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People get onto the streets; Govt. reacts with heavy hand
Parliament’s Acting Secretary General Dhammika Dassanayake was at his office last Monday morning when his telephone rang. It was lawyer cum politician Dayasiri Jayasekera, who joined the Government ranks from the main opposition United National Party (UNP) just last week.
A parliamentarian for the Kurunegala District for over 18 years, Jayasekera wanted to know whether he could tender his resignation post-dated. That is to be effective once the North Western Provincial Council elections are over on September 21. Dassanayake replied that there was no legal provision for him to remain an MP if he were to contest the NWP polls. Hence, he drove to the Parliament Complex in Kotte later that day to hand in his resignation. He formally quit as MP that Monday.
Jayasekera being ignorant of the procedure is one thing. Another more important question is why he wanted to remain an MP when he was contesting the provincial polls. Did he seek to retain the option to revert to Parliament as an MP of the ruling UPFA in the event his dream of becoming a Chief Minister did not materialise. Is this why, like issuing post-dated cheques, he raised the query. After his farewell speech in Parliament, Jayasekera spoke at a meeting in Wariyapola the next day. “Some people think I will stay as Chief Minister for one or two years and go away. That is not true. I will serve the entire five year term,” he said. Yet, Jayasekera’s name was listed as 37, the last in the UPFA nomination. He said that though he is No. 37 on the list, he will come first and be the Chief Minister. This was in variance with an earlier claim that he had an assurance from the President that he would be made Chief Minister in the event the UPFA wins the NWP election.
However, a number allotted to him by officials of the Department of Elections for preference votes will differ since it is based on the alphabetical order.
Sections of the UPFA in the Kurunegala District were angered by his claims at Wariyapola that he would be the Chief Minister for five years. One of them was former North Western Province Chief Minister Athula Wijesinghe. Early this week, he telephoned ministers and other senior SLFPers in the district to ask whether they would join him to hand in nominations early. Most were busy. Some of them said they were out of the district. Wijesinghe went to the Kurunegala District Secretary’s Office on Wednesday (July 31) accompanied by Shantha Bandara, MP from the same district, and handed in the UPFA’s nomination list. It was scheduled to be handed over only the next day, Thursday (August 1). As a result, processions planned by Jayasekera and his supporters had to be called off. There were no crackers and no dancing on the streets. How the UPFA campaign in the district will play out in this backdrop is a question that confronts the UPFA leadership.
Details of those in the fray at the Northern, North Western and Central Provincial Councils appear elsewhere in this newspaper. More than 4.3 million are eligible to vote and pick 142 councillors at the polls on September 21. They are made up of 36 seats in the North (906 candidates), 50 seats in North Western (1,362 candidates) and 56 seats in the Central Province (1,517 candidates). During the 50 day campaign, the UPFA has political battles on two different fronts, in the North with the Tamil National Alliance and the two others with the United National Party (UNP). The one with the TNA, for the first time in a Northern Provincial Council, is of relatively great importance to the two contenders and assumes greater significance for many reasons. This is in view of Government moves to effect changes to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, main among them deleting provisions relating to land and police powers.
Carpenters protesting on the streets of Moratuwa hit Minister Jeevan Kumaratunga with water bottls on his arrival. Pic by Reka Tharangani
After breathing fire and brimstone on the 13th Amendment, the Government had gone into silent mode after the appointment of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) headed by Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva. The PSC itself was to meet a month later after its sittings last week. It was advanced at the request of some members who said there should be no delay. However, the issue was brought into public focus again by President Mahinda Rajapaksa when he met editors of national newspapers and heads of electronic media. This is how the Q & A played out:
Q: The (TNA’s)Chief Ministerial candidate for the north (C.V) Wigneswaran has called on the voters to give the TNA a mandate to implement the 13th Amendment. Wouldn’t this be a problem to the Government?
President: ‘Yaka kiyana tharam Kalu nehe’ (The devil is not as black as portrayed).’ We have faced more difficult questions in the past. If Mr. Wigneswaran is elected as the Chief Minister, we can discuss with him. On the other hand police and land powers cannot be taken over as mentioned. That is quite clear from the Constitution. That will not be a problem.
