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CBK advised to guard her tongue
By Harinda Vidanage
Senior members of the People's Alliance have called upon President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga to exercise restraint in making public remarks and to confine herself to brief speeches on policy matters.

At a closed-door meeting at the President's House last Wednesday night, they raised issue with President Kumaratunga after her latest outburst that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe allegedly sought a bribe of Rs. 25,000 to admit her son to a premier school when he was the Minister of Education. The allegation, 15 years after the purported offence, drew an angry denial from the Prime Minister through his lawyers.

At the closed-door meeting of PA seniors, SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena, said the President should speak only on important policy issues and this had been endorsed by others.

He had also asked her to clear her diary of political meetings for the next two months and to remain in Colombo for consultations. Former minister Mangala Samaraweera had also asked her to refrain from making such speeches.

Her Anuradhapura speech prompted the presidential media unit, including her spokesman Harim Pieris, to embark on damage control by placing the blame on the media.

But, the move misfired with the electronic media telecasting a full account of what President Kumaratunga said.

The Presidential Secretariat in a statement issued on Wednesday said: "Ms Kumaratunga did not make any statement personally relevant to Prime Minister Wickremesinghe. Further, in her speech the President never stated that the present Prime Minister had accepted money through a middle man to get children admitted to schools. This is another malicious misinterpretation of statements made by the President. This propaganda is used by certain media institutions."

The Presidential spokesman claimed the President had not named Mr. Wickremesinghe by designation or by name". But, the President had referred to Mr. Wickremesinghe as the then Education Minister who is the country's Prime Minister now.

The trouble started last month when President Kumaratunga apparently made fun of a facial feature in Finance Minister K. N. Choksy. Under sharp criticism, she claimed she had been a good actress and did not mean to hurt anyone.

Recently in a speech at Pilimatalawa, the President vowed that "Chandrika is no kitten and that she would take 500 with her if they try to destroy her".

The Sunday Times learns that senior members had advised the President to restrict her speeches to 15 minutes, have a prepared text and if she wished to attack the policy or conduct of government leaders, she should do it through others.

Observers noted that in the aftermath of the controversy over her speeches, the President's speech in Kandy this week opening a war heroes park was from a prepared text.

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