The Sunday Times on the web

The Political Column

4th April 1999

Infighting in top gear

By our Political Correspondent

Front Page |
News/Comment |
Business | Plus | Sports |
Mirror Magazine

Home
Front Page
News/Comment
Business
Plus
Sports
Mirror Magazine

The hard-fought and often violent campaign for the elections to provincial councils of ficially ended last night with major parties holding final rallies - but the battle within parties for preference votes is likely to go on till and into polling day.

The intra-party rivalry for preference votes is reported to be more severe in the PA than in the UNP, with Friday's killing at the Lunawa railway station being attributed to a PA-PA clash. But the UNP also is having its own share of problems, both at high level and low level.

In the Gampaha district, former UNP minister and JR confidant Paul Perera is reported to be annoyed over the appointment of Shrimani Wickremasinghe as an authorized polling agent for the UNP in the district. Mr. Perera says his wife Kulaseeli who is contesting the Gampaha district is not willing to go behind newcomers to get things done. He says his wife has faithfully served the UNP for a long time and due recognition has not been given to her.

He went to the office of the UNP's Gampaha campaign manager Rohitha Bogollagama at Gajaba Mawatha in his old Benz. In his guttural voice, he lashed out against the appointment of Ms. Wickremasinghe. It is known that Ms. Wickremasinghe was appointed on a decision taken by the Gampaha district coordinating committee headed by Anura Bandaranaike. She is the wife of Laj Wickremasinghe, who is known to have worked closely with Mr. Bandaranaike.

An angry Mr. Perera was heard to say at the Gampaha District UNP office that he was interested more in the welfare of his wife than the party and he would ensure that no body mistreated her.

He said that he had spoken to UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe about the possibility of his wife Kulaseeli withdrawing from the party list if she was not given her proper place.

He warned that he had collected enough material to blast the daylight out of not only the PA members, but also of some UNP members.

He also warned that the line was very thin and he could cross over to the PA, though President Kumaratunga two weeks ago singled him out for a severe attack for his alleged misdeeds against her husband Vijaya Kumaratunga during the JR presidency.

Mr. Perera recalled his heyday, especially the Dedigama by-election campaign in 1973 when he took the frontline for Rukman Senanayake and stood against heavy odds though others wanted to pull back.

Finally, Mr. Perera was calmed down by Mr. Bogollagama who assured that another polling agent Lawrence Madiwela would be given purview over Ms. Perera's areas.

"When I fell ill, many thought that I would be gone soon, but I will probably see them die before me, 'Mr. Perera said with a sarcastic smile.

The target of Mr. Perera's attack was obviously Mr. Bandaranaike who he felt had sponsored Ms. Wickremasinghe.

The drama ended with Mr. Perera agreeing to adhere by basic party regulations though insisting he would not go to Ms. Wickremasinghe to get his agents into the counting centres.

Despite all this, Mr. Bandaranaike himself is confident of a good show by the UNP in the Western Province, and especially in the Bandaranaike heartland of Gampaha district, though some areas are known to be evenly balanced between the two major parties. While PA supporters are often reported to have burnt tyres during UNP meetings as an apparent reminder of the reign of terror, Mr. Bandaranaike did something unusual at Minuwangoda. He asked for a chair, then for some petrol and set the PA symbol alight.

While Mr. Bandaranaike was burning chairs, Mr. Wickremesinghe had a burning problem over musical chairs. In recent weeks, much like the JR-Premadasa political rallies, where famous pop stars produced political entertainment, the UNP has been bringing top singers to the stage. Among them was Latha Walpola who paid a musical tribute. The crowd was impressed but Mr. Wickremesinghe was not. He wanted all the musical entertainment stopped. He summoned advisor Milinda Moragoda to express his distaste of what was going on. The talk backstage is that the party leader prefers singers like Rukantha Gunatilleke who were groomed by the National Youth Services Council when Mr. Wickremesinghe was in charge of it.

Whatever the song, Mr. Jayasuriya is widely expected to win the Western Province for the UNP, though the margin may be slim.

Away from this titbits and tail pieces of the poll campaign, the Elections Commissioner has moved to tackle one of the major issues - possible rigging. He has issued directives to all presiding officers on what to do if they believe there has been large scale rigging or intimidation to an extent that could affect the outcome of the poll in any particular booth. Police mobile units have been asked to assist senior presiding officers when making their entries and promptly report these matters to the returning officers.

