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of the ISGA with cracks in UPFA Only a few hours before the United Peoples' Freedom Alliance (UPFA) cabinet convened, she had, with nary a word nor hint to any known man or woman, decided to quit her post as the head of the shaky United People's Freedom Alliance. She had her last meeting with her strange Marxist bedfellows two days earlier where as it turned out, a heated exchange ensued over the public pronouncements of the JVP's Propaganda Secretary Wimal Weerawansa at a Kegalle meeting the previous week where he announced the end of the Alliance the day after the UPFA government decides to talk of self-rule for the LTTE. If that did not trigger a volatile situation, when JVP's Bimal Ratnayake had the 'cheek' to challenge her assertion that her Marxist allies were behind an article in the pro-JVP ' Lanka ' newspaper that was critical of her, the President could have decided that this bunch was difficult to do business with. Wimal Weerawansa's speech, made when she was abroad (in Bangkok ) was an utter embarrassment. She had only a fortnight back told the Norwegian peace broker, Deputy Minister Vidar Helgesen, that she would persuade the recalcitrant JVP to supporting the peace process - now hinging on the LTTE's stubbornness to have self-government via ISGA ( Interim Self Governing Authority) as a sine-qua-non for resuming the collapsed peace process. The speech was egg on her face. She told her UPFA coalition partner that what they had to say should be told at closed-door meetings, not at public meetings. It was bad enough for her to be saying one thing, and her cabinet spokesman Mangala Samaraweera not to be saying the same thing. But for part of her own government to be saying the complete opposite, with a threatening tone for good measure seemed justifiable grounds for the President's ire to be tested. Coincidentally, the same Monday, Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe told his party members that the United National Party would withdraw an earlier offer of support for the government in tackling the peace process. He said that in view of the rejection of this offer by Ministers Anura Bandaranaike and Mangala Samaraweera and Wimal Weerawansa, the UNP would now re-consider its position. It was also the occasion to clarify its drifting stance. The confusion by too many voices in the UPFA was not its monopoly. Every time a UNP ex-minister spoke, it looked as if the UNP too was in a muddle and a half. Prof. G. L. Peiris had said that the UNP was standing by its Nov. 1, 2003 position i.e. that it stood for talks with the LTTE based on the ISGA together with the then government's proposals of August that year. Ex-Lands Minister Rajitha Senaratne had gone on a limb though saying that the UNP stood for unconditional support for the UPFA government on the ISGA. He had also said that the UNP would support the PA in this matter if the JVP was to walk out. The un-grateful UPFA responded to this offer of unconditional support by calling for a probe on all the land transactions through the Land Reforms Commission during the Senaratne period with alleged revelations that the Minister had benefited through a transfer of lands to a Foundation bearing his name. Foundations created during the UNP period under the names of various Ministers probably need an inquiry by itself. Ranil Wickremesinghe left for Singapore and Indonesia on Friday night with wife Maithree saying that there was nothing very much for him to do here in the coming week, and that he might as well take a holiday. But President Kumaratunga grabbed the headlines - in fact, the state media headlines - on Tuesday. She was furious that the JVP cabal holding sway in the state media had staged their own coup. The Chairman of Lake House, her own Director General for Media at one time, Janadasa Peiris, was berated. If one is to go by his own self confession, the words were harsh and the deeds demanded of him more telling. She insisted she be kept informed of all the stories that were lined up for print at Lake House. It was later made the task of a three member committee including Media Minister, Mangala Samaraweera. Directives also went out to the the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation and the Independent Television Network. Weeding out of pro-JVP staff holding "gate keeper" slots in these key state media concerns has now begun. The head hunt will continue until men loyal to the President and the SLFP are put in place and they in turn put in place the views of the SLFP. By Wednesday, President Kumaratunga had more headlines in store. Her office issued a press release announcing her departure as Leader of the UPFA. So, the news was officially out when the cabinet met that evening. But can you believe it ? Not one single Minister raised the issue. Not even as a matter of curiosity, surely? Or was this such a non-event that it did not deserve any time at the meeting of the cabinet of ministers of the UPFA government? Even the four JVP ministers were not going to be the one's to bell the cat. They had faced so much humiliation before to form this alliance and work their way into power and place. They had been asked to come later when they once went for a meeting that they had no place to 'hang-around' so they did so at the Galle Face Green, kicking their heels, until it was time to meet her at President's House. On another occasion they were told they had come on the wrong date, and to fix another appointment on another day. The four ministers did not want further humiliation before their cabinet colleagues. Here was the UPFA top-rung meeting, and here was the UPFA leader having just resigned as its leader. The silence was deafening. The question, however, was being asked outside by the people. What has happened. Were the cracks in the 'Sandanaya' (Alliance), beginning to show. Where are we heading? Political analysts were quick on the draw. Some said that the President, frustrated with the JVP stance vis-a-vis ISGA, was now going to handle the peace process only as the President of the Republic and Leader of the Peoples' Alliance which would give her more flexibility to deal direct with the Norwegians and the LTTE. This would give her some respite from the JVP breathing down her neck, but it