areas they have no control of at all will make them think twice. The document that includes the MoU, and party constitution of the new alliance revised after being submitted to the SLFP CC is now complete. The text runs to ten pages and the chairmanship of the new party has been awarded to the JVP, while the JVP demand for 44 MPS has been dropped to 38. The JVP demands the ministries of Land, Agriculture and Irrigation, Fisheries and Aquatic resources. JVP MP Vijitha Herath who toured North Korea has told a newspaper that Sri Lanka has a lot to learn from the Korean Agricultural system. Herath may have not seen thousands of people suffering from famine and the number of child deaths in North Korea thanks to the Agricultural policies of Kim’s regime. If he becomes the minister of that portfolio which the JVP demands from the SLFP local farmers may get some expertise from North Korean specialists. But a more alarming declaration was made by President Kumaratunga on Wednesday night while addressing a group of Small and Medium Entrepreneurs and academics at her residence. The very President who embraced the neo liberal principles of economy on 1994 was talking of localising the economic policies limiting exports and new tariff embargoes. The reds maybe influencing this sort of drastic ideological shift as well as operational shifts in the mind of Kumaratunga. But it is difficult to pinpoint where the state could be relocated in the policy sphere. Any political leader or political organization should be located in an identified architecture minimally based on a philosophical configuration. If the state has a leadership and political vanguard with no relation to an established political base or philosophically guiding principles they become wasted out space objects drifting across the vast space to some graveyard across a black hole. |
||||||
Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
Chandrika
Kumaratunga's tactics to break the deadlock between the UNF and
PA lies stranded with no possible easy way out. While Mano-Malik
committee met again on Wednesday night to restore the failed communications
link, UNF reiterated their objection to the offer made by the president
on Defence portfolios.
