With a “vimukthi” cry - opposition launches agitation campaign
By Our Political Editor
Tomorrow the opposition launches what is called a 'massive campaign of agitation' against what's being called the government's moves to 'bifurcate the nation under cover of the peace process'', the cost of living issue, and the privatisation of state enterprises and the further repression of worker's rights.

But as a warm up to this, there was what was called a repertoire of 'protest songs'' that were launched by the leader of the Opposition Mahinda Rajapakse to 'give the people a wake up call''. The protest songs, which were courtesy Winnie Ratnayake, were launched with the participation of the President, and are said to be a spin-off from the song culture of the JVP which was used to rouse its own ranks in rebellion. These songs were called songs of emancipation, "vimukthi gee'' but the PA chose to suitably change their own repertoire's label to ''virodha gee'' or songs of protest.

But talking of vimukthi, a different vimukthi figured in an interesting aside that was made at a special session for PA MPs that was organised at the President's House in Nuwara Eliya. This was a session at which the PA MPs were to be educated on the various aspects of the peace process, and about the federal issue.

The LTTE sells or popularizes its own paraphernalia whenever there is an LTTE sponsored conference that goes on. So why cannot the Sinhala parties do the same back in the Southern parts? Anyhow, one way or the other, a particularly interesting calendar was caused to be distributed among those MPs who attended these sessions in Nuwara Eliya.

The calendar featured a composite photograph of S. W . R. D. Bandarnaike, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumartunga and Anura Bandaranaike. Apparently the calendar originated in Attagalla but the President was not complaining that it was being distributed among her MPs representing all parts of the country. But the parting crack about this matter was by one MP at the back of the hall who said 'the only missing element in this picture is Vimukthi" ( the President's son. ) So vimukthi gee or no vimukthi gee, it has been a week that the PA has not been able to escape the long shadow of Vimukthi.

The rally however will be the high point of the PA's stirrings this week, and it will be launched from Campbell Park and will end up at the Municipal grounds. The trio - Mahinda Rajapakse, Wimal Weerawansa and Anura Bandaranaike have cooperated in organising the rally, laying to rest any immediate stories of 'splittism' within the PA ranks.

Secretaries in a soup
The Prime Minister was having problems closer to home this week -- and one of his trusted lieutenants, a close confidante and a key actor in UNP affairs even before the formation of the UNF and this government, figured in his troubles. This was Sugath Chandrasekera, who is the Prime Minister's Private Secretary and the Chairman of the so-called Private Secretaries Association of Ministers which had been launched with much fanfare quite sometime back.

The Association was in possession of large amounts of cash due to a so-called Navoda Lanka carnival organised by it, which had raked in a good deal of bucks.
But the Prime Minister was being inundated with complaints that money had been diddled from these funds, and the long and the short of it was that he last week disbanded the Private Secretaries Association, which therefore now stands as a defunct entity.

But before he did that, he had called ( a long while ago) for the resignation of his own Private Secretary Sugath Chandrasekera from the chairmanship of this Association. But this call was not heeded, and there was a planned election of office bearers last week, when all matters regarding the funds etc., were brought out in the open. As they said, this is when the faecal matter hit the rotor blades (that's right the shit hit the fan….) about missing funds, and the Coordinating Secretary to the Prime Minister had to calm things down by temporarily ascending the Chair.

To say the least the Prime Minister was not happy, and he let it be known that 'those days Ministers were becoming problems to their Secretaries, but now tables have turned and Secretaries have become problems to their Ministers.'' He was also not ready to muse aloud and let things go -- he met with some of the Media Secretaries, and while disbanding the Association, he recommended that private Secretaries in future will have to be despatched to the Ranjan Wijeratne Academy of Politics to undergo a short course of training on how to discharge their duties.

Of Munda and India
There was a cloud that hung over the pre cabinet session, at least at the beginning of it when it was made known that there is a planned strike in the Ceylon Electricity Board over a salary issue. Minister Karu Jayasuriya announced that the strike was due anytime, but other Ministers who were in the know, chimed in that this strike was part of plan by the JVP to destabilise the country.

If it was a salary issue, the Prime Minister was only in favour of making an en bloc salary increase for all state and corporation employees, after a World Bank team makes an appraisal of the economy soon. He said that salary increases on an ad hoc basis are detrimental, and that they will only help in fostering more unrest elsewhere. "The salary increases should be across the board, and we shall work towards that end,'' he said.

But talking of the World Bank it is noteworthy that the Prime Minister took an extremely admirable stand, when he said that Ministers who are willing to tango to the tune of the World Bank should wake up because Ministers are not there to do anything and everything that the World bank says.

This is how it happened: Perhaps the episode will go down in history as an admirable step towards preserving our water rights, and not selling them to the highest bidder according to World Bank dictates. The World Bank has been for a while now, attempting to secure forest and water management facilities for foreign firms (essentially for foreign firms at least ) through what is called a water management doctrine.

As it rightly should be, this putative move was resisted from all quarters, but last week Minister Jayawickreme Perera presented a proposed Water Management Bill which of course seemed to be a final cop out. It seemed to succumb to World Bank pressures to introduce water management in Sri Lanka according to their dictates. The Prime Minister stepped in and shelved the proposed bill, and not without a pep talk that sovereign nations should not take anything that the World Bank dishes out.

While Karu Jayasuriya was concerned about electricity, Ravi Karunanayake was concerned about Gas. He said that Gas cylinders belong to the people, not to the sellers, and that the consumers once they have bought them should be able to fill their cylinders with the Gas sold by the vendor of their choice. The Prime Minister said that he will push through this legislation - so Munda it is, for Gas buyers.

It is also not a minor matter that a big spat with India was averted last week over the interdiction of an Indian fishing boat (in northern Sri Lanka waters) and arrest of its crew, despite a previous agreement with the Indian government that only the captain of any such boat should be detained while the crew is released. With high level intervention b y Minister Milinda Moragoda, a situation which would have resulted with the Indian Prime Minister reading a statement in parliament, was averted at the eleventh hour. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha who was breathing fire over the issue was somewhat mollified - but there were already attempts by rioters to attack Sri Lankan refugee camps in Tamilnadu over this fishing spat.

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