Q: There has been lots of discussion on Police and Land powers (Under the 13th Amendment). The issues have also been discussed with India. Have you changed your stance?
President: I have not changed my stance.
Q: But, what about India. Before coming to this meeting itself I was told by the External Affairs Ministry officials not to express opinions about countries. Therefore, I will not make any comments.
Yet, there is little doubt Rajapaksa’s remarks would resonate in New Delhi. This is particularly in the light of the upcoming NPC polls and the belief in diplomatic circles in Colombo that UPFA leaders will not make critical official comments that would anger New Delhi until the PSC completed its task. By then, the NPC polls too would be over. Going by Rajapaksa’s own admission last Tuesday, the EAM officials had advised him to avoid references for this very purpose. However, President Rajapaksa, the political animal that he is, is aware that the NPC polls would be fought with the TNA on this important political plank – changes to the 13th Amendment. Domestically, he wants to exploit the issue to his advantage. Asserting the UPFA’s strong position, despite its blowing hot and cold during the past months, would be important if not imperative. Rajapaksa asserted that he believed in “principled politics,” a categorical assertion that he wanted to go ahead with the constitutional changes.
With the TNA the possible winner in the North, the salvo is directed with equal vigour at the Central and North Central Provinces. That would transform itself to the UPFA’s campaign theme of ‘saving Sri Lanka’ from ‘sinister political conspiracies at separation,’ much the same way Tiger guerrillas were militarily defeated in May 2009. Hence, the UNP would have to launch a formidable campaign to counter this if it is to make electoral gains. During the parliamentary elections of 2010 too, the UNP faced similar accusations of ‘conspiracies’ with Tiger guerrillas. It would also be the first litmus test of public support for the UNP since elections to Colombo Municipal Council and a number of other local authorities in October 2011. For a party that is riven with internecine issues, it is no easy task. If it gets its act together, it could reap the benefits of discontent particularly among minority communities, largely in the Central Province and to a lesser degree in the North Western Province. The TNA, on the other hand, will use a victory as an endorsement of the voter acceptance of the 13th Amendment.
Rajapaksa’s remarks during the media meet last Tuesday come amidst the campaign by the National Collective to Abolish Provincial Councils. This groups is made up of leading Buddhist organisations, including the Bodu Bala Sena, the Sangha Council and the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress. Their senior members and supporters staged a sit-in protest outside the Indian High Commission last Monday against what they termed “Indian interference in Sri Lanka.” The protestors also carried placards that the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement of 1987 was no longer valid and chanted slogans on the claim. Some of the protestors demanded that an official of the High Commission should come out and accept a memorandum from them.
On a previous occasion when members of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) staged a protest, an official had come out and accepted a memorandum whilst he was given blessings by members of the Sangha (Buddhist clergy) to the glare of television cameras. High Commissioner Y. Kumar Sinha had decided otherwise. He had instructed officials to say that no one would come out and that the memorandum be handed over at the gate. Instead, the protestors staged a sit-in. The move prompted Sinha to telephone Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga to express concerns over security of the High Commission premises. Additional Police personnel moved in but the protestors withdrew peacefully after pasting a copy of their memorandum on the mission’s wall.
Even before their polls campaign has begun, the TNA complained yesterday about alleged harassment by the Army. “Two members of the Military Intelligence (MI) visited two of our candidates for Jaffna District and have interrogated them. They have asked unnecessary questions,” charged TNA leader Rajavarothayam Sampanthan. He said a similar situation occurred even during the Eastern Provincial Council elections. “We have appealed to the Government against the public presence of the Army since it would be a deterrent to a free and fair poll,” he told the Sunday Times. Sampanthan said the alliance would release its manifesto “in the next two weeks” and that would set out its plans for the Northern Province.
Military spokesperson Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasuriya denied the accusations. He told the Sunday Times “there is no truth in those allegations. The Army has no role in the elections. It is the Police who are responsible. This may be a stunt to generate publicity.”