would be temporary respite. Others argued that this was to pave the way for Anura Bandaranaike to make a chess-like move to outflank Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse as the heir-apparent in the event that the President takes a bow from the political arena when her terms ends in November, 2005. The date of the resignation had some significance because that Wednesday, August 4, was four months to the date when the Prime Minister was to have resigned and new constitutional changes were optimistically expected to make President Kumaratunga the executive Prime Minister. When The Sunday Times asked the Prime Minister about all this last week, he had just laughed it off, evading an answer that might put him into a political soup, while a spokesman for him said that political conditions had changed since and there was no need for him to quit. Anura Bandaranaike even walked in to the weekly post-cabinet media briefing hosted by Mangala Samaraweera and announced his availability for the UPFA leadership. The cabinet spokesman gave his endorsement to Mr. Bandaranaike, saying "he was young, fit and able" to be the leader, but the aspirant for the job replied saying he was "not young", though he thought he was fit and able. The Prime Minister kept a distance, wisely. Mr. Bandaranaike had already sent a response to the Prime Minister's references to him during the interview with The Sunday Times. It was a critical slam-bang on his colleague even if, at cabinet, the two were cooing with each other - Mr. Rajapakse not aware, however, that there was an attack on him sent to the newspaper concerned. Or even if he did, he has been quite awhile in the game not to be ruffled, and probably finds it difficult to erase a seemingly permanent smile etched on his face for the cameras these days. The JVP was tersely told in the Presidential communique that the next UPFA leader will be from the Freedom Party (SLFP) - President Kumaratunga's party, and they accepted it. Political commentators began wildly speculating a contest between the two -Mr. Bandaranaike and Mr. Rajapakse, but they were clean off-the-mark. For they were not aware that while they were speculating within 24 hours, it was agreed that former Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake, a trusted Kumaratunga loyalist of many years, neither someone who has ever blasted her in choice Sinhala, or left her party to join another, in good time and bad, was picked to replace her. The fat was now in the fire. Mr. Wickramanayake who was not given nomination to contest at the April 2 elections, and forgotten to be included in the National List, is now the leader of the UPFA. Clearly, this is a move to have a trusted - and loyal - 2-IC to President Kumaratunga. The JVP will not really mind him either. Mr. Wickramanayake is a known nationalist with a bent on the Sinhala-Buddhist cause. He might strike a frequency with the JVP, but he will also come to soon learn, that forces outside the realm of Sri Lanka's domestic politics also play a big role in the country's internal affairs. Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar who was earmarked by the President for the (temporary) Prime Ministership in April, and overlooked for the present incumbent, was surprisingly not even considered for the UPFA top job despite (or was it because of) the fact that the JVP backed him fully for the premier stakes. That patch-up operation is essentially to patch up cracks in the UPFA itself. Must one say it is the result of the SLFP and the JVP finding it difficult to reach consensus over the peace talks? The main stumbling block was the ISGA which the LTTE says is a sine qua non for talks. In Wimal Weerawansa's words, the first day the Government discusses the ISGA would be the last day the JVP remains in the Alliance. Therefore, when she chose to resign and thus light up the hearts of the anti-JVP elements within and outside her party, President Kumaratunga has also acknowledged that she has failed to reign, in other words to function as the leader of an alliance. One political analyst likened it to the resignation of a principal from a school because two class teachers were at logger heads. Her resignation and an avowed commitment to continue the peace process, solo as it may seem, have raised questions in the LTTE circles in Kilinochchi. The first question raised underscored how fatal her move was. How can Amma (reference to CBK), who is going to talk to us alone, deliver if in the unlikely event there is some agreement? A more important question was, can we trust Amma? At least the others have dug their heels and are opposed but Amma had been saying various things at various times to please various people. So the analysis went on in the Wanni. If President Kumaratunga had assured the Norwegian facilitators she would get the JVP to travel in her bandwagon, she was proved wrong. Perhaps this was why she had asked her officials to sit down to prepare counter proposals to ISGA and call it Interim Self Governing Council or ISGC. The news that such a move was in the offing was the cause for discomfort in the state bureaucracy last week. But the cat was out of the bag when Mangala Samaraweera conceded at the news conference that counter proposals were in fact being formulated. But more important than the ISGA, right now for the LTTE, is the all important Karuna issue. This has not gone out of focus but reinforced their will to demand that the UPFA Government resolve the matter before any progress about the talks can be gone into. Our Defence Correspondent deals with this aspect in the opposite page. A bigger problem about the ISGC is the fact that the concept has been rejected even before it was born. What next therefore would be the billion dollar question. Whatever next, it is now clear, will be directed and controlled by President Kumaratunga and not by any of her Marxist allies. Though late in the day, President Kumaratunga has now asked her ministers not to make any remarks or grant interviews about the peace process without her express approval. She will thus become the main spokesperson. What this main spokesperson will now say about the Karuna affair and of the LTTE is the billion dollar question. A nation awaits the latest response amidst many contradictory ones made before.
