Political Column

The Eastern Province, though seldom playing a crucial role in national affairs and not often on the centre-stage, became the cynosure of all political parties during the past few weeks and especially last week.

Almost the entire giant cabinet led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa himself went to the East for a full-scale, full-steam campaign to win the crucial Eastern Provincial Council elections. The government has showcased the Eastern Province as proof of its success in the battle to eradicate terrorism and give freedom to the people. The showcase province became the arena for what is perhaps the biggest political showdown of the Rajapaksa administration - with the opposition also throwing everything it has into this battle.

The UNP-SLMC alliance also sent almost all its top leaders for the campaign in the Trincomalee, Batticaloa and the Ampara districts. The JVP went it alone and the split in the party - dubbed as the battle of the 'Wansas' - appeared to leave it, trailing far behind the two main alliances.

The Tamil party, the TNA, though not contesting came out openly and urged the people to defeat the Rajapaksa government - in other words, calling on the Tamils to vote for the UNP-SLMC alliance.

By Friday, violence and incidents of elections violations were reaching fearful proportions amidst fears expressed by the main opposition alliance that violence and the wide-scale rigging might turn the eastern poll into another Wayamba - a reference to the provincial polls where there was unprecedented mass-scale rigging.

The Eastern Province Election campaign also took somewhat of a communal note and by today, the country will know who will be the chief minister of the province - a Tamil or a Muslim?

The abuse of state or public vehicles, other property and facilities for party propaganda was blatantly carried out on a wide-scale. Scores of cabinet ministers virtually took up residence in the three districts of the province and launched a multitude of projects ranging from water and electricity supplies schemes to carpeted highways and a new port. They also allegedly doled out Samurdhi benefits to thousands of people who were not getting those benefits or not eligible for then - apparently in return for a betel vote at yesterday's poll.

With almost the entire government in the east, even the normal government parliamentary group meeting scheduled for last Monday was not held. Parliament met on Tuesday to give the monthly stamp of approval to the extension of the state of emergency and at midnight came the sudden, if not shocking, news of the prorogation of parliament with questions and widespread speculation regarding the motive or agenda behind the prorogation.

The storm over the abuse of state property and resources for personal or party gain or glory was spotlighted by the timing of the launch of the Oluwil port project. It had on the boards for decades and was finally launched a day before the deadline for campaigning ended. A boat-load of ministers, including Chamal Rajapaksa, Ferial Ashraff, M.L.M. Athaullah, Dilan Perera, Pavithra Wanniarachchi and Western Province Governor Alavi Moulana among others attended the opening ceremony.

Obviously, for security reasons the big surprise was kept secret and Mahinda Rajapaksa himself suddenly appeared on centre-stage at the event. If the high road was taken this should have been a national event for the benefit of all the people, but few if any take the high road today. President Rajapaksa made a roaring speech but it was largely party politics at state expense. He warned the people of the Eastern Province that a vote for the UNP-SLMC alliance or the elephant symbol would be a vote for the Tigers and a betrayal of the country to the LTTE terrorists from whom he claimed the brave security forces had liberated the Eastern Province.

The parking of a state helicopter in the Oluwil port project area was another blatant signal of how resources were being misued. The helicopter was kept ready to fly the ministers and MPs to Oluwil to parliament if their presence was necessary to pass the vote for the extension of the emergency. The number-counting job in parliament was given to house leader Nimal Siripala de Silva's secretary Sumith Wijesinghe. He kept a close tab to ensure the government would have a majority and he was in regular contact with powerful frontliners like Basil Rajapaksa. In Oluwil, the President asked the ministers and MPs whether they should remain there or go and vote in parliament. Most of them said they were ready to act either way. Finally, the word from Colombo was that the government had enough votes to get the emergency motion passed. So the ministers and MPs waited in the east to carry out more propaganda. But by Friday, ugly scenes of violence erupted amidst reports that thugs and underworld gangs had been sent from Colombo to intimidate or attack opposition supporters.

As often the controversial non-cabinet minister was again in the news. One report said his supporters allegedly assaulted a UNP polling agent and damaged his house at Damanoruwa in Dehiattakandiya.

The reports said about 75 armed men stormed K. Amarasiriwardena's house, assaulted him and stuffed his mouth with his own posters before leaving.

For the government, which gave betel sails to the boat of the Pillayan group in the eastern election the results were not only crucial but even of make-or-break proportions. That was why groups of ministers were assigned to each district of the east. Ministers John Senerviratne, D. M. Jayaratne. A. H. M. Fowzie and Shan Wijeyalal de Silva led the political war in the Trincomalee District and Ministers Susil Premajayantha and Anura Priyadarshana Yapa in the Batticaloa district.

