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laws: CBK's ire; Ex-in laws: Anura ire But the kings and their kingdoms are long gone. Courtiers and counsel, however, remain in different forms. So are burning issues. There is hardly any debate that the hottest in this country is what is loosely called 'the ethnic crisis'. The war on peace waged by those from the land of the Vikings has remained centre stage since the Ceasefire Agreement was signed two years ago. Like Santa Claus during Christmas season, many peace loving Sri Lankans must surely be overjoyed at the news that Norwegian emissaries are setting foot again on our soil. That is to carry forward what has increasingly become the gargantuan task of getting the new UPFA Government of Sri Lanka to sit down with the old LTTE to talk peace. And so, Special Envoy Erik Solheim arrived here last Monday to make yet another effort. There was also another visitor in the form of former Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Jon Westborg. He is now the Norwegian envoy to India. During leisure, Westborg had chosen to engage in a bit of his popular sport, horse riding. When he alighted, he had suffered a discomfort in his breathing. He was rushed to the Apollo Hospital in New Delhi for heart treatment. The political turbulence in Sri Lanka was no barrier to Westborg to come over to Colombo and recuperate. After all, he had weathered many a storm and was not going to be dithered by the fall out from a horse ride. Not many Sri Lankans were conversant with the routine procedures Solheim ran through before talking to the Government, Opposition and Tiger guerrilla leaders. In many ways one is reminded of the days of the ancient kings and how they held court with their courtiers and counsel. Of course, Solheim is no king with a crown, a throne and a kingdom. Yet, he was king of sorts, for he was the one man who is a frequent flyer, clocking hundreds of flying hours and thousands of air-miles to keep two warring factions in a Third World nation from returning to the battle field. That is whilst he seeks to establish common ground to bring them together for lasting peace. On Tuesday, he began this arduous task by holding court with a new brand of counsel or courtiers. If they were wise men and women, it was not only the earthly wisdom that had brought them together. They were all representatives of Non Governmental Organisations or NGOs. One can swear on a stack of Bibles, or take oath on the Dhammapada, the Bhagvad Gita, or the Holy Quran that all these NGOs are dedicated institutions deeply committed to the ideals they pursue. There is no doubt about it. And yet, there is an all important thing. They need to survive. Much the same way as mankind needs oxygen not to become extinct. That is money - both dollars and rupees in abundance. That is what makes them tick as Non Governmental Orbiters in the celestial world of politics and diplomacy. Money, they say, makes them millionaires. Money also makes everybody who is nobody into somebody to be reckoned with. The occasion was what has come to be the customary lunch at residential Colombo's Gregory's Road residence of Norway's Ambassador to Sri Lanka, the jovial Hans Brattskar. It was a sit down meal. There was both eastern and western cuisine. Solheim listened to these NGO wallahs intently. After all, his mission was to take the peace process forward. Since he had come from Oslo only a day earlier, the words of wisdom from the NGO representatives could put him on track with regard to recent developments, especially the LTTE breakaway Karuna factor, and how it impacted on the peace process. Like the stack of bread rolls and the cubes of frozen butter on each table, it would be voluminous to recount here what each had to offer, as the Americans would cannily quip, to buy their lunch. It is the Yanks who would remark pithily that there is nothing called a free lunch. But in this instance, advice and opinions followed freely even before the cold soup arrived. To summarise the issues, it was two fold. The first was how the Karuna factor has completely changed the environment for peace. Second, the future of the tottering UPFA Government that was in a minority in Parliament. There was near unanimity that these twin-issues were becoming serious impediments. That was the stark reality. Any ordinary citizen, leave alone a card carrying financially prosperous NGO stalwart, would have made that clear. One is reminded of the late Peter Sellers and his comedy series The Pink Panther, where the obvious is made more obvious with the famed quote; "whoever threw this stone is only a stone's throw away." Taking part in the eating-meeting were Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda, Ms Neela Marikkar, Kingsley Rodrigo, Rohan Edrisinha, Jehan Perera, Ashique Hameed, Jeevan Thiagarajah,Tyrrel Ferdinands, Kumar Rupasinghe and Ms Vishaka Dharmadasa. Besides Ambassador Brattskar, the new addition to the Norwegian team, Ms Solfried Lien was also at the table. Having heard and digested the inputs given by the top ten, Solheim and his entourage were now ready for a meeting with the Top one - President Chandrika Kumaratunga. Success in securing an appointment, however, eluded them that Tuesday. There was, therefore, no choice but to fly to the Wanni to meet LTTE Political Wing leader, S.P. Thamilselvan sans a viewpoint from the Head of Government. There, for once, the Special Emissary found he was not talking about issues relating to the peace process - the proposed Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA), on dates, venue for the future peace talks and so on. Instead, an altogether new issue had, not un-expectedly, cropped up. That was the issue of Karuna and the reported support he received from the Sri Lanka Army to wage war against LTTE's Wanni cadres in the Batticaloa-Ampara districts. Almost the entirety of the one hour meeting was devoted to this subject. Later, Thamilselvan told reporters in Kilinochchi, "If the Sri Lankan President and Government are serious about the cease-fire agreement and peace talks they should stop sheltering Karuna and backing the murder and mayhem in which some of the henchmen are indulging in Batticaloa. This is what we told the Norwegian facilitators today." He made it a point to emphasise that, "we made our stand known to the Norwegians very clearly, and firmly." When
Solheim eventually met President Kumaratunga on his return, for
an hour long discussion on Wednesday morning in the company of Foreign
Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, he conveyed the LTTE's protests in
very clear terms. The LTTE's new move angered President Kumaratunga.
