Political Column

Political Column

CBK-JVP cold war continues
By Our Political Editor
It was not a joke when party leaders chose to have a meeting on April 1 in the Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte Parliamentary complex on Friday April 1. There was important business, including a proposal to cancel sittings of the house for April 20 and 21 largely on account of the festive season.

Urban Development Minister and MEP leader Dinesh Gunawardena was in a naughty mood. He whispered to his colleague, chief opposition whip Mahinda Samarasinghe that four United National Party (UNP) MPs were to cross over. "They are now at the President's House," he said. Samarasinghe asked "are you sure?" Just then Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva chipped in to say he was also aware of this.

The genial Samarasinghe, who is known for his friendly attitude towards his political adversaries, slipped out of the meeting. According to one source, he walked into a room and made a phone call to tell his leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe the bad news. Later, he had checked with an ITN anchor man. He also took it seriously. The ITN contact said a camera crew had already gone to Janadipathi Mandiraya and therefore, he said, it could be for the swearing in. However, he was unaware who the rebellious foursome were.

When Samarasinghe walked back to the meeting, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna's (JVP) Wimala Weerwansa had added to the joke. He also told him that a crossover was under way.

Apart from the mild distraction that worried Samarasinghe for hours, until he later found out it was an April Fool's joke played on him, it was business as usual. They decided not to have sittings of Parliament on April 20 and 21. The JHU's Ven. Athureliya Rathana Thera asked why the Anti Conversation Bill, sans provisions which the Supreme Court wanted excluded, had not been presented to Parliament. Weerawansa butted in to say there were no 'teeth' in the Bill left behind after the Supreme Court ruling only to be told by the cleric politician that whatever remains should be brought in as law.

That meeting ended on a cordial note since most participants, like all other MPs, were keen to return to their electorates, and for the lucky some, a foreign trip.

If there was cordiality at the party leaders' meeting, it was badly lacking within the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA). It was a case of cracks surfacing everywhere.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, was called upon by President Chandrika Kumaratunga to head a Government-Opposition joint delegation for the funeral of Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. If he felt it was an honour to represent Sri Lanka at the funeral of one of Catholicism's revered prelates, Rajapakse was not pleased he was losing out on another honour. He was eagerly awaiting the arrival of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.

Hectic consultations had been under way between Colombo and Beijing ahead of Jiabao's arrival in Colombo on Friday. Outlines for a joint communique included a Chinese aid grant of US $300 million. Chinese assistance was also forthcoming for the Hambantota port development and for the rehabilitation of the tsunami affected fishing industry. Rajapakse wanted to be very much a part and parcel of this Chinese munificence. Rajapakse knows that such bounteous showering of aid to his area translates into votes.

If that was not comforting for Rajapakse, when he set foot on Italian soil there were other problems. In his absence, on Thursday President Kumaratunga had summoned top officials of the PM's Highways Ministry, the only ministerial portfolio assigned to him, for a conference. She had done something like this a fortnight ago when Media Minister Mangala samaraweera was away in China, and she, in a show of asserting her authority, presided over a conference of the Media Ministry bosses.

Bad enough, insiders say, she had also ordered an inquiry into some allegations against Premier Rajapakse's brother, Deputy Plantation Industries Minister, Chamal Rajapakse.

An indefatigable fighter that he is, Rajapakse the Younger, vowed he would fight back to overcome any obstacle placed in his way. Premier Rajapakse was not alone. His fellow traveller in the delegation to the Pope funeral, Consumer Affairs Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was also in a dilemma.

When President Kumaratunga and Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar went on an official visit to Pakistan, a Free Trade Agreement with that country was signed. When it came for Cabinet ratification in Colombo, Fernandopulle refused to table it. He was of the view that whoever signed the deal (in this instance Kadirgamar) should present it. He returned the documents to the President's Office. Talk of collective cabinet responsibility and all that old British tosh.

If that was bad enough, Chinese Premier Jiabao was to, among other matters, sign an agreement encompassing trade. Naturally, in the absence of Fernandopulle, another Government Minister had to put his signature to the agreement from the Sri Lanka side. But this time, he cannot complain. Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama did the honours on behalf of the Government, and he did so only because Fernandopulle was away from Sri Lanka.

A much bigger battle was brewing behind the scenes in the upper echelons of the State run media. The subject of scorn was Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation's Hudson Samarasinghe, a one time arch loyalist of late President Ranasinghe Premadasa now following the footsteps of President Kumaratunga. He is known for his now unflinching loyalty to her. So much so his daily early morning Sirasthala programme over the waves of the SLBC never misses out on the President, almost a re-run of the time state tv came to be nick-named 'Prema-vahini', and state radio was known as 'His Master's Voice' denoting an old gramaphone record label. There are songs extolling her virtues, recorded speeches of what she said at public meetings and other glorious tributes.

Unlike all other heads of State-run media organisations, Samarasinghe, though, was a notable absentee when the UPFA (Sandanaya) celebrated their first anniversary at Anuradhapura. Some senior SLFPers as well as JVPers were not to pleased. They accused him of not being well disposed towards the Sandanaya and taking advantage of his closeness to President Kumaratunga. Some even went to the extent of blaming him for the exit of Karunaratne Paranavithana, Editorial Director at Lake House.

