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A government tries to put on a brave face More
about that later... The ayes all round indicated that if the UNF cannot salvage the peace, it will at least try to salvage its image as the managers of the economy. But it all indicated that there was a growing feeling of the government being beleaguered and under siege. The mood is different now, certainly, than it was several months ago. The government is on the defensive, and Chandrika Kumaratunga is lording it up in the international media spotlight, making clear in Islamabad as to who is the boss back in Sri Lanka. Did the UNF have to come to this pass? Meaning that even if the President took over 3 Ministries, did the UNF necessarily have to be on the back foot --- when it is clear from what was discussed in Cabinet that the UNF felt it was in fact on top of things a few months ago, winning the peace and growing the economy? But the Prime Minister could see by now that he was forced on the back foot. Though the UNF tried to capitalise on the fact that the IMF had withheld US$ 81 million from its loan pledged this year giving ''internal political turmoil'' as a reason, his own Cabinet was complaining. Minister S. B. Dissanayake said that the Treasury was not handing out the votes for the Ministries. But the Prime Minister said the aid has not been forthcoming due to the President's moves, which means even the Treasury was not in a position to do anything about it. Talk about being on the back foot. The government considers persons such as Richard Armitage, Chris Patten, Yashushi Akashi, etc., its "friends.'' These friends are applying the maximum pressure on the President to resolve the current standoff, and Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State himself sent a message to the President earlier this week expressing the same sentiments. But in the meantime Akashi himself is advocating that funds already pledged to Sri Lanka be withheld until the political situation clarifies. And this lack of funds is also hurting the government, which places the government in quite a vexing dilemma. It is only India that's not getting into the whole aid pledging game, and though India is making some interventions on the current Sri Lankan situation, they are more discreet compared to the strategies of the Americans, the EU and the Japanese who are manipulating the strings that come with aid to coerce a political settlement in the country. The Indian Prime Minister in cosy bilateral talks with the President in Islamabad, advised strongly against an election saying that would destabilise the situation further, and said that the President should endeavour to resolve the crisis early. As for the crisis, it was beginning to look more like a fiasco with each passing hour. The Prime Minister this week made a very informal and unannounced entry into the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute premises for the launch of a book by his wife Maithree, on an issue dealing with gender studies. She launched the book along with books by two others. But while the Prime Minister was chatting in the SLFI lobby quite informally with the gathered invitees, there was a discussion on constitutionalism at a SLFI lecture hall very close to where he was standing, in which the whole cohabitation fiasco that he is involved in was deconstructed quite mercilessly.. Professor Suri Ratnapala a legal luminary, now a senior academic at a University in Australia, talking on one aspect of the matter, said that as far as he knows the President's term is fixed irrespective of when she goes for elections and irrespective of what significance the oath taking ceremony has. Rohan Edrisinghe a Senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law Colombo University and a constitutional law guru in his own right, said he accepts this interpretation by Prof Ratnapala. But Edrisinghe, reminded that he had written a conclusive and authoritative article on this matter saying that the President finished her first term when she took oaths in 1999, became a little equivocal to say the least. He said: "I wrote that article in the year 2000 - anyway, so, there are two positions. Professor Ratnapala's position and that position.'' Seems like there are two 'conclusive' positions on how long our President will be in power, quipped Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu CEO of the Centre for Policy Alternatives. It is in this situation of an ongoing constitutional fiasco that the UNF was trying to salvage at least some authority in a backdrop in which a President is using her constitutional powers to override the powers of the legislature. The UNF is firmly up against the chinks in its own hybrid constitution, promulgated by its own dear departed leader J. R. Jayewardene. As stated, the UNF tried to challenge the President by asking her to re-negotiate the accord with the LTTE. This was seen as a move by the Prime Minister to wash his hands off the peace process, which it is of course - technically speaking. But at the Cabinet meeting, it was stressed by the Prime Minister that he wants to carry the message to the people that this is not a case of his dropping the peace, but rather a case of his wanting to empower the President to make peace happen. Obviously, this sounded better than saying that he as Prime Minister was washing his hands off the peace process. Tyronne Fernando said that the Prime Minister should make a television address to the people and ensure that the people get the real message that he wants to convey. Which is that he wants to ''empower the President to carry on the peace process.'' In reality it is neither. It was a question of challenging the President, saying that this limbo cannot be indefinite, that she cannot have the cake and eat it, that she will have to take a stand sooner or later on the peace process, either that she wants to let Ranil Wickremesinghe carry on the peace process the way he wants, or she wants to destroy the peace process, or she wants to reshape the peace process on her own terms. The latter, Ranil