CBK wants to address Mahinda rallies
By Our Political Editor

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse has been inviting various groups during the past few week to Temple Trees as he has stepped up his canvassing for the presidential elections. This week he met Three-wheel drivers. In the picture the three wheel drivers are seen serving themselves lunch offered to them. Pix by Ishara S.Kodikara

In New York where the political glitterati from the world over gather every year, the mood appears to have changed again for President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and her brother, Foreign Minister Anura Bandaranaike.

Kumaratunga telephoned Colombo and asked one of her aides to speak to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse's staff and slot in seven public rallies for her countrywide. That is to campaign so as to make Rajapakse the fifth Executive President of Sri Lanka. There was no word about a hurried dissolution of Parliament, summoning the Government Parliamentary Group or the Central Committee of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to force Rajapakse to abandon his deals with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU). Nor were there more verbal blasts at Rajapakse.

All that came when sister and brother met in New York, ahead of the World Leaders' Summit and the inauguration of the UN General Assembly sessions. At the time, the brother made the New York Declaration where he said "After extensive discussions with H.E. the President, I have agreed with her proposal that the Sri Lanka Freedom Party should closely examine the recent agreements entered into by Mr. Rajapakse with some parties and groups. If it does accept the interest of our party and its people and if the Sri Lanka Freedom Party so decides, I will extend my full support and campaign for Mr. Rajapakse on my return."

After the sister-brother talks in New York, Kumaratunga set off for San Francisco. Reports from that part of the world said that she travelled to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. But she returned to Washington D.C. to address a meeting of the Global Consortium on Tsunami Recovery. It was chaired by former US President Bill Clinton, who is UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy for tsunami recovery. She was due in Japan, and later in Thailand before returning to Sri Lanka late on Tuesday or Wednesday. With only a few days stay in Colombo, she is due to go to France next.

From New York, brother Anura went in a different direction. He set out on a visit to Washington D.C. Thereafter, he was off to his favourite haunt, Los Angeles where he is known to make his annual, sometimes bi-annual pilgrimage for rest, recreation and recuperation. This time, SLFP insiders say, he will not return to Colombo until after October 7, nomination day. SLFP seniors who are aware of his regular sojourns in Los Angeles do not grudge his absence. As one office-bearer of the party said, it’s better he is out than being here and plunging himself and the party, from one embarassing controversy to another. But there is a difference in his absence this time - Sri Lanka's Foreign and Tourism Minister is living abroad as a tourist.

Even in New York, the shock that she is in the twilight of her career has continued to haunt Kumaratunga. She had hoped for another year to notch up a 12 year period as President but the Supreme Court's land- mark ruling put paid to it. During her official visit to China, she sat down for an informal meal with some of her State media heads, the only people in the fourth estate she is comfortable with. During the visit to New York, she ducked several media engagements with leading US media.

It prompted Sri Lankans in New York to remark that she felt the US media was also "loyal to Ranil Wickremesinghe." They were alluding to remarks she made after the 54th anniversary of the SLFP in Colombo that all the private media were loyal to the UNP and Opposition Leader.
This was after they reported that Kumaratunga has paid tribute to Wickremesinghe at this event which also coincided with the launch of Rajapakse as presidential candidate.

Chatting with Hudson Samarasinghe (SLBC), Newton Gunaratne (ITN) and Janadasa Peiris (Lake House) at the Diayutai State Guest House in Beijing, Kumaratunga lamented about her sudden exit from Presidency. She said she could not cut an onion, drive a vehicle (after her eye injury) or did not even have a house to move over. "How can I face this all of a sudden?" she asked.

Back in Colombo, the lament continued. It was with the Southern Province Governor Kingsley Wickremaratne. She had begun colour washing the Janadipathi Mandiraya only the week the Supreme Court ruling came. The colours had been personally chosen by her. Even that work was not over. She had obtained a detailed inventory of all the items that were in the Janadipathi Mandiraya that belonged to the State. She had even obtained a video film of it. "All I have to do is give that file to my successor," she told Wickremaratne. The Southern Province Governor had other thoughts. "Why don't we make this place a museum? A future President can move over to another place," he suggested. But that did not receive any response from Kumaratunga. Imagine her as caretaker of a - museum.

Even in New York, where she met SLFP sympathisers among the Sri Lankan community, it was the same story. Many wanted unity between her and Prime Minister Rajapakse. She assured he would receive her full support. But she had left Colombo after firing off a strongly-worded letter to Rajapakse as revealed in these columns last week. It was then reported that Harim Peiris, the "unofficial envoy" for Tiger guerrilla affairs and Presidential Spokesman was at the meeting where this letter was formulated. It is now known that he was abroad. He had read this column whilst being abroad and asked an official to intimate this to The Sunday Times.

And waiting nervously and with trepidation for that Kumaratunga support to arrive, Rajapakse was still puzzled about the role of Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC). Kumaratunga had taken its leader Arumugam Thondaman as part of her UN delegation. Like Kumaratunga, brother Anura, now comrade-in-politics, Arumugam was also shooting off a missive from New York.

There were newspaper accounts that Thondaman would support a Presidential candidate who backed the P-TOMS (Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure) and the ISGA (Interim Self Governing Authority) demanded by the LTTE. Worried Rajapakse aides went to work to find out what had happened.

