By Our Political Editor
 |
Major General (Ret.) Janaka Perera was attending to operational details at his base command at Anuradhapura directing his green shirted party workers on the day's programme when he received a call from a friend asking him how he was faring.
"I don't have money to fill up my tank", he complained. Then, he yelled; "the party lawyers are saying they don't visit police stations". He appealed to his friend to get the party machinery in Colombo moving on these fronts.
Ever since his return from Australia to take up the challenge of electioneering in Sri Lanka, Perera has been complaining that he is short of funds for the campaign. His political hierarchy has had to tell how best to handle a budget, and not to spend all his money in the early part of the campaign. Close to Rs. 300,000 is his daily need for his own campaign, but what about the rest of the campaign? his aides ask.
Surrounded by some of his former soldiers, Perera has been equal to the task of government efforts to unleash violence in the area. Armed now, with additional security, courtesy the Supreme Court, Perera's current mission is to infuse confidence in his supporters that they will be protected and provided security themselves.
The once high-profile Army chief-of-staff is used to shortcomings during operations, and adapt at complaining. The most famous being during the impending LTTE assault on the Weli-oya camp which he was commanding, when his calls for re-enforcements in men and material were not heeded. Eventually, he had to face the assault with the men given to him, and he triumphed, arguably his most celebrated victory on the war front which earned him several medals on his chest, and a feather in his cap. Post Weli-oya, when he was asked whether luck played a part in his success, he responded in the affirmative, saying luck is part of a soldier's armoury.
Like all Generals, citizen Perera, also wants to win. A political green-horn, in a sense, Perera is putting all his experience from the military front into good use, and not doing a bad job of it either.
Independent reports from the North Central province, from where he is offering himself to be the next Chief Minister should his United National Party (UNP) win, indicate an upward trend for what was once a dormant, beleaguered party. But there are miles to go to breast the tape.
The province has a large percentage of families whose sons and daughters are in the frontlines of the battle against the LTTE. They see cut-outs and posters of Perera in military uniform, and call him "Sir". They have some admiration for him, and believe he can deliver.
The sitting Chief Minister Berty Premalal Dissanayake on the other hand relies on his long experience in the area, which cuts both ways as the Opposition harps on the backwardness of the province while the new political elite of the ruling party thrives. His refrain is that an outsider has come with a suitcase, a man without an address, with no friends or relatives in the area, is trying to take his job come August 23. How dare, he do that, he asks his supporters while keeping a tight grip, especially in the province's capital - Anuradhapura.
The fact that he too has called for re-enforcements from the adjoining areas shows that there is cause for concern within his camp. 'Government servants' from Kurunegala for instance, have been sent to places like Kekirawa purely to intimidate UNP voters and supporters and keep them at home. They had their way for some days until one fine afternoon they had one strike too many; they got stoned and chased, all the way back to Kurunegala.
The situation is somewhat similar in the Sabaragamuwa province - where violence has been unleashed on all fronts, the worst was the incident at Nivitigala last Sunday when a Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) rally was disrupted by United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) supporters led by a provincial councillor from the dissolved council. The JVP cadres had been half expecting a violent reaction to their march down the main street of Nivitigala. They had iron rods concealed in wooden poles and neatly disguised with the party flag. When attacked, they unleashed a heavy blow on the UPFA mob.
According to the JVP, the modus operandi is to keep the Opposition party workers at bay, and frighten their voters from coming to the polling booth on voting day, and then put the hora chanda (stuffing ballot boxes) exercise into motion.
The incidents of violence in the two provinces give a snap-shot of how the elections are being conducted;
According to election monitors, there have been 120 incidents in four districts of the two provinces. Up until last afternoon, 35 have been assaults with shooting; 20 cases of damage to political offices, 21 cases of misuse of Government property etc. in the Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Ratnapura and Kegalle districts. It was a case of winning "hondin ho narakin", meaning to win by hook or by crook. A low turn-out is probably what the government is looking for, because then the hora chanda machinery can be put to work.
 |
| Amidst increasing calls for his arrest after the recent Kelaniya incident, Minister Mervyn Silva was a welcome guest at the wedding. President Rajapaksa is seen chatting with him in a jovial mood |
The Police seem to be silent spectators as the law and order situation goes from bad to worse. When one of The Sunday Times reporters covering the campaigning asked a senior police officer manning one of the provinces why they were dragging their feet, he had turned round and said that it was an exercise in futility, and that he did not intend making himself a hero. He said that he had sent a signal to all parties, that if they were attacked to attack back. In short, he had advised a 'free-for-all' if that was their choice, and that is why our reporters visiting these areas have found candidates armed 'to the teeth', and ready for any eventuality. These elections are certainly not for the faint hearted.
