Disaster preparedness, and the mother of disaster management
By Our Political Editor
Mother nature was angry, perhaps angrier than the UNF was with the President and the President with the government. There was a massive flood, and the deluge of political hate that was ready to consume the nation due to the Development Lottery fracas subsided last week due to the floods that inundated almost a greater part of the country. A blessing in disguise? Surely not. But maybe just a silver lining in the dark cloud of the natural disaster last week was that in its wake it dinned in some sense into fighting politicians and leaders of this country.

The President has always been a disaster preparedness advocate, and to hand it to her it was she who formed a special Disaster Preparedness Presidential Taskforce under the leadership of Dr Ratnavale, an accomplished Sri Lankan psychiatrist returned from abroad. Doctor Ratnavele's work was never fully done because there were always several intervening factors, such as the Rana Viru Seva Ekakaya, which seemed to duplicate -- even tread on -- some of the functions of the Human Disaster Management Task Force. Then there was the appointment of Minister Rajakaruna as Minister in charge of Human Disaster Management which was resisted by the President for a long time as she felt, rightly perhaps, that disaster management was her subject.

When the crunch came last week, and after the deluge, all those antediluvian enmities seems to have been forgotten, when the Prime Minister asked the President to head a Human Disaster Management Committee. Just what the doctor ordered it seemed for keeping cohabitation alive and kicking, despite all efforts at kicking it out of existence.

The President said that she will be glad and willing to head the committee at least for a period, and she played her part with apparent sincerity and with a great deal of energy when disaster struck last week. She was seen addressing officials in Ratnapura for instance, and almost micro managing the flood relief effort, even though it must also be mentioned that the Prime Minister did not neglect his duty to be there in Ratnapura as fast as he could. He even took with him Mr Vidar Helgesen the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway who had arrived for settling other matters. To solve an energy crisis that was fast developing in Ratnapure due to submerged fuel supplies the President was on a call to the Minister of Power and Energy Karu Jayasuriya.

But, though the general consensus was that all politicians were shocked and sobered due to the flood disaster, that they did not do an excellent job, even though a lot of them sincerely tried hard. For instance, there were recriminations about the rescue operations - - that politicians had appeared and expressed their sympathy and were ordering supplies and doing certain things, when the most important thing , that of rescuing the stranded was not being attended to properly.

But the general sobering effect of the floods apart, it appeared that last week the two major players in the so called development lottery constitutional crisis were realising that the first reactions to the crisis were overheated. On the other hand the power play transferred from the political arena to the electoral arena, and you could say that the floodgates were opened in the effort by various politicians to show that they are the ones who are really showing concern for the victims.

There was a food relief package being distributed by Mahinda Samarasinghe which had the label 'Mahinda nirantharayen oba samagai, ('Mahinda is always with you') and there were others such as Sajith Premadasa who did a good deal of work -- but with a good deal of mileage as well.

North South dialogue
On the Northern front, the foreign actors who were key players in the peace process, seemed at least momentarily in the eyes of some, to divert their attention from the task of empathaising with the Tigers to empathising with the Sri Lankan people. The US, the Norwegians, the Indians and the Japanese all immediately contributed to alleviate the suffering of the flood victims, and the LTTE did as well. The LTTE helped with provisions that they could spare etc., but one wag quipped that the best that the LTTE could have done -- in fact even better than any foreign country -- was to ensure that there were enough well equipped boats to go around.

Apparently the initial LTTE demand for an interim administration for the North East was shelved at the initial stages of the discussions due to the fact that Balasingham was coaxed into thinking that an interim administration would give a very bad press at the very beginning of the talk. It could be recalled that Balasingham said at the Sattahip talks or at least at the press conference, that 'there is a wrong idea that the LTTE is going to snatch the interim administration and run away.''

But, this week, there was a very real feeling that things have changed, and when the Members of Parliament of the Tamil National Alliance left earlier in the week to meet the LTTE leadership, they first met the Prime Minister and said that they will return and convey to him the real sentiment up there in the North in the inner sanctum of the LTTE leadership.

The Prime Minister gave his blessings even though the whole initiative seemed to be a little sidetracked by the flood situation that had taken up all the attention of the potentates of the government.

The main thrust of the MP’s message after they returned was that Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran wants an interim administration and that he will not revert back to the negotiating table until this demand was conceded - - -even though he will not go back to war.

This had the political analysts in Colombo saying that the Tigers had covered all stops, saying that they want an interim administration 'but will not return to war.'' This same message was conveyed by LTTE political wing leader Tamilchelvan at a press conference held later in the Tiger held territory of Kilinochchi.

The PA and JVP were activated almost instantly, and all that had cooled down due to the flood situation was instantly history. The JVP frontliner Wimal Weerawansa said that the LTTE's intention to have an interim administration in the North and the East was clear indication that the LTTE wanted to carve out a separate state either legally or otherwise and by any means at their disposal. The President lashed out that the UNF is caving into the demands of the LTTE, and that granting an interim administration to the Tigers would put the government in peril.

It appeared to be clear by the end of the week that all the after-the-flood sentiment of co-existing, had been left aside because the JVP - SLFP coalition was almost ready to be announced. Wimal Weerawansa said that though the precise electoral arrangements were still being worked out, the two parties for instance had forged 99 per cent of the pith and substance of what the coalition would be.

The PA-SLFP combine he said would form a human task force to rehabilitate flood victims, and countered allegations that the JVP had insisted on the Secretaryship of the new coalition alliance. All was not honky dory though, and the putative arrangement to have Lakshman Kadirgamar as Prime Minister of a new coalition government, left Anura Bandaranaike disgruntled.