Alliance looks a divided house The challenge they must now try to conquer is the notion of perpetual peace in a state ripped apart through internal conflict. The Alliance itself will have to steer away from divisive if the goals set forth are to be achieved. Thus inner peace has become the immediate challenge of the UPFA. If one carefully analyses the trend in global politics it is quite clear that the days of grand powerful political parties are on the wane and coalition governments are becoming more popular. With President Kumaratunga's resignation from the leadership of the UPFA, a fundamental problem has cropped up regarding future operations.A separate authority not answerable to the UPFA executive committee has been created with the resignation.. Thus this situation could lead to a dilution of authority in governance.What is now left to be done is to undertake confidence building measures between the two dominant parties before a total collapse of the UPFA takes place.. The events which led to the crisis started minutes prior to the executive committee meeting of the UPFA held last Monday. Reggie Ranatunga reportedly had come to see the President with a bundle of newspapers said to be mostly copies of a pro-JVP newspaper. The President,. the reports say, had been told of an article attacking her. A fraudulent deal on school uniforms too had been referred to here. Being upset over this episode, she walked into the UPFA meeting. The first question she asked deputy minister Bimal Ratnayake was "Where is Wimal?", to which he said 'he is not in the executive committee'. The President kept on asking for all the JVP leaders who were not present and with scorn showing showing on her face she sat down. Once more she began asking for the members of the JVP. Having lost her cool over what had been said by Wimal Weerawansa and the statements in a JVP newspaper she gave vent to her anger by saying it was a "Ninditha Kriyawak." Bimal Ratnayake, not to be taken aback, immediately replied "Isn't taking subjects from three of our ministries also a Ninditha Kriyawak?". Stung by this remark and more so by what Mr. Ranatunga said quoting the newspaper of Dollar Kakko on the President's staff, she threatened to weed out the state media institutions of all JVP moles who are holding positions currently. Immediately following the meeting the President blamed the SLFP camp for not defending her when the JVP was launching a severe counter-attack. In turn the JVP was blaming the President for taking up issues not relevant to the UPFA Ex co agenda which could have been discussed at a separate meeting between her and their party. The resignation of Kumaratunga as Alliance leader many thought was the poor handling of the two issues of the peace process and the interim authority, by the state media. This resulted in President Kumaratunga issuing a new directive that all news copies prior to telecast should be submitted to her. She also personally spoke to Lake House chairman Janadasa Peiris, Director General Rupavahini Nishantha Ranatunga and media secretary W.B. Ganegala. Both Ranatunga and Ganegala complained of heavy JVP infiltration and even blamed Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera for running an outfit filled with JVP sympathizers and ex-JVP strongmen. The President's wrath nearly removed Lake House Director editorial Karunaratne Paranawithana from office while Dharmashri Kariyawasam was immediately removed by media secretary Ganegala without even informing ITN Chairman Newton Gunaratne who is in Switzerland at this time. She ordered two media personnel said to be under the JVP influence from each state media organization to be removed. Having come to know that many statements being televised on the peace process came from her ministers, she clamped down on such statements being aired. But later she authorized Minister Mangala Samaraweera to do so. The continuance of this internal conflict could harm both parties and also the UPFA. Already the international community seems to be growing impatient at the long delay in the recommencement of the peace process. The prestigious Guardian newspaper reportedly has said the peace process was being used as a "political football". The Alliance, it has become imperative, should achieve inner peace, before the worst comes to pass. that of losing the peace for the nation. |
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