The situation is so bad that the UNP has sent a message to the JVP asking it if it is prepared to make a joint statement on the violence unleashed by the UPFA. The UNP was awaiting a response from the JVP hierarchy on the matter. Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake has received enough complaints for him to call for Army deployments in some areas. Instead of comforting the Opposition, this has created further unease.
The visit this week of Defence Secretary Lt. Col (Ret.) Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to Anuradhapura aggravated the uneasiness. While UPFA officials insisted that the visit was connected to official duties related to the on-going military offensive in the outskirts of LTTE-held Kilinochchi, and President Mahinda Rajapaksa's visit on Thursday to Polonnaruwa, Opposition high-ups said they had reason for concern that the visit may have had something to do with the provincial elections.
Meanwhile, on the security front, government troops were making steady advances into the borders of the Kilinochchi district, the heartland of the elusive LTTE leader.
The comments by India's National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan this week to the Singaporean newspaper Straits Times made news locally as well. Narayanan, who made news himself during his brief stay in Colombo for the recently concluded SAARC summit was to say that Sri Lanka may win the battle, but not the war. He alluded to the Sri Lanka Army winning the battle with the LTTE, but the government not winning the war with the Tamils of Sri Lanka.
This remark, taken in the form it was said, would mean that the Indian government has almost conceded the possibility that the Sri Lanka Army is poised to defeat the LTTE, militarily. It does not seem to be a statement made in good grace, rather a grudging admittance that the Army may win its fight with the LTTE.
It must be noted that Narayanan sat at all the discussions between all Sri Lankan political leaders - with the exception of the JVP - and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during their visit to Colombo. He has, being a Malayali himself, been a more than interested party in the internal conflict in Sri Lanka.
For Narayanan to say what he said, should be taken as a compliment to the Sri Lanka Army, that they are on the verge of a military victory over the LTTE, even though many bruising battles no doubt remain to be fought.
The second part of the remark, that he doubts the government (of Sri Lanka) would win the war (with the Tamils) is typical Indian bureaucratic snootiness. Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa responded to the Narayanan remarks with remarkable restraint.
He said the one area that the Sri Lanka government had failed to succeed in was in convincing the world about its sincerity in resolving the problem even though the government had proved it in its actions.
"Unfortunately, we are not good at propaganda", he conceded. He went on to say that what Narayanan said is exactly what the government is also saying; that although terrorism should be defeated militarily, a political solution to the crisis is a must.
The Defence Secretary has also taken Narayanan's remarks in a positive way. "There is nothing negative in what Narayanan has said. In my opinion, he has only put in different words what our President has been saying, that we need to defeat terrorism, but the (ethnic) problem needs to be resolved (politically)". He added that "it is significant that he has said that the military is winning. And he has never said that we should talk to the LTTE. These are very positive things".
And so, the Rajapaksa clan was in a joyous mood this week as the son of the eldest in the family, Port, Shipping and Aviation Minister Chamal Rajapaksa got married at the Colombo Hilton. President Mahinda Rajapaksa had arrived at 2 a.m. from Beijing to attend the wedding.
The Presidential Security Division (PSD) had taken over security at the hotel from 10 p.m. the previous night and three units had been detailed to provide protection for the President and the family, which include the high-profile Minister Basil Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. Matata Thitha - the anti-alcohol programme of the government was strictly adhered to with the toast being made with glasses of orange juice and water.
Apart from the number of PSD men at the reception and a minor hic-cup in the bride's bouquet going missing delaying proceedings, the wedding was an otherwise normal Colombo wedding with the famous Channa's dancers thrown in for entertainment.
On Friday night, the homecoming was held at Medamulana, in the Rajapaksa stronghold of Beliatte for over a thousand guests, mainly residents from the area. President Rajapaksa arrived by helicopter dressed in a dark brown safari suite for the occasion.
In the coming week, however, the Rajapaksa government will face quite a test in both the North Central and Sabaragamuwa provinces as reports indicate that the Opposition UNP is gaining ground in both these provinces. Whether that is sufficient to make it defeat the powerful government, and its machinery will be known by next Saturday as the tempo picks up in the next few days.
Some of the candidates in the field - Pati Aiya; Sarapaya; Abey Aiya; Ralahamy; Chokka; Sudu Malli; Deiyya; Kiri Aiya; Heen Bappa; and the like, are the hopefuls to be members of the next provincial councils in these two provinces. After all, these are the country's second string of politicians. And the Provincial Councils will be in their hands very soon. |
E-mail