Meanwhile, the Attorney- General has written to Deputy Inspector General O.K. Hemachandra, who is in charge of police election operations, specifying the duties of police officers on election day. He says any police officer on duty should act on the direction of the senior presiding officers and also has the power to act on his own in terms of the law to prevent misconduct at any polling station.

He states that Section 33 (3) of the Provincial Councils Act imposes an additional duty upon a police officer detailed for election duty to assist presiding officers when required to do so. The mere absence of direction from a presiding officer is no excuse for an officer on duty to remain passive in the face of any flagrant breach of peace committed in his presence in or outside the polling station. Indeed, to remain silent in such a situation would be a gross dereliction of the Code of Criminal Procedure Act, the AG says in his letter to the DIG.

In another controversial turn of event, the government is using the recapture of the sacred Madhu area as a means to win over the hearts of the Catholics in the western province and elsewhere. In many areas in the western province, posters appeared showing President Kumaratunga with the blessed Virgin Mary and a picture of the Madhu Church. Many Catholics however see this as an insult and some Catholic priests have described the posters as scurrilous, though other priests are known to be backing the PA campaign.

While the PC polls took centre stage, the most talked about event on the sidelines was the disgraceful battle at the annual general meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka. As the bubble of the world champion image of the Sri Lanka team was bursting, tragically at the same time, it was the case of the cricket board going out of control.

Defeated candidate Clifford Ratwatte, an uncle of President Kumaratunga, has vowed he would take legal action against what he sees as rigging and violence at the board elections but by the end of the week there was yet no action in Hulftsdorp.

According to information we have obtained, Mr. Ratwatte had some time ago met President Kumaratunga in Kandy and told her of his decision to contest for the most prestigious and powerful post in sports administration. She gave her consent but told him, she could not canvass votes for him..She told him to do his own campaign and contest only if he thought he could win.

As part of the campaign Mr. Ratwatte met ministers Bertie Premalal Dissanayake and Nandimithra Ekanayake who head district cricket associations which have voting rights in the cricket board. He explained to them the plans he had to develop cricket.

But both ministers are reported to have indicated they had pledged their support to the rival candidate, Thilanga Sumathipala.

Mr. Ratwatte also approached Ministers Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and Mahinda Rajapakse. While the former refused outright, Mr. Rajapakse said he might be able to persuade at least one of the two representatives from the Hambantota district to support Mr. Ratwatte.

Learning that the Matara representatives were also going to support Mr. Sumathipala, the Ratwatte camp approached Minister Mangala Samaraweera but again the result was not favourable.

But the Ratwattes were not giving up. Through the President, Anuruddha Ratwatte is said to have been approached and he tried to persuade some of the ministers but that too did not work.

The next move was to get Prime Minister Sirima .Bandaranaike to talk to the ministers in question. She reportedly called Sports Minister S.B. Dissanayake. But he dodged the matter. Ms. Bandaranaike also called both Bertie Premalal Dissanayake and Nandimithra Ekanayake but they are also reported to have given excuses.

Thereafter, she called Thilana Tennakoon, too. Since Thilana Tennakoon was not at home, his mother who answered the phone assured Thilana's fullest cooperation to Mr. Ratwatte.

One of the few positive responses came from Higher Education Minister Richard Pathirana. He agreed to canvass support among university clubs which had voting rights. Mr. Ratwatte is also reported to have won pledges of some 20 votes from the Badulla and Monaragala districts. Arrangements were made to house those representatives overnight at the Ranmuthu Hotel in Kollupitiya.

However, on the day of the elections when they produced their identities at the entrance to the Cricket Board headquarters, they were told 20 other representatives from Badulla and Monaragala had already come and taken their seats. So Mr. Ratwatte's 20 were turned away.

The defeat of Mr. Ratwatte is known to have caused a stir at Temple Trees because Media Advisor Sanath Gunatilleke and Presidential security chief Nihal Karunaratne had come out openly for Mr. Ratwatte. Soon after the controversial elections, President Kumaratunga met Mr. Ratwatte for more than 3 hours to review the situation.