They allege that it was Hudson Samarasinghe who had prejudiced President Kumaratunga into sacking Paranavithana. It was reportedly on the grounds that the Editorial Director was a JVP sympathiser. Others say Paranavithana was, however, as anti-JVP as Samarasinghe. The Samarasinghe wrath, they say, is the result of a dispute the two have had during the days when they worked together in the SLFP newspaper Dinakara. It was alleged that Paranavithana had turned down a request to publish material provided by Samarasinghe. The SLBC chief, however, told close friends he was not behind the moves to oust Paranavithana.

More trouble arose when a successor was named to Paranavithana's post. Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera, angered by some not altogether accurate reports in the media, appointed Somaratne Balasuriya to the post at Lake House. The Minister perhaps felt that Balasuriya, an alumni of Sorbonne University, was known to be a good friend of the President, and wanted to press home the point that he was naming someone who was acceptable to Kumaratunga in a bid to win back her evaporating confidence in him.

But that was not to be. On Thursday, however, the President directed Media Ministry Secretary Sarath Ganegala to cancel the Media Minister's appointment of Balasuriya. Even before he could walk into Lake House to become Editorial Director, Balasuriya was out of the post for which he was named. That no doubt was a direct slap in the face of Mangala Samaraweera, His Mistress' Voice on so many previous occasions. Now the President has a big question mark over his loyalty to her in the face of his open flirtation with her bete noir, the JVP.

All this came when most media reports tried to suggest that Kumaratunga had in effect asked Finance Minister Amunugama to run the media ministry whilst Samaraweera officially held the portfolio. This is furthest from the truth. It began this way. Amunugama was present when Kumaratuanga addressed state media bosses. She told them of the need to project the Government's "economic achievements". She asked Amunugama to keep the state media briefed regularly. That announcement was mis-read by those who thought that Lake House had been brought under Amunugama's edicts.

Lake House staffers were also led into believe that Amungama, a former Chairman of Lake House, was taking charge. Many began contacting Amunugama. Some were wanting to re-establish old personal relationships. Interesting enough, Amungama was later present at Samaraweera's own Colombo residence where Treasury Secretary P. B. Jayasundera was also on hand. The subject of discussion was the proposed re-structuring of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and bringing in India's Bharat Petroleum as the third partner in the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation. Amunugama made it clear at this meeting "I will not come to manage the State media. It is a problem for me".

No doubt, Samaraweera is badly 'cheesed off'. Some of his supporters were making a pithy point of political reality - that no one remains a close confidant of President Kumaratunga for too long. They came out with a long list of names. The accusation against Samaraweera is that his closeness to the JVP had allowed that party to make greater inroads into the state media, and through that, into the SLFP as well. Samaraweera's confidants ask the pertinent question 'what can they do if the SLFPers do not have competent men to state their case'. "We have only sycophants with little or no credibility," said one of them.

Another SLFP friend of the JVP, Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, has also been compelled to take a back seat. Kadirgamar and the JVP were soul-mates in their opposition to the LTTE's self-rule mechanisms and other ruses to carve for themselves a stepping stone for a separate state. But the President has made it quite clear that she is not impressed by Kadirgamar's alliance with the JVP.

In this backdrop the JVP continued with its agitation against President Kumaratunga's appeasement moves with the LTTE. At a meeting of the Patriotic National Movement (PNM) which is spearheaded by the JVP itself, its leaders targeted the foreign Non-Government Organisations as the villains of the peace.

They indeed had some veiled attacks on President Kumaratunga, continuing to get under her skin with their vituperative political rhetoric. "This country is nobody's private property," PNM speakers thundered in a reference to any proposed referendum on federalism. It was only the previous week, that the President hit out at the JVP by saying that state institutions are nobody's boodale' (private inheritance).

And so the shadow-boxing continued. Ven. Elle Gunawansa Thera, the fiery nationalist karate exponent cleric said, "the country has no leader today. There is no leader for our race.... that is why these leaders are saying that 80 per cent of the people will agree if the LTTE is given self-rule".

He went on to say " this country is no one's private property. No one can divide this country. This is a Sinhala-Buddhist country and everyone has to humbly accept that. We will not allow the UPFA Government to do any treacherous act "

"Those who propose a sell-out to the LTTE are not people who love the country. We know that people who studied at St. Bridget's and St. Thomas' cannot love the country", the monk added. What a sermon!

The JVP focused however on the NGOs, saying that they had infiltrated everywhere to turn Sri Lanka into a neo-colonial state. JVP parliamentary group leader and propaganda secretary, and co-president of the PNM, Wimal Weerawansa specifically targeted the President's own official spokesman Harim Peiris and accused him of having a secret dialogue with LTTE's S. P. Thamilselvan.

It was a serious accusation coming at the heart of the President's Office. Weerawansa went on to say, by implication, that Harim Peiris was part of the NGO mafia.

Weerawansa said that they had wanted the World Bank Country Director Peter Harold declared persona non-grata for the remarks he made about recognising a separate LTTE state, but the NGO mafia in the Government and the Opposition - and the media - remained mute about it.

Then, he turned his guns on sections of the media which he said, would do anything for foreign money. He referred to the German NGO Berghoff Foundation by name as one of these NGOs providing funds. It is in this backdrop that the UPFA Government marked the first anniversary of its grabbing power through a constitutional coup d’etat implemented by President Kumaratunga in April last year.

To take a break from all this back-stabbing, President Kumaratunga went on her nth ' private visit 'to Old Blighty where she will see for herself the conduct of the British General Elections scheduled for May 5. Away from the hustle and bustle of the local political scene, she would also reflect from a distance, the state of the nation over which she presides.

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