Their concerns have been raised by a previous development. Weeks before he signed an agreement with the JVP, Rajapakse has had informal soundings from the CWC. For their support for his candidature they had placed some five demands. That had included matters relating to Cabinet portfolios, assurances over certain Police matters etc. But this time, Thondaman was insisting on the P-TOMS though reports that he called for support for the ISGA have turned out to be incorrect. Rajapakse aides learnt that his demand for acceptance of P-TOMS came after talks with Kumaratunga in New York, where he was given red carpet treatment. According to one source, Kumaratunga acknowledged there was nothing wrong in Thondaman placing demands that were in the best interests of the people he represented.

Rajapakse has made clear his intention to go ahead if the CWC continues to insist on its demands. "I will face it on my own if they are not reasonable”, he told a member of his campaign staff.

Kumaratunga also tried to fire a strong shot at the JVP from New York. A Tamil newspaper, at the butt end of JVP criticism for its reportedly close ties with the LTTE, had run a story that a JVP leader had been behind the plot that led to the killing of Vijaya Kumaratunga, President Kumaratunga's husband.

Kumaratunga's loyal propaganda man Eric Fernando, who had been leaking more stories in the past weeks than issuing press releases, telephoned the Tamil newspaper in question in Colombo from New York. He wanted more details and made no secret that Kumaratunga was very interested in the matter. Fernando said she wanted to pursue it further. It turned out that it was SLBC Chairman Hudson Samarasinghe who had informed Kumaratunga in New York about this news report.

The next moment, Lake House media was called upon to expose details of this "sinister plot" and the men behind it. But the matter went before a Committee headed by Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, a one time media minister and now Minister of Plantation Industries that was tasked to oversee propaganda matters relating to the Presidential campaign. They decided the story should not be run, for it would damage Prime Minister Rajapakse's association with the JVP to win the upcoming Presidential Elections.

Then a party stalwart ordered that the story be used at least in the SLFP's official newspaper, Dinakara. But the staff there held the same view - they would be shooting themselves in the foot if the story ran. Rajapakse would be the loser. That put paid to Kumaratunga's latest salvo to drive a wedge between Rajapakse and the JVP.

Rajapakse had other problems too. Though the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) signed a deal with him, none of their representatives were present at the first official rally at the Town Hall. JHU representatives met Rajapakse's staff to discuss the issue. They said from the very next rally their representatives will be on the platform.

But there was another thorny issue that Rajapakse faced from the JHU - the Anti-Conversions Bill. Rajapakse had been told that agreeing to the JHU insistence that the Bill be passed in Parliament would only alienate Christian, more particularly, Catholic votes. JHU leaders who spoke to Rajapakse pointed out that their 12-point agreement made no reference to this Bill and Rajapakse should not entertain any fears. To further assure him, JHU representatives pointed out that they were due to meet the Archbishop of Colombo to assure him that the JHU had no quarrel with the Catholics.

But during the party leaders' meeting in Parliament, however, JHU leaders have been pushing vigorously for the passage of the Anti-Conversion Bill. During the latest meeting, it was found that the Bill should have been referred to Select Committee B in Parliament but its Chairman Deputy Speaker Geetanjana Gunawardena of the pro-Sinhala nationalist MEP was not in favour of heading it. Many other names were suggested. That included Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe but they all declined pronto. In desperation, the name of M. Sachchithanandan of the CWC was then suggested, on the basis that the anti-conversion laws were a demand of the country's Hindus as well.
Some SLFP insiders felt that the in-fighting in the JHU was continuing unabated. So much so, one faction had insisted they should abrogate their agreement with Rajapakse if he at any time reneged on the 12 points he had agreed upon.

Elsewhere, a controversial politico known for his many antics, but a staunch if raunchy supporter of Kumaratunga also caused some ripples. The loquacious man had found a new girlfriend, a one time beauty queen who bore the name of a mythical Indian queen. During the 54th anniversary public rally of the SLFP at the former Race Course, this politico had taken this girlfriend of his and introduced her to Kumaratunga. But there was a snub when he presented her to Anura Bandaranaike thereafter.

The man took the bold step of asking the Foreign and Tourism Minister "Sir, Meyata Kiss Ekak Deela Pili Ganna. Mey magey girl friend (Sir, Give her a kiss and greet her. She is my girl friend). He told him to take her and get out. Meanshile this politico, his girlfriend and her mother had gone to India when Rajapakse held his first public rally. The politico responsible for Colombo, some say, ducked the meeting and wanted to be away. On the other hand, it seems, Rajapakse does not want him anywhere close by either.

Rajapakse has, meanwhile, mended fences with the SLFP organisations in the Gampaha district. Representatives of these organisations are due at Temple Trees today for a meeting, said to be taking place with the concurrence albeit absence of, Anura Bandaranaike. Also backing the patch-up move was Lasantha Alagiyawanna, the Kumaratunga confidant who nurses the Mahara electorate in the Gampaha district.

During a meeting with Rajapakse this week, Alagiyawanna asked him to give Kumaratunga a telephone call to New York. He has so far not heeded the advice. He has not spoken to her after the tough letter she sent before departing to New York. Nor did he reply the letter. Kumaratunga will be back next week and now wants to campaign for Rajapakse. Who will speak to whom first? Your guess is as good as mine.

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