Not one, but two love-hate relationships
By Our Political Editor
Hard-boiled cynics thought it was looking a little too good to be true. With the Sri Lankan experience of politicians eternally locked in an ugly battle for supremacy, people including political analysts had their jaws dropping when conciliatory announcements were being made by both major political actors in the country -- the UNF and the PA this week.

The first step towards consensus, according to the UNF is that a MoU should be worked out between the two parties on how important national issues such as the Work of the Ministry of Defence can be 'shared'' in a sprit of accommodation. This MoU would also include the matter of Presidential representation at the peace talks.
It isn't queer that there are two moving forces who are businessmen, beneath the façade of the top political personalities who are involved in these negotiations. They are Mano Tittawella, Senior Presidential Advisor and.

Secretary General of the Presidential Secretariat, and Malik Samarawickreme the Chairman of the UNP. Some said tongue in cheek that the "business empires strike back.'' But while that was a lighter take, there were some very moving scenes last week that seemed to indicate that Sri Lanka's ruling elite are willing to patch up their differences - or at least say they are willing to patch up their differences, especially when they are in a bad situation -- so as to keep the ''rabble'' from JVP etc., from the gates of power.

Poison
JVP's Wimal Weerawansa in fact was heard saying at week's end that the SLFP should choose between "one or the other'', the JVP or the UNP. Either the SLFP cooks with the greens, or smooches with the Che Guvera boys is his ultimatum. This seemed, as an aside, also an indication of how petit bourgeois a party the JVP has essentially become.

The JVP is willing to say in public that it is in fact wooing a party that is even willing to join with the arch-reactionary UNP! We would have thought that any party that has any truck with the reactionary UNP would be poison for a party of avowed Marxists -- but evidently not so for the left leaning folks of this day and age.

But the government opposition love-hate relationship had definitely begun. The first indication of love, as opposed to the hate, was when the President met the Prime Minister Tuesday morning at Temple Trees. The President was accompanied by her Secretary and her Advisor, Mano Tittawella at the talks, and the Prime Minister walked in as he did last time with Bradman Weerakoon, his Secretary.

The Prime Minister placed the so - called French proposal at the disposal of the President, and it was also clear at the meeting that the President was not willing to take over the "peace process' even though the Prime Minister's new strategy was to keep telling her to do just that.

The French proposals included the sharing of defence responsibility through a system of Committee. At the end of the meeting the consensus that seemed to emerge from the meeting was that the President was willing to think about the other two Ministries that she took over form the Prime Minister in her now celebrated pre-emptive strike of November 3rd. But on Defence the Prime Minister was willing to come along with her and arrive at an arrangement, whether it be by committee or otherwise.

This is what led to all the breast beating by SLFPer Sarath Amunugama who said that the President " is willing to forget the past and work with the Prime Minister.'' He had said just the week before that she will on no account budge on the matter of the Ministry of Defence which will be exclusively hers under any circumstances.

Concession
On the matter of Defence the President's proposal of a Deputy Ministry for the UNP on this subject or National Security Ministry with subordinate powers did not go down with the Prime Minister whose all or nothing stand eventually led to the President's concession of Defence to be shared in some arrangement. But importantly, she had not agreed to anything yet, and has asked that she be allowed to study the proposal for a reasonable period of time before she makes her views known on it.

The adjoining column deals with some of the highlights of the PA's other love-hate relationship -- with the JVP. But, some of the key contours of the cohabitation process indicates that the whole process is heavily influenced by the JVP-PA flirtation.

Spearheaded
This flirtation has, as the adjoining column would have detailed in previous weeks as well, caused some sleepless nights for the President. There is as it is an open secret, one wing of the SLFP which wants to go with the JVP no matter what, and this wing is essentially spearheaded by Anura Bandaranaike.

But, it is almost an open secret also now that in-between the days and nights of this flirtation, certain other jarring things happened which put this whole merry affair between the JVP and the PA in all kinds of trouble and uncertainty. One was the fact that there was a PA internal document which was essentially a poll which tested the temperament of the electorate. This document had it that there is still some way to go for the JVP-PA alliance to win an election outright. All this document proved, was that the JVP was going to eat into the vote banks of the PA while both JVP and PA were going to end up in the opposition.

At this point however, the JVP would have eaten so much into the SLFP vote banks that the JVP would be calling the shots. In the Presidential elections scheduled for 2005 for example, the PA candidate will have to be a virtual puppet whose strings are being pulled by the JVP. This the President saw as a dangerous situation that she will in no way tolerate.

Then came the issue of Putrasigamani. When that somewhat little known backbencher made a fiery speech in parliament and crossed over to the TULF pro-government benches, the SLFP saw a warning sign for immediate action. This then it now seems was the real red flag for Chandrika Kumaratunga to take all the drastic action she took earlier this month by staging a takeover of three Ministries. Putrasigamani's exit, the SLFP's inner sanctum feared would perhaps set a bad example, making some other backbenchers get similar ideas.

