Political Column

Though the incident itself faded from the public domain almost as suddenly as it has occurred, last Monday's 'ambush' of Irrigation, Ports and Civil Aviation Minister Chamal Rajapaksa was a very serious political development. Already, Rajapaksa the elder -- the eldest of the siblings running the country -- a quiet and retiring type had been thrust into the political controversy by his brother Rajapaksa the Second (Mahinda) by making him Minister of Ports and Aviation, a portfolio that has some juicy contracts in the pipeline.

That recent move prompted the Ryp Wan Winkle like Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to include him in the expanded triumvirate -- the Pompey, Julius Caesar and Cassius -- or the Mark Antony, Octavius and Lepidus -- or the Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. Wickremesinghe, who is now on a direct collision course with the Rajapaksa Administration was to say that the triumvirate has become a quartet.

So, when Chamal Rajapaksa went to Tunmodara in the Wariyapola constituency (bordering Hiriyala in the Kurunegala District) on Monday to discuss re-settlement issues with some displaced families from a major dam project (Deduru-oya), and the people turned their wrath on him in a physical and violent way; there was no question that the attack was on the President himself.

The people were not unaware of the direct blood-relationship between Chamal and Mahinda. And for all intents and purposes, Chamal was not just a Cabinet Minister. He was the President's brother. The immediate cause of the friction seems to be that.

This is a project that the then UNP Government initiated some years ago. The then Irrigation Minister Gamini Jayawickrama Perera had promised the people that they would be re-settled with compensation on the basis of the market value of their property. All Governments, and political parties, including the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) supported this development scheme that covered an extent of some 5,000 acres. The project would force some 700 families out of the area.

Already 78 families have been resettled in nearby Anamaduwa and have returned as they claim their lives were under threat from wild elephants and due to lack of water. The minister , accompanied by Self-Employment Minister Sarath Nawinna and Highways Minister T.B. Ekanayake together with a media team from Colombo reached the project site around 1.30 p.m. that day. Villgers had already been involved in the protest in the scorching sun, and were in a bad mood for starters.

The main plea from the villagers was that they be adequately compensated and given reasonably good land to continue with their cultivation, but the reaction from Minister Rajapaksa was not what the villagers wanted to hear. "Oayagollo Kiyanavidiyata Maliga Hadala denna bay" (We can't build palaces according to your wishes), the Minister was to say . One of the youth snapped back saying 'Oyagollange pavulwala aya maligawala indagena sepavidinawa. Api Meha Duk windinawa' (Your family members are enjoying life in palaces and we are suffering here).

The exchange of the words continued for a little while longer, and the villagers demanded a written assurance be given to them within two weeks that their grievances be met. At that point Minister Rajapaksa refused to oblige, and turned away. That's when the crowds turned hostile. Police commandos of the STF guarding the Ministers bundled the VIPs into their respective cars when the crowd started pelting stones. Not enough to damage the bullet-proof cars, but bad enough to shatter the windscreen of a backup vehicle. Minister Ekanayaka was the first take-off from the scene driven away from a shortcut. The STF had done their job well; an escape-route had been ear-marked beforehand.
Officials of the Irrigation Department were also caught in the commotion. They were left to their own devises. The only group left behind was the media team from Colombo and the villagers not knowing they were journalists tried to attack them as well, but provincial correspondents who were there since morning intervened to save their colleagues.

Embarrassed by what had happened, the immediate reaction from the Government was that the attack was carried out by an 'organised group' and most of those present were 'outsiders' not belonging to the villages. Minister Ekanayaya at a news conference organized in Colombo two days after the incident said there was an 'Adisi Deshapalana Hasthayak' (a political hand) involved. Police officers who were also beaten up in the incident went on to arrest 19 persons from the scene of the incident, but according to villagers at least nine of them are SLFP supporters, four of them UNPers and two JVP supporters. All have been remanded until Tuesday. But one of the strong PA supporter's who is said to have stoned the vehicles had been released by the police already despite being arrested.

