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The Political Column

2nd August 1998

Who messed up protocol?

Angry Chief Whip in huff as VIP Anura cracks jokes

By our Political Correspondent

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The tenth south Asian Summit in Colombo ap pears to have made some headway, especially in the economic field and also improved prospects for peace and security in the region.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga emerged with a greater international image. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif praised her role, saying she had probably acquired the extraordinary skills of statecraft from her father and mother who were both former heads of government.

However, some organisational shortcomings marred the SAARC Summit.

Senior Minister and government Chief Whip Richard Pathirana was seen kicking up a row with officials of the Presidential Secretariat when he found himself relegated to the third row. He observed that ministers junior to him - Nandimitra Ekanayake, Alavi Moulana and S.B. Dissanayake and Mangala Samaraweera - were seated in the first two rows.

Mr. Pathirana wanted to leave in a huff but the officials pleaded with him to remain.

Presidential Secretary K. Balapatabendi was seen trying to calm Mr. Pathirana down, while Minister G.L. Peiris offered his seat to him.

Mr. Pathirana finally settled down probably wanting to run off from his seat having been put next to Central Bank Governor A.S. Jayawardene whom he wanted sacked as Finance Secretary! But he made it clear that he was not happy with the seating arrangement. He said proper protocol had not been followed by the Foreign Ministry and the Presidential Secretariat. Others agreed.

"After all he is the Chief Government Whip," one senior Cabinet Minister said.

He said while most of the current ministers might have assumed Cabinet office on the same day, seniority was determined by when they entered Parliament.

In the meantime Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera who learnt about what was going on over Mr. Pathirana wanted to forego his seat. Alavi Moulana also refused to take a front row seat allocated to him. He was later seen seated next to Mr. Pathirana.

It was also revealed that the Home Ministry had not been consulted by either the Presidential Secretariat or the foreign Ministry regarding the seating arrangements.

Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle called Foreign Secretary Wilhelm Woutersz and asked why protocol was not observed.

Mr. Woutersz reportedly said seating arrangements were handled by the Presidential Secretariat. The Minister then called Presidential Additional Secretary, S.M.S.B Niyangoda, and blamed him for the mess.

Mr. Fernandopulle observed that the Leader of the House, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was seated in the third row while Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had been relegated to the sixth row.

Later Mr. Pathirana refused to be mollified by some ladies who came to apologise for the mess.

"I haven't come here for a private function. It is a State function and they should have given me a proper seat," he proclaimed.

Some of the young ladies were in tears after they were taken to task by the Minister in public.

Mr. Pathirana was also not happy over the relegation of Mr. Wickremesinghe who was put with the Deputy Ministers. TV cameras showed him fast asleep throughout most of the proceedings.

Mr. Pathirana said the Opposition Leader was of the Cabinet rank in terms of protocol and should not have been treated in that manner.

In contrast, Anura Bandaranaike was seen to be happy seated among the VIPs along with Deputy Speaker Anil Moonesinghe and Deputy Chairman of Committees Rauf Hakeem and Labour Minister John Seneviratne.

Regularly he was seen leaning over Mr. Seneviratne to apparently crack jokes with Mr. Moonesinghe.

It was Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike who was responsible for getting a VIP seat for her son who is now a top-rung member of the UNP.

Some Deputy Ministers, including Sumedha Jayasena, were amused to see Mr. Bandaranaike watching his sister addressing the Summit. Anura Bandaranaike was to later tell friends that lot of those PA MPs seated around him left asking him, "When he is coming across." The not so young Bandaranaike was also full of praise for his sister-President telling his buddies later that night that he was proud of her, and that she had conducted herself like his mother chairing the 101-nation Non-Aligned Summit in 1976.

Mr. Bandaranaike had told friends he would receive a special seat although he got a normal invitation.

While other MPs were directed towards the rear entrance of the BMICH by the Otters Club, Mr. Bandaranaike used his mother's escort to go through the main entrance.

At the end of the opening session, Mr. Bandaranaike was seen talking to a number of top ministers, including G.L. Peiris.

Earlier as the Summit began, there was a hiccup when the microphones went dead leaving the President speechless.

She kept on tapping on to the microphone while millions watched her live on TV, not only in Sri Lanka but also all over South Asia. Her first few sentences were not heard.

Anura Bandaranaike, observing this, remarked that if it were President Premadasa at the podium, those responsible would have been sacked.

A majority of UNP MPs also attended the Summit opening and had no complaints about seating arrangements.

A.H.M. Azwer, for instance, came ready to protest after he had issued a media statement the previous day criticising the arrangements. But he and others found things were to their satisfaction.

Dr. Sarath Amunugama had not been pleased though, and had said he felt like suggesting that UNP MPs walk-out in protest of the seating arrangements, but it was felt that Sri Lankan Parliamentarians as a collective entity might cut a sorry figure to be seen bickering over such issues.

On Wednesday evening President Kumaratunga hosted a special banquet at President's House for the visiting leaders. The menu had an array of eastern and western cuisine.

The card itself was elegant with gold colour decoration on copper plates.

The VIP delicacies included such exotics as:

i) Ocean Delight,

ii) Taste of the Orient and a dessert called the Whisper of the Hills, a mouthwatering concoction marinated fresh strawberries in Almond tulip and orange ice cream.