The Ampara district, for various reasons, got top priority with the largest number of ministers being assigned there. Led by the burly Nimal Siripala de Silva, they included Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Sarath Ekanayake, Nirmala Kothelawala, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, Jagath Pushpakumara, Mahindananda Aluthgamage and T. B. Ekanayake.

Ms. Wanniarachchi was also involved in a harrowing experience. Though assigned to the Ampara district, she also went to Arayampathi sports ground in the Batticaloa district to distribute volleyballs to youth clubs in the area in her capacity as minister of youth affairs. But in this game of political volleyball, she nearly ran into a volley of trouble. One of the youth club organizers was also a Pillayan party candidate invited the minister to visit his residence and she said she would come there after attending to some other work in Batticaloa town. But a little while later, the Pillayan party leader in the area warned her of reports that three suicide cadres were lurking there. Special Task Force personnel were summoned and they rushed her to the STF camp at Arayampathi, from where she was taken back to Ampara under heavy security.

Despite opposition protest that public resources and especially state television was being misused for party propaganda work, opposition critics charged that the Janahamuwa telecast live on Tuesday night on at least three state TV channels was a blatant violation of election laws.

The President played the main role in this live TV show with Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Treasury Secretary P. B. Jayasundera, other ministry secretaries and chairmen of corporations being present. From Temple Trees, the President spoke directly to people in the east, especially from Lahugala and Kinniya. He not only answered their questions but also made use of the opportunity to immediately address grievances brought up by them. In one instance, he told the CEB chairman to start an electricity supply scheme in one area within 24 hours.

Responding to one of the biggest questions or charges against the government, the failure to disarm the Pillayan group, the President asked why only the Pillayan group should be disarmed when the LTTE was not disarmed. He also pointed out that a large number of ministers in his cabinet today had earlier been among his political rivals.

Besides the eastern elections, the big question of the week in the country was why parliament was prorogued. Government sources claimed the prorogation was a routine constitutional procedure. They said it had earlier been planned for February but was put off because it was a short month. Later, the prorogation was planned for April but was put off again because some important financial bills needed to be passed, the government sources claimed.

But the main opposition UNP and the now anti-government JVP came out strongly against the prorogation and said the government had a hidden agenda.

They claimed that with the prorogation, all parliamentary committees also would cease to exist and this would give the government an opportunity to appoint new chairmen to the crucial Committee on Public Enterprises and the Parliamentary Accounts Committees. These committees headed by Wijedasa Rajapaksa and Rauff Hakeem had made serious charges against several government ministers and officials. UNP and JVP leaders charged that the prorogation was part of a plot towards a cover up of those large-scale frauds by the VIPs. Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe charged that the prorogation was a clear step towards a dictatorship.

The eastern election campaign ended on Wednesday and the main parties held their final rallies in the main cities of the three districts. Again the focus of the ruling UPFA was the Ampara district and some 30 ministers were seen to be on stage at the Ampara rally. The President was to address the large crowd at the rally through a Satellite facility from his Colombo residence. This TV speech was scheduled for 6 p.m. SLFP General Secretary and senior minister Maithripala Sirisena made a hurried speech just before that, warning the eastern people they would be making a big blunder if they gave the east back to the Tigers.

Before the President spoke through satellite, he reportedly telephoned Mr. Sirisena and told him that he believed there were too many ministers on one stage and it would be better for them to get off as it might be too big a security risk. He suggested they should get off the stage and carry out some other propaganda work elsewhere.

As the country awaited the outcome of this showdown poll to see whether Rauff Hakeem or Pillayan would be the chief minister of the Eastern Province, the split in the JVP reached breaking point with former propaganda secretary and parliamentary group leader Wimal Weerawansa, now set to form a new political front with at least ten other dissident MPs.

The JVP leadership is continuing to hit out at Mr. Weerawansa and claimed they had documentary evidence of alleged frauds he was involved in. At the JVP May Day rally, the party's General Secretary Tilvin Silva screamed out several times that the party did not want "hotu kollas" - a clear reference to the emotional tear-filled speech made by Mr. Weerawansa in parliament last month.

When parliament met last Tuesday, several government ministers were seen with Mr. Weerawansa and his group in the opposition lobby. One minister Janaka Bandara Tennakoon was heard congratulating Mr. Weerawansa for his speech. This fuelled further speculation about the direction in which the Weerawansa faction might go after yesterday's election.

Bullet vs. ballot: Answer from the East