Information from the local Police is to the effect that a 'Go-Slow on the inquiry' order is in place, not to ruffle further feathers, and make a bad situation worse.

At the last Presidential Elections, the Wariyapola constituency voted overwhelmingly for Mahinda Rajapaksa -- h he received 55 per cent of the vote -- well above the average he ended up with (50.1%). Opposition UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe received 43 per cent of the votes in this electorate, the margin being 12 per cent. That alone must be of some concern for the President. The fuel price increases in quick succession since the April New Year and their knock-on impact on the Cost-of-Living coupled with the revelations of corruption at high places revealed by the Mangala Samaraweera-Sripathy Sooriyaratchchi duo clearly have trickled down to the villages. Has the tide turned, already?

These developments came in the immediate aftermath of the recent bungled move to dislodge the Northern Tamil lodgers in Colombo. The Supreme Court ordered some sanity into the move by declaring it illegal, but the damage had already been done. The foreign media 'went to town' as it were. There was no mention that the entire operation involved less than 300 people. It was made to appear that thousands were being dragged from their beds, in their night clothes, screaming, packed into buses and sent back to the North.

Abroad, the Government was made to look like a wicked Government; and both western and Tamil radio stations in the West began comparing the Rajapaksa Administration to that of Hitler and the treatment of Jews in Europe during World War II. In South Africa, they compared this to the apartheid practices of yesteryear.

The ham-handed operation itself created a crisis within the Government. A sizeable section disagreed with the modus operandi masterminded by the Defence Ministry. Others backed the Ministry on the footing that "something" had to be done to check the terrorists who were living with the civilians, waiting to strike targets in Colombo.

When the Defence Secretary, Col. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa came out with his guns blazing defending the move, he merely put the cap on by taking the responsibility for the move.

Ironically as it was, he chose to tell the western media how duplicitous the west was when it came to combating terrorism. He told the Reuters agency that the eviction of these lodgers who had no legal business in Colombo was justified, and slammed the west for "bullying", saying that when the US does operations it is called "covert operations", but when Sri Lanka does the same thing it is called "abductions". He then followed it up by telling the New York Times/International Herald Tribune that the Armed Forces have been given orders to kill the elusive LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Earlier in the week, he had engaged the visiting British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howell with the same fighting spirit. He told the junior minister that the west has the command of the English language and therefore it plays with words. "When British troops conduct operations in Iraq it is the 'war on terror' -- when Sri Lankan troops conduct operations, it is 'human rights violations'.

He chided British High Commissioner Dominick Chilcott on his conduct in Sri Lanka, something Chilcott defended on Friday when he took part in a panel discussion on 'United Kingdom's peace-building efforts in Sri Lanka' at the BMICH, something that did not go unchallenged when lawyer S.L. Gunasekera took him on.

Col. Rajapaksa's argument on the forked-tongue approach by the west makes good sense to a lot of Sri Lankans, but the grim reality is that Sri Lanka, while not necessarily having to suck up to the west, cannot live in a world of its own. Howell was to respond by saying that world governments had an obligation to monitor human rights violations throughout the world, but there was a grudging admiration for the retired Colonel for venting his feelings by some straight talk however un-diplomatic he may have been.

The entire issue was further compounded by the theatrics within the Cabinet. Realising that some faux pas had been created by dislodging the lodgers, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake was tasked with the assignment of making a public apology to those evicted in specific, and the Tamil community in general. He says it was a "big mistake". That the Prime Minister would have done so on his own volition is unimaginable.

Hardly had his statement been made public, another Minister Jeyeraj Fernandopulle says, "No, there is no need to apologise for what was done". To clarify what is the official Government position Information Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa then addresses a news conference and says "Well, the Government's position is what the Prime Minister said". In a sense it showed up the Government to have a healthy difference in opinion. Whether these are matters that must be aired in public is another matter -- why not, some would contend. Others would see a crack in the Cabinet.

UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe of course saw cracks. And to widen the cracks he kept pounding his constituency -- the diplomatic community. He had them invited for a meeting at the Continental Hotel and asked the diplomats why President Mahinda Rajapaksa was dodging saying anything on the lodgers' fiasco.