The NPC polls were the subject of heated exchanges between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Leader Rauff Hakeem during a one-on-one meeting at ‘Temple Trees’ on Wednesday. The previous day (Tuesday) Hakeem had sought a meeting with Rajapaksa to discuss SLMC issues that seemed a cause for serious concern for Rajapaksa. More pointedly, it related to the SLMC’s decision to field candidates separately at the NPC polls. It turned out that Wednesday was a busy day for President Rajapaksa. He had to chair a meeting of the National Security Council in the morning. Later in the afternoon, he had his weekly meeting with senior Finance Ministry and other officials on cabinet papers that would come up for discussion at Thursday’s weekly ministerial meeting. In the light of the urgency, Hakeem was asked to come over to ‘Temple Trees’ ahead of the meeting with officials. When he arrived, aides immediately escorted him to a lounge in the first floor.
President Rajapaksa, the Sunday Times learnt, expressed his displeasure at the SLMC choosing to go it alone at the PC polls, particularly the one for the North. He said the SLMC was with the Government for “everything else,” but when it came to polls, it wanted to contest separately. “We cannot be explaining positions. In the North you are opposing the Government. In the South you are backing it,” he had declared. He had pointed out that people would think the SLMC was helping the TNA. At one point an angry Rajapaksa had asserted in a high pitched voice that he was under pressure from those within the UPFA who were demanding that the SLMC be expelled from the coalition government. Rajapaksa had said that unfair blame would be placed on his shoulders as a result of what the SLMC was doing.
An apologetic Hakeem had explained that his party was not contesting the three Provincial Councils separately as “an act of vengeance against the UPFA or President Rajapaksa.” He had said that the SLMC had to reflect “the mood within the Congress” in order to ensure its “credibility is not eroded further.” In a bid to counter Rajapaksa’s assertion that the SLMC, by contesting the NPC was helping the TNA, Hakeem had declared that his party was already facing accusations that it was helping the UNP. He had said that the SLMC’s “practical and pragmatic” approach should not be misconstrued and appealed it be seen on a “rational” basis. Hakeem had also explained that there was “disenchantment among his party members” with some pressuring the leadership to quit the UPFA. However, he said, the SLMC would remain within the UPFA. Asked on Friday to respond to his one-on-one talks with Rajapaksa, Hakeem replied “it’s a private meeting. I have nothing to say.”
On Friday night, Hakeem was with TNA leaders including Sampanthan at a previously scheduled event at Darus Salam, the SLMC headquarters at Kompannaveediya. The occasion was the launch of two booklets, in English and in Tamil, containing Hakeem’s Chelvanayakam memorial lecture. Hakeem chose the occasion to spell out SLMC’s future outlook. He said the Congress would follow the path of ahimsa or non-violence followed by the late S.J.V. Chelvanayakam. He complained that a mosque in Mahiyangana had been attacked by “extremist elements” during the holy month of Ramadan and there has been no official Government response so far. However, Police sources said the matter was investigated and a report forwarded to higher command. Hakeem also spoke on the NPC polls. He said the SLMC was being criticised for contesting the NPC on its own. “When we do that in the north we are accused of helping the TNA. If we do that in the south, they say we are doing it to help the UNP,” he said. Hakeem denied yesterday that the SLMC planned any political tie up with the TNA. “We have no need to prop up others. We are nobody’s cat’s paw,” he told the Sunday Times.
The UPFA’s campaign plans were spelt out on Friday at a news conference. Minister Susil Premajayantha said, “The polls in the north are being held after 25 years. Since the end of the war, we have restored electricity, improved hospitals, schools, reconstructed the roads etc. Now you can travel from Vavuniya to Jaffna in three hours. The railway line to KKS will be completed soon. In one way we have already achieved a victory in the field of development. The holding of elections to the north is to consolidate democracy in the area.”
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) General Secretary and Minister Maithripala Sirisena declared, “We have built many new health facilities in the north. Within a short time, the development work that the residents of the north were expecting has been done. Various foreign-funded projects for housing and water are successfully underway.”