Not bad the fare for the leaders of the world's poorest region where millions live in abject poverty.

While the SAARC Summit took the spotlight during the week, other matters took a back seat. But as we get back to base, an interesting issue would be the no-confidence motion against Minister Mangala Samaraweera on Tuesday. The President herself presided at a meeting at Temple Trees to discuss strategy for the motion.

Ministers Samaraweera, Fernandopulle and Pathirana participated.

The President told the ministers that unlike in the recent Air Lanka debate, they should get back-benchers involved. She said the non-involvement of back-benchers gave the impression that they were opposed to the AirLanka-Emirates deal.

For Tuesday's debate, she wanted the list of speakers to include both the front-bench and back-bench MPs.

When the President suggested Minister Mahinda Rajapakse as a key speaker, Mr. Pathirana said that it was unlikely he would speak on a matter of this nature.

The President insisted and told Mr. Pathirana to report back to her if Mr. Rajapakse refused.

She also suggested that someone competent with Internet and computers should talk about the technical details.

Minister Samaraweera suggested Minister Kingsley Wickremaratne for this. He also said the UNP was asking that the debate be telecast live. The President refused. "We allowed a debate once, hoping that it would be decent. But what did the UNP do except sling mud."

She said that in her opinion the UNP was not acting like a responsible Opposition.

"Some people blamed us for giving the opportunity to the UNP members to use unparliamentary language", she said adding a live telecast of debates should be allowed only for a responsible Opposition.

In another development, a move by President's sister Sunethra Bandaranaike to arrange a meeting between the President and her estranged brother Anura failed when President Kumaratunga refused.

The occasion was Sunethra's birthday.

The President said if Anura was attending she would not come but visit her on a later date.

Finally Sunethra had a lunch for her brother and a dinner for her sister.

Much more important was the issue raised when the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises met officials of the Atomic Energy Authority.

UNP Parliamentarian A.H.M. Azwer asked the officials for their assessment of the recent nuclear tests by India and Pakistan.

The officials said that they had monitored the radiation levels and felt the tests would not have an adverse impact on Sri Lanka.

The UNP's Rohan Abeygoonesekere asked whether there was danger of contamination in fruits and vegetables imported from these countries.

The officials said there were no reports to that effect.

LSSP MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara asked whether the telecommunication towers erected by private cellular companies could create radiation problems.

But the officials said such matters did not come under their purview and the AEA did not have sufficient funds to expand its scope and go into other fields.

The officials said they had been authorized to examine milk food imports for possible radiation, but other food items did not come within their purview.

Thereafter several members of the COPE moved that officials of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority be summoned.

The move was initiated by Mr. Azwer and former Minister John Amaratunga and was backed up by United Lalith Front MP Ravi Karunanayake.

The newest member of the Committee, SLMC's M.M. Zuhair, asked, for a clarification on the Standing Orders under which they proposed to summon SLPA officials.

The UNP MPs pointed out that it was under subsections (2) and (3) of the Standing Order No. 126.

The relevant sections are as follows:-

126 (2) It shall be the duty of the Committee to examine the accounts of public corporations and of any business or other undertaking vested under any written law in the government laid before Parliament, along with the reports of the Auditor-General thereon.

(3) The Committee shall, from time to time, report to Parliament on the accounts examined, the budgets and annual estimates, the finances, financial procedures, performance and management generally of any public corporation or of any business or other undertaking vested under written law in the government and on any matter arising therefrom.

Mr. Zuhair said those sections gave no power to summon anybody.

"COPE has the duty to examine accounts submitted to Parliament along with the Auditor-General's report. Then only do you have jurisdiction to summon officials", he said.

Mr. Nanayakkara argued that subsection (3) permitted them to summon any public official. He said Mr. Zuhair was interpreting wrong. But the charge was mutual.

Mr. Karunanayake and Mr. Amaratunga supported the LSSP MP.

COPE chairman Reggie Ranatunga said that even the summoning of AirLanka officials was not in accordance with the Standing Orders.

Mr. Nanayakkara said there appeared to be a conflict in the interpretation and requested that the matter be referred to the Speaker for a ruling.

The Speaker is likely to refer the matter to the Attorney- General.

It is obvious the UNP and the member of the Lalith Front were keen to summon the officials of the SLPA to question them on the P&O deal where the government recently signed an agreement with the Australian based P&O Consortium to develop the Queen Elizabeth Quay. There had been much speculation and controversy over the deal, but only a few people know what the agreement contains.

President Kumaratunga recently told the Cabinet that she could not allow ministers to study the proposal freely since she feared the risk of a leak to the media.

Most Port trade unions are opposing the deal.

They say Sri Lanka would have to bear the costs of construction of the new breakwater outside the Queen Elizabeth Quay at an estimated US$ 350 million.

This is about one half of the aid Sri Lanka receives annually. If the government does not build the breakwater the P&O will not invest any money for further development, unions say.

The other fear is security.. Port unions feel that the government has to be extremely careful when the ownership of even a part of the Port is transferred from the State to a private entity in view of the terrorist threats.

However the government seems to be determined to go ahead with the Port deal though most observers feel the issues and grievances raised by the unions and others should be addressed.


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