He referred to him as "William the Silent" -- the Dutch statesman of the 16th century who earned the nick-name because he rarely spoke out clearly on controversial matters, sometimes completely avoiding to say anything. Then, Wickremesinghe referred to an old folk-story of Kekkille Rajjuruvo (an ancient king who held an inquiry into a break-in to his palace by asking different suspects who was responsible for breaking into his palace, and each lay the blame on someone else until an innocent man was found guilty and gored to death as punishment) and eventually went on to slam Col. Gotabhaya by calling him the "ugly American". This is a marked departure from Wickremesinghe's usual rhetoric, where in a political career spanning three decades he has rarely, if ever, used vituperative language on a political opponent, despite being at the receiving end of endless name callings at his expense.

Probably Wickremesinghe is trying to rejuvenate the fallen UNP. He also probably has come to realise that in Sri Lankan politics there's no point in talking high-flown economic theory, but the choice of choice-words wins the day, and the electorate. He has now given notice to the Government of its plans on mass mobilization against the Rajapaksa Administration. They are particularly targeting their senior members who de-camped and joined the Government. Defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella is now on the firing-line with a no-confidence motion pending for misleading the House on the lodgers issue.

This coming Friday, they all go to Kurunegala, close to where Chamal Rajapaksa was nearly man-handled for a mass rally. The UNP is going to make the abductions of Muslim businessmen a political issue.

The ever-green -- or more to the point, the ever-blue -- Western Province Governor Alavi Moulana was also quick to get into the act over the same issue taking a delegation of Muslim businessman to President Rajapaksa. The purpose was to say that they have not been affected by abductions and ransom demands. The Government was to then organise a news conference to say that all was well with the Muslim Ministers to turn up and show a brave face. But the entire exercise backfired when Posts Minister Rauff Hakeem did not turn up, and sent a representative instead. Nor did M.H. Mohamed, who turned 86 this week turn up.

Other minor developments within the Government also showed signs of dissent and displeasure. The Chairman of the Water Resources Board , and the Chairman of the State Engineering Corporation resigned saying they cannot work with the respective Ministers.

Water Board Chairman Vasantha Senanayaka, (he quit the UNP when he was not made the Party's organiser for Minneriya - he's a relative of UNP Chairman Rukman Senanayake), in his resignation letter to Minister Chamal Rajapaksa said that the Minister had given orders against Board policy.

"Whilst functioning as a Chairman, there were instances where directives were given by you perhaps on a political basis countermanding decisions made per established policy of the Board. I regret that I could not accommodate such requests," he wrote adding that he had no such requests under his previous Minister Maithripla Sirisena.

The other to resign was Raja A. Edirisuriya, who is a relative of the Rajapaksas. He was one of the many Sri Lankans specially got down from the US to take over the post a year back. In his farewell speech he told those at the Engineering Corporation that due to political reasons he cannot achieve the objectives of the Corporation.

The reason has been that he was trying to settle the debts of the Corporation. They had not paid EPF and ETF and arrears for workers. His proposal was to sell some land belonging to the Corporation at Peliyagoda to reduce the losses. He told the employees that Minister Rajitha Senaratna , a UNP crosser, had blocked the plan. He said he had no alternative other than to send his resignation and allow the Minister to appoint a person of his choice.

Under such worrying circumstances at home, President Rajapaksa took wing to Geneva to address the International Labour Organisation (ILO) this week. The fact is that the President decided to make the journey to Geneva to address a UN agency when he had just turned down a previous plan to go to New York in September to address the more important UN General Assembly.

Close-by to where the President was to address the ILO, his country was getting plastered for its deteriorating human rights record at the sessions of the UN Human Rights Council where the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) was expressing concern about what it called the "constitutional paralysis that is damaging the independence of Sri Lanka's institutions".

Attorney General C.R. de Silva PC, a veteran at these Geneva sessions, was valiantly defending the country's image, but it was conceded by those present that he was defending a bad brief.

Tide turning against royal party