Wickremesinghe probably thinks cannot be done, as the LTTE and the President are not seeing eye to eye on anything. That he still wants to continue the peace process - - with the Defence Ministry back in his cupboard -- is clear from the fact that he entertained a group of left leaders at Temple Trees last week. Present were Vasudeva Nanayakkara and Wickremebahu Karunaratne among others. The Vasu-Bahu brigade said they will extend all support for the peace process as long as the government is willing to go back on contemplated labour legislation etc., and other proletarian-unfriendly moves. The Prime Minister said all that will be considered. Despite being in fact up against the tide, the UNF wants to maintain all appearances of a government in control, and this is why an invitation to conduct the Cabinet meeting at President's house (with kiribath on the table) was declined. Yes to kiribath, said the UNF, but not at President's House. In the end the President said, if they are not willing, I'm not willing -- not coming here, no kiribath. A suitable metaphor to end this synopsis on the state of national politics. 20
January - a colourful cultural pageant Mr. Sripathi Sooriyarachchi, a known loyalist of the President is in charge of this operation. The MOU will be signed on 20 January, as astrologers have recommended but the venue is prone to change from Independence Square to BMICH. The organizers of the celebrations decided to integrate most of the country into its programme. The field commanders of the operation have been given orders to convert 20 January into a national cultural celebration. Cultural events are to be organized in all districts to coincide with the signing of the MoU. It will be like Sinhala and Tamil New Year much before April, according to many field commanders of both sides. SLFP and JVP are expecting to hit at the existing ideological shelters of the general public expecting to shake them up violently from some deep sleep through a cultural revival. As operations are proceeding smoothly from one end for the SLFP with even a planned live telecast of the signing of the MoU being pushed through the state media, the moderates who were opposing or trying to slow down the alliance juggernaut within the SLFP are feeling the pressure. SLFP stalwarts began to blow a final emergency whistle pointing out that S.W.R.D Bandaranaike formed the SLFP as a Centrist party defying the right and left extremism. The JVP even with power to mobilise SLFP MPs against their own demonstrated this week in a pro JVP paper will in a few years of signing will trigger an SLFP disintegration pushing members to UNF and remainder to JVP creating the extreme polarization which SWRD wanted to prevent half a century ago. But the signing of this death warrant seems inevitable with even theme songs being written to mark the event. The complicated matrix of affairs has affected the coherence of the People's Alliance making it difficult to grasp the internal chaos within. The traditional left parties and the minority parties are the worst affected. EPDP is a strategic ally of the PA, and plays an important role in the PA structure. But the party leadership is not interested in the SLFP’s pursuit of new alliances to grab power. The only interest it has is finding a solution to the national problem. This is reiterated in their analysis of bilateral consensus on the part of UNF and the PA. As the civil society boys in the form of a band of intellectuals tried in vain to bridge the gap between the two main parties functioning as a shadow group behind Malik Samarawickrama and Mano Tittawella they, found their ambitious project also aborted. But the major setback of the week came to the SLFP stalwart group which lost ground due to one of its members going berserk over the media on the upcoming alliance between the JVP and the SLFP. The group originally began as a covert movement to counter immense pressure applied by the JVP on the SLFP through a red agenda dominated MoU. But the policy of this group was not to tread into dangerous waters of intra party confrontation. The perpetrator of this crime was none other than the much loved politician of the media throughout last week Colombo District MP Chandana Kathriarachchi. He came to his senses much too late after his media outburst of frenzy which saw him shredding the SLFP-JVP MoU to pieces. This did hurt the moderate group, as they very well knew that Kathriarachchi had jumped the gun and its repercussions will come crashing in, like broken down meteorites on their court. It didn't take too long as Mr. Kathriarachchi desperately tried to get signatures behind a document he had prepared requesting President Kumaratunga for a meeting with the SLFP moderate group. A little while later most of the people who put up their signatures suddenly decided to remove them last Thursday. People of this country are experiencing some rapid changes in the political weather patterns of Sri Lanka. Earlier it was perceived that President Kumaratunga as the stubborn lady Warrior of the South who needed no guidance for her hostile mostly verbal outbreaks. When Prime Minister Wickremesinghe announced that he would withdraw from the Peace process in Sri Lanka most in his own green camp were shocked. Premier Wickremesinghe has been criticised by even senior UNPers as undergoing a shape shifting phenomenon matching the standards of CBK where he is perceiving that advice is no more a necessity in governance. By enticing the Tiger to pounce and becoming an introvert in the crucial hour he must not forget that the mandate he has got was for establishing peace. He should not become a virtual time device for some hidden explosive that could pulverize the whole peace process after detonation. Sadly but truly Prabhakaran was right when he pointed out Sri Lankan politics as a " Bazaar Drama" or even something worse than that. Mr Prime Minister, where is the much expressed love for this country, or to your people and the great leadership of which all the greens very proudly spoke at any occasion? |
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