One more split in an already fractured society
By Our Political Editor
What could have been more dramatic than the news of a split within the ranks of the LTTE between the movement's two most powerful actors? Well, almost nothing.

But yet, when the news of the split between Karuna and Prabhakaran firebombed Colombo earlier this week, there was a muted and disbelieving reaction on the part of the government of Sri Lanka. When Eastern province forces commanders told the Prime Minister that Karuna, the LTTE Eastern Commander had asked for a separate truce for the Eastern province with the government of Sri Lanka, Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he can do no such thing. He is used to dealings with division and dissent on the Sri Lankan side of the divide -- but this was so new to him he didn't know what to make of it except to say that the ceasefire had been signed with Prabhakaran.

LTTE watchers say that what we have seen so far is nothing compared to the forces that will be unleashed soon on account of this unexpected turn of events. The tension between the Eastern cadres of the LTTE, and the Wanni command however have been simmering for some time now, they say.

But they had put it down to the traditional "middle class'' antipathy between Eastern and Northern Tamils. But then, they have discovered now that this is much bigger than that. Karuna's letter to the LTTE leader sounds almost like the breakout of election campaign fever in the South. He talks of the Wanni command "enjoying foreign trips and rides in luxury vehicles'' while the Eastern cadre who made the most amount of sacrifices in battle, is in a state of utter neglect.

But the news of the split, in terms of a more sober analysis, proves that peacetime is when all contradictions begin to re-emerge in a society that has been getting used to the regimentation of war. Look at it this way: The Southern Sri Lankan polity is polarised now between the so-called hardline Buddhists and the liberal pro peace factions. The UNF and UPFA have totally polarised the politics of the day. The Muslims are split between the Athaullah/Ferial and Hakeem factions. Now the LTTE is split.

The split in the LTTE will undermine the peace process, and will therefore hurt the UNF, some political analysts surmise. But before that, the UNF has problems closer home to worry about.

Problem number one was whether the UPFA will use the maximum clout of Chandrika Kumartunga's Presidency to bury the UNF on April the 2nd. For example, in Cabinet, the Ministers mulled over the fact that the new Presidential appointees D. M. Jayaratne Lakshman Kadirgamar etc., have never attended a single Cabinet meeting since they were appointed. Were they appointed then to eke out all the benefits of their offices for the UPFA's election campaign? No brilliant minds were needed to arrive at an answer to that one. UNF Ministers also deplored the fact that the President is taking away every facility afforded to the UNF, while those of the likes of Mangala Samaraweera enjoy the rides in the fleet of Presidential cars available now for electioneering work.

The state media continued to be used for the UPFA's benefit, and this included a ball by ball commentary of election violence allegedly directed at the UPFA candidates. Such violence has been there -- but there has been an equal quantity of violence directed at the UNF. Earlier this week for instance, men armed with automatics created a commotion close to the Kekirawa bus depot, and then led an attack on the UNF campaign men and machinery in that electorate. How did these men come into possession of automatic rifles?

But in Hanguranketha, on the other hand, a Buddhist monk's mouth was slashed with a knife -- and of course Haguranketha has been already canonised as one of the flashpoints of trouble at this poll. But other than Hanguranketha and Kalmunai in the Digamadulla district, election violence, although prevalent was more subdued than at previous polls, and for this there were several explanations. One was that the Elections Commissioner had used some of his powers - - and announced already that there will be definitely a re-poll in areas where election work was marred by violence. After April 2nd and with Avurudu celebrations looming, it will be difficult to find re-poll dates in the first place, and all this was seen as reasons for the fact that both parties were curbing their violent instincts in the larger interest.

The police was also found to be doing an excellent job destroying all posters and cutouts, and there was a surprise here. To some extent the candidates of the two main parties were in support of this move -- at least in a subtle way -- as they were strapped for cash. If there weren't going to be any posters on both sides, they were saving on their campaign budgets, which was a dire necessity considering the fact that an election is now being held almost every year on the average.

This paradoxically showed a larger trend in the political culture of the country. The rulers maybe happy to hold elections at the drop of a hat, but the people were showing that they certainly were not going to be a party to it. In most electorates, there was very little enthusiasm seen for the upcoming hustings, and the general attitude is that people will go and do their voting come election day but will not get involved in all the political skulduggery engineered by the politicians. In other words, they are heartily sick and tired of polls being held serially strictly for the benefit of politicians.

But it's a different story in the media, where the party wars are finding a blood soaked arena so to speak. Everybody is at everybody else's jugular, and The Centre for Policy Alternatives media unit released to this column the results of a survey carried out of the media coverage thus far, since the nominations were announced.

This document shows the extent to which the state media is being used to further the agenda of the UPFA. The survey of the print media for example calculated on the square centimetres allocated to the favourable and unfavourable coverage of the UPFA and the UNF in the election campaign, showed that the Daily News for instance carried 60 per cent UPFA favourable material. 23 per cent was UNF unfavourable material. In other words a whopping 83 per cent of the Daily News coverage was election propaganda for the UPFA! 79 per cent of the Dinamina was UPFA election propaganda by this same reckoning! Overall, 72 per cent of the entire coverage of state media was calculated as being favourable to the UPFA, while only 28 per cent of this coverage was favourable to the UNF.