In the aftermath of the Cricket Board turmoil last Sunday, Deputy Minister Reggie Ranatunga is reported to have stormed into Temple Trees around 2. 30 p.m. that day to meet the President. The staff did not allow Mr. Ranatunga to go to the President, though he waited for nearly half an hour. Mr. Ranatunga told the staff he had come to complain to the President about the alleged attack on his son Dhammika at the cricket board meeting. He said Dhammika, chief executive officer of the board, had been punched in the abdomen and hospitalised. Mr. Ranatunga said that during the 17 years of the UNP rule the family had often been attacked by the opponents but now they were being attacked by their own men. He warned that if he could not tell it to the President, he would tell the public about the hooliganism at the cricket board meeting.

Members of the Ranatunga family, including captain Arjuna Ranatunga have been identified with the Sumathipala camp. One of the brothers Prasanna Ranatunga was elected as a vice president of the board on the Sumathipala ticket.

While Clifford Ratwatte has vowed legal action, Mr. Sumathipala is also reported to be planning to file action against the President's security chief and others who stormed the board's headquarters allegedly brandishing T-56 rifles. According to Mr. Sumathipala, they are the people who created pandemonium at the board's headquarters.

By the weekend, there were indications that the President was planning tough political action to settle the cricket board dispute. The speculation is that she will remove S.B. Dissanayake from the Sports Ministry and get a new Minister of Sports to dissolve the cricket board and appoint a board of governors comprising three highly respected cricketing professionals to run the show until proper elections are held.

Meanwhile, the government has taken action to enforce regulations regarding the activities and funding of NGOs. But some foreign NGOs are said to be planning to pull out of the country rather than fall in line. Presidential Secretary K. Balapatabendi in a letter setting out the new regulations states:

'There are a number of voluntary social services organizations/Non Governmental Organizations operating in Sri Lanka making useful contributions towards development, relief, rehabilitation and related activities.

2. At present, these organisations are registered at different institutions under various laws and as a result it has become difficult to obtain information on their activities. Therefore, it has become necessary to re-register all these organisations under one institution, in order to keep proper records of the work done by them for better co-ordination and co-operation between the Government and these voluntary social services organisations/Non Governmental Organisations.

3. In view of the above the government has decided to re-register the following voluntary social services organisations.

i. All international and national level foreign funded voluntary social services Organizations/Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) will be re-registered with the clearance from the Ministries of Defence, Foreign Affairs, Plan Implementation and the respective line Ministry at the National Secretariat for Non Governmental Organisations under Ministry of Social Service.

ii. All such organizations should forward proposed action plans when applying for re-registration, indicating type of activities, operational locality, target groups, number of employees, sources of funding, annual expenditure, amounts of money which will be brought into the country annually etc. in the format provided by the Registrar of National Secretariat for Non Governmental Organizations in the Ministry of Social Services.

iii. All local voluntary social services organizations/Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) operating in more than one Administrative District should also be re-registered at the National Secretariat for Non Governmental Organizations. They also must forward the required information for the re-registration in the format provided by the Registrar of the National Secretariat for Non Governmental Organizations.

4. At the District level (other than the NGOs registered at the National Secretariat for NGOs) the District Secretary/Government Agent will re-register all the other voluntary social services organizations/NGOs operating within the respective District.

A District Coordinating Committee for NGOO shall be established in each District. This Committee will consist of the following officers

i. District Secretary/Govt. Agent - Chairman

ii. Head of District Planning Secretariat - Member

iii. Provincial Secretary in charge of the subject of Social Services - Member

iv. A representative of the Chief Secretary of the Province - Member

v. A Social Services Officer nominated by the Chief Secretary - Member

5. At the Divisional level (other than the NGOO registered by the National Secretariat for NGOO at the National level and by the District Secretary at the District Level ) the Divisional Secretary will register all the NGOs operating within his Division.

6. The Registrar of Voluntary Social Services Organizations will appoint the District Co-ordination Committee in terms of the Voluntary Social Services Organizations (Registration & Supervision) Act No. 31 of 1980 as amended by Act. No. 08 of 1998.


Taraki's Column

Editorial/Opinion Contents

Presented on the World Wide Web by Infomation Laboratories (Pvt.) Ltd.

Hosted By LAcNet

Political Column Archive

Please send your comments and suggestions on this web site to

The Sunday Times or to Information Laboratories (Pvt.) Ltd.