Three ministers have been placed in charge of the provinces – Nimal Siripala de Silva (Central), Maithripala Sirisena (North Western) and Susil Premajayantha (Northern). The Government this week appointed Tamil journalist Siva Sivarajah to a newly created position of Coordinator, Tamil Affairs in the Presidential Secretariat. Among his tasks is to project the UPFA’s achievements in the media campaign to be launched shortly in the North. He has also been provided personal security to carry out his duties. Official sources said yesterday the move was to afford him protection from “certain private groups” responsible for violent incidents in the past.
The main opposition UNP’s campaign will focus mainly on the mounting cost of living and ‘unprecedented corruption’ at all levels, General Secretary Tissa Attanayake told the Sunday Times. He said a programme of action was now being formulated by a team led by the party’s communications head Mangala Samaraweera. Whilst the approach in the North would be different, in the Central and North Central provinces, he said, the party would concentrate on areas covered by the 2450 polling stations. “We want to target particularly the voters who have not gone to the polls in the past elections. In addition we will also focus on the other voters,” he said. Attanayake added that 40 UNP parliamentarians had been placed in charge of the electorates in the two provinces to undertake their ‘grassroots level’ campaign.
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is fielding candidates in all three provinces. Its leader Somawansa Amerasinghe told the Sunday Times, “We are fighting under the theme of peace for all.” He said the JVP had already launched its campaign with a ‘successful’ public rally in Vavuniya on Friday. Retired General Sarath Fonseka’s Democratic Party (DP) is also contesting all three provincial council polls. “We have fielded new faces, all good candidates. There are no persons with bad records or tainted with allegations of corruption unlike other parties. Our message to the voters in the north is that we will ensure their rights and guarantee their safety.”
Ahead of the polls, the UPFA Government appears to have literally shot itself in the foot by mishandling an incident in Weliweriya. It all began months earlier when residents in the village of Rathupaswela complained that water in their wells was polluted with harmful chemicals. This was allegedly a result of a factory owned by a Colombo based blue-chip company, Hayleys Ltd., dumping chemical effluents in a ground area resulting in seepage to the water bed. Resultantly, wells in the area have been polluted. A mahout in the area cited the case of his elephant refusing to drink water from a well in the area. This had prompted him to seek help to obtain bottled mineral water which was then given to the pachyderm. This has prompted a study by local experts on how the animal sensed there was danger in consuming water.
The crisis came to a head on Thursday when angry villagers, disappointed that there was no Government action, took to the streets. Shouting slogans and displaying placards they marched along the Weliweriya Road towards the Miriswatte Junction which links the main highway to Kandy. Police claimed that some carried Molotov cocktails (bottles of petrol which could cause a mild explosion and fire when thrown) and hurled stones. Special Army units, now fully equipped to deal with civil commotion, were deployed in the area. A senior officer who sat on the bonnet of a Jeep warned civilians to disperse or face action. Moments later, the Army unit hurled tear gas and in one instance opened live ammunition fire. A youth who was in search of his mother died on the spot and another later. There are fears that the death toll will rise. More than fifty were injured. Media personnel covering the event were assaulted. Cameras were damaged by some in uniform who called the photo journalists “dogs.” Some journalists hid in homes as troops launched a house-to-house search for ‘miscreants.’ Details of the incident appear in reports elsewhere in the Sunday Times.
The UPFA leadership had been told by state intelligence arms that people in the area were being instigated by former JVP members. According to their reports, the Molotov cocktails and other missiles were hurled at the Army and the police by these persons. It is only a detailed inquiry that will reveal the exact sequence of events. The question is whether the deployment of an additional Army unit was really necessary to quell what is a protest by civilians. Could not a larger contingent of Police have tackled the situation? When the protests were mounting, could not the Police have brought some order by ensuring that the protestors lined the two sides of the streets allowing traffic to flow. One senior Police official, who wished to remain anonymous, said his likes were reluctant to take any strong measures fearing reprisals from politicians. “Hence they follow a path of least resistance. Our service is so politicised,” he explained.