The SLFP moved fast. Five UNF backbenchers it was said would cross over, bringing the UNP's numbers down to 112. This would have even been a good platform for the President to sack the Prime Minister, and form a ''national government'' with some UNP top flankers who were more amenable to her, being given key positions in that national government. This the PA felt would then be an excellent situation to launch an election, in which the SLFP would truly be in the vanguard with the JVP bringing the rear-guard.

But it is history now that this was not to be. But why is it that the JVP talks still continue? One is that it offers a ''balance of forces'' of sorts to the PA in this whole cohabitation powerplay. The JVP is a good balancing force against the UNP. The UNP is a good balancing force against the JVP. The President continues to flirt with both, and will choose her real partner later -- or ditch both? Anyway, balance of forces and MoU? Sounds familiar?

Dualism in CBK political strategy
By Harinda Ranura Vidanage
President Chandrika Kumaratunga has opted for a dual political strategy, a close and open channel with the UNP to achieve a consensus, and keep the JVP online for a blue red alliance. Continuing her second strategy President Kumaratunga conferred with the Central Committee last Monday.

She was not in a mood to celebrate.This was mainly to discuss the JVP-SLFP alliance. It was also made a platform to present the final draft of the joint work plan and the MOU to be signed between the two parties. The discussion was based first on the conceptual agreement between the two parties but.

Anura Priyadarshana Yapa representing the anti-JVP league fired the first salvo. Yapa questioned what are repercussions of the SLFP conforming to economic policies proposed by the JVP.

"I my-self had fought against IMF backed economic reforms" responded CBK surprising few in Yapa's court. Unpredictable as she may be, Kumaratunga was poised for the strike against the red supporters but not in the first scene.

Few minutes into the discussion Maithripala Sirisena stood up and made a controversial proposal, "If all of us discuss this it may take the whole day, let only the office bearers decide this" . An eerie silence followed the declaration-President Kumaratunga signalled her die hard ally Mervyn Silva. With the blink of an eye Silva stood up seconding the proposal.

As the non-office bearers were made to leave the premises Kumaratunga's covert operation was launched with the aid of Maithripala Sirisena. He earlier dealt a fatal blow to end an SLFP-JVP meeting which if had proceeded smoothly would have cemented the alliance a week ago.

The no-office bearers included most of the pro-JVP camp. SLFP central committee looked the form of a post Leninist Russian politburo like the pro-Stalinist and Trotskyites breathing down each other's neck. This single motion drastically altered the balance of opinion creating a huge asymmetry between the JVP and non-JVP support groups.

But under cover of red-blue cold war Sirisena was also fighting a proxy war. Berty Premalal Dissanayake left the proceedings angered to kill by the General Secretaries motion signalling the battle for supremacy for Rajarata among the SLFP strongmen.
As the office bearers sat for the second round to discuss the JVP-MOU Kumaratunga was in for a surprise. The opposition leader sprang up and defended the alliance effort. For the last few months Rajapakse had been using different demolition teams to infiltrate the alliance process and succeeded remarkably.

But as the Mangala Samaraweera group kicked off a campaign to impeach the opposition leader. Accusing him of challenging the Presidents take over of three ministries. Samaraweera group got signatures of eight opposition MPs including that of Wimal Weerawansa.

As the opposition leader was alerted in the early hours of Monday he reacted quickly by sending even a correction to the Time magazine and even read his original comment to the SLFP central committee. The change of heart by Rajapakse can be assessed from two dimensions. Firstly it really scared off the opposition leader who till now was not subjected to direct dissent in the party. Secondly Rajapakse a master strategist with the ability to survive in any political terrain very easily overcame a threat in the early hours of its conceiving.

Either way the no-confidence motion was abandoned as the proceedings of the SLFP CC went against Kumaratunga's wishes. The office bearers of the central committee agreed unanimously to the JVP-SLFP work plan but serious reservations were made on its wording. The JVP famous for its rhetoric blending the old socialist slogans with new found patriotic ideology came too much for the less fiery SLFP command structure.

Surprisingly as the JVP-SLFP MOU proposals were read out it revealed that the reds had shed most of their demands for specific ministerial positions which earlier lead to Kumaratunga's public criticism of the party.

As the number of ministries remains the same the JVP has given up their demands on the media ministry, the education ministry and the portfolio for deputy defence. The amended demands were for ministry of Agriculture, land and irrigation, Fisheries ministry, ministry for cultural affaires and environmental management. The SLFP CC unanimously passed this proposal.

The pro JVP camp knew that this was a victorious day for them as the JVP-SLFP alliance had been given the green light by its party leadership. But doubt still remains in the camp as Nimal Siripala Silva was reintegrated to the process while no date was decided on signing the MOU.

When time demands the extreme political contradictions must be seen through and common consensus must overcome political collusion. If national government it is let it be, but not forgetting that it is for the people and thus must be within the purview of democratic blessing and definitely not an oppressive apparatus.

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