On the other hand, in the non state media sector this figure was 50-50 exactly, which gives the lie to the notion that the private media is pro-UNF biased as the state media is pro-UPFA biased. The fact is that the private media was doing a good job while the state media was a massive offender against the UNF, by any standard. This notwithstanding absurd sermons by a so called Presidential Task Force on Media whose outpourings in this context sounded like a tract on the virtues of virginity delivered in a brothel.

90 per cent of the state media coverage was also judged unfavourable to the UNF, while the UPFA unfavourable coverage in the non state media was not so bad by comparison, being only 68 per cent. To quote the report "the front page photographs in the state media showed clear pro UPFA bias. Out of 6 Dinamina issues monitored, 4 had front page photographs covering the President (UPFA) while there were none in the front page covering the Prime Minister.'' Also, the Daily Island and the Daily Mirror had the highest coverage in support of free and fair elections.

Millions down the drain in polls campaign
By Harinda Ranura Vidanage
With the election campaign in full swing for the Freedom Alliance both the SLFP and JVP have been shocked by decisions to hand over most of the propaganda rights to a single company. It has been a practice at all general elections in the past where international and local public relations organizations played major roles. But it is rare in campaign history for a company to be allowed full control of the entire propaganda machinery severed from the party links.

At the moment a company owned by a daughter of a powerful SLFP politician, a UNP dissident who joined President Chandrika Kumaratunga, has taken over full operations of the FA campaign affairs. To the professionals who had contributed to all the hard work since the party's defeat in the 2001 general elections this has come as a shock. From organizing of press conferences to printing of literature, to selecting venues, this organization have extended its operations to all areas of functional authority, leaving out party officials. In addition the full rights of the SLFP electronic campaign as well have been handed over to it.

The JVP has also protested over the matter as both media units were supposed to be having a joint operation on election campaigning. The JVP last week was disturbed by another factor on the same issue. Wimal Weerawansa in a joint Alliance review committee took on the media policies of the state television Rupavahini. The core context of the JVP propaganda secretary's critique was the fact that Rupavahini has become a useless element in the Alliance campaign trail which was similar to a dead satellite orbiting sans guidance.

Mr. Weerawansa after this onslaught managed to get some kind of control over the navigational systems of the state media. Now some elements of the state media and SLFP media units meet him daily in the morning to get some guidance on the media control covering the subsequent 24 hours. It is quite surprising to see the SLFP hierarchy bending to the pressure of one man. The writer finds no fault in this fiery individual but for the SLFP to yield to the JVP in this manner shows the shedding of the thick skin it once had and the signs of all round weakening of the total schematics.

The most favoured location for this semi formal meeting is in an undisclosed room at the SLBC. Janadasa Peiris has become the go between Weerawansa and Lakshman Kadirgamar. Immediately after meeting and consulting with Mr. Weerawansa he runs to the new Media Minister. This move came about due to the need of an immediate change on the drafting of news bulletins. Earlier it was totally vested with Rupavahini Chairman Harim Peiris but the JVP now prefers to deal with the Director General Nishantha Ranatunga.

The sad story is the result of an internal battle for supremacy between the Chairman and Director General. Nishantha Ranatunga who has climbed the ladder quite swiftly backed by favours from the heavens. From Board member to Director General and not being satisfied with that the attempt is on to clinch the top seat.

That is the importance of cricket and the role of former skipper who is a legend in cricket in his own right-Arjuna Ranatunga. But the issue of cricket has now become the campaign trump of skipper Ranatunga. This is where the blade of the bat which met the leather of the ball is being used to meet a softer element of the public heart.

Using of the airtime of the recently concluded Sri Lanka vs. Australia one day series by the Freedom Alliance and also by Arjuna Ranatunga for promotional purposes is now embroiled in controversy. Telecasting of a match featuring young Arjuna Ranatunga has also caused problems of broadcasting rights. The state media has decided to air certain games of the 1996 World Cup towards the end of this month. Another private media organization is also seeking the cassettes to air the match in their channel as an indirect promotion of Ranatunga. This has prompted the SLFP to place early warning systems to prevent such incidents of controversy even within its media organizations.

The SLFP has proceeded to reactivate a one time successful election monitoring arm of the party - the "Polls Watch" unit. Established after the bloody elections in Wayamba this unit was under the then media minister Mangala Samaraweera and coordinated by his trusted strongman Sripathi Sooriyarachchi. But as both individuals are involved in their respective campaigns the right of operating the Polls Watch has become a serious issue of contention among Chandrika Kumaratunga confidants.

President Kumaratunga these days is involved in a hide and seek game with some SLFP members whom she has included in the Alliance national list. At least half of this number have been seen hovering about President's House just to say show their faces. In order to be more useful, president Kumaratunga has decided to send them on her excellency's service as campaign coordinators of selected districts ranging from Colombo, Kandy, Kegalle, Nuwara Eliya and Badulla. The top lady knows how to deal with these situations but she must also check the unprecedented amounts of millions of rupees being gobbled by the so called PR organizations in the name of the Alliance election campaign.

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