The official said this was not the first time such a situation has come about. When there was unrest among workers at the Katunayake Export Processing Zone in May 2011, Police opened fire killing one. In February last year, fishermen were protesting in Chilaw over fuel price hike when Police opened fire killing one of them. Now, the Army has fired at an unruly crowd protesting against a private company polluting their soil and were demanding clean water. Just a week ago, Minister Jeevan Kumaratunga was attacked by a crowd of carpenters with bottles of water when he visited them in Moratuwa. He had to seek refuge in a house until the angry crowd dispersed.
It was no doubt an unpleasant job for Lieutenant General Daya Ratnayake who assumed duties that Thursday as the Commander of the Army. He had to appoint a Military Court of Inquiry headed by Major General Jagath Dias to probe the Army’s role in the incident. This was whilst Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, though late, moved in to do damage control. He is the ruling UPFA’s chief organiser for the Gampaha district, where the commotion occurred, apart from being the SLFP’s National Organiser. He formulated a scheme to send water bowsers to the affected villagers. He also called opposition MPs from the district for a meeting and urged them not to “carry this (agitation) too far”. This is whilst steps are being taken to determine the exact source and the degree of pollution.
The incident could not have come at a worse time for the Government. There were clear signs that the incident, which could easily have been avoided if early action was taken, would raise international concern. The United States Embassy in Colombo said in its twitter “The U.S. Embassy is concerned about the violence in yesterday’s protest in Weliweriya, and urges the Government of Sri Lanka to respect the rights of people to protest peacefully, and urges restraint from all sides.” It is sure to draw the attention of the United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Navi Pillay who will be in Sri Lanka later this month. She is due to make an oral report to the UN Human Rights Commission sessions in Geneva next month.
The Weliweriya incident was also condemned by leaders of opposition political parties. JVP leader Somawansa Amerasinghe said, “it is silly of the Government to accuse either present or former members of our party. They will not instigate people from behind. They will lead from the front.” Amerasinghe said “The Government is least worried about the people’s needs. Sri Lanka is heading towards a dictatorship. People are aware of this. We will always remain with the people. We are disgusted with what happened. They should never have used brute force on the people.”
UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said, “Tamil political parties have been complaining that there is growing Army activity in the North. We now see the same thing happen in Weliweriya. The Army should never have been used to suppress the people who were protesting against a genuine grievance. That was a serious mistake. After many years, we saw Presidential Security Division personnel who served under former President Chandrika Kumaratunga being found guilty of illegal action. Similarly, one day, those responsible for the Weliweriya incidents too should have to answer. Our party is calling for an independent inquiry into this matter.”
One time Commander of the Army and later Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), retired General Sarath Fonseka said, “People have staged a peaceful protest to gain their rights. President Rajapaksa has used his forces to muzzle innocent people. In this type of situation, you have to use minimum force like water cannon or tear gas. But full force has been used.” He alleged that “people had been fired upon to ensure that containers from the factory (reportedly leaking effluents to the ground) reached their shipment on schedule.” However, the company in question denied the claim.
There is also another more disturbing message that emerges from the Weliweriya incident. People who are affected by issues that concern their day-to-day lives are disillusioned with opposition political parties and feel they cannot obtain redress from them. They are conscious that the opposition parties are helpless too. Hence, public anger is now manifesting in open protest.
Venerable Athureliya Rathana Thera of the Jathika Hela Urumaya told a radio channel this week that the Government should have taken the side of the people instead of a private company. There is a strong message in this for the Government. Even if it does not take the side of an individual or a private enterprise, it would have to give ear to complaints from the people. In this case, the Colombo based private blue-chip company is partly owned by a businessman who backs the Government and holds a key post in a Ministry. More public protests could come if the Government opts to back its financial backers rather than its political backers — the voters. The people have begun to play the role of the opposition. They have seen on television how people around the world react by getting on to the streets when their governments are insensitive to their needs.
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