The direct outcome of the Solheim report back came in the form of
a one page statement, a news release from the Presidential Secretariat
dropped a big The statement said, inter alia, "The President rejected the publicly aired allegations by the LTTE that the Government had authorized the Sri Lankan military activities in the Eastern Province in support of Karuna faction. She expressed confidence that under the command of Lt. Gen. Shantha Kottegoda, the Sri Lanka Army will continue to abide by the Ceasefire Agreement. She re-iterated the Government's commitment to achieving a lasting peace and maintaining the Ceasefire Agreement." It must be made clear that in the Presidential Secretariat press release, President Kumaratunga is quoted only as rejecting the "publicly aired allegations by the LTTE that the Government had authorized the Sri Lankan military activities in the Eastern Province in support of the Karuna faction." As a matter of fact, she was angry at those allegations made by the Tiger guerrilla hierarchy. In reality, the Government had neither authorised or were fully aware of the devastating strikes the Karuna faction was carrying out against the Wanni cadres. Something had gone wrong somewhere and it worried the UPFA leadership. That was the very reason why President Kumaratunga had ordered the appointment of now Lt. Gen. Shantha Kottegoda as Overall Operations Commander for East. His specific brief was to identify any elements in the Army who were giving any form of support to the Karuna faction in any manner. Lt. Gen. Kottegoda, then Chief of Staff, spoke to the Army Intelligence operatives in the East. His efforts proved successful. In a Top Secret report to Defence Secretary Cyril Herath, Lt. Gen. Kottegoda described what has been going on, and the measures he has adopted. His report gave cause for both the defence establishment and President Kumaratunga to worry. Was there a hidden hand deviously manipulating things? Was this being done at the behest of someone other than the UPFA? What was the hidden agenda? Was there a move to re-start a war, an Eelam War 4? They pondered over these and many other delicate questions. Though Friday's media reports had failed to note the fact, it is both significant and important to mention that the Presidential Secretariat has not made any mention of the fact that Vinyagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna was in "protective custody" of the Army as exclusively revealed in The Sunday Times last week. President Kumaratunga only rejected the "publicly aired allegations" that the Government authorized military activities in the Eastern Province. In doing so, a high ranking UPFA source who spoke on grounds of anonymity said she was "as frank and open - as possible." The source is right. President Kumaratunga was indeed frank enough to publicly snub the outgoing Army Commander, Lt. Gen. Balagalle when she declared she was confident under the command of Lt. Gen. Kottegoda, the Sri Lanka Army will continue to abide by the Ceasefire Agreement. The corollary to this assertion is very clear - Lt. Gen. Balagalle's tenure had seen times when the Ceasefire Agreement was not abided by. The fact that Lt. Gen. Balagalle's remarks during a meeting with the press on his farewell day earned the ire of the UPFA leadership on Friday is no secret. If they were angry, they were also deeply embarrassed. Lt. Gen. Balagalle, who during his tenure is known for many a gaffe with the media, declared that the Army was in no way involved with the Karuna affair. That was not all. He even declared, after calling on President Kumaratunga the previous day, that she would be ready to discuss the ISGA proposals, unconditionally. He could have avoided all this entanglement in matters political. When Karuna had been in "protective custody" of the Army, Lt. Gen. Balagalle's remarks that there was no involvement by the Army only contributed to greater suspicion in the minds of the ever-suspicious LTTE. Moreover, what was in dispute was not Karuna's "protective custody," but allegations that he engineered attacks in the east with the help of the Army. Hence, President Kumaratunga not only made the UPFA Government's position clear to Norwegian special envoy Solheim, but also made sure the reference was specifically included in the news release. It certainly does not come as a fitting farewell tribute to an outgoing Commander of the Army. If the nation's top soldiers have learnt the art of grappling with the enemy, even if they had not succeeded totally, dealing with the media appears to be a problem for many.As an academic of the Colombo University, who spoke on grounds of anonymity remarked, "many of them don't drop bricks. They drop sky scrapers. It is time the Government gives them a refresher course for dealing with the media." It has also created another credibility crisis within the Army itself. By making his assertion that the Army was not involved, some influential sections argued that Lt. Gen. Balagalle had let down the subordinate command who directly provided this "protective custody." One senior officer complained saying " we are made the scape goats. We are now left to fend for ourselves while Lt. Gen. Balagalle has gone on retirement and will possibly be rewarded with a diplomatic posting." Hence, some sections in the country's political firmament termed the crisis over Karuna as the UPFA's "Athurugiriya fiasco." It was during the tenure of the United National Front (UNF) that a Police raid on an Army intelligence cell (Safe House) raised a hornet's nest. It was not only the LTTE crisis that engaged the attention of President Kumaratunga on her return earlier this week from her ' semi-official ' visit to Britain. She immersed herself in ceremonies lined up for her by her party faithfuls in connection with her 59th birthday last Tuesday. Monies from the President's Fund were generously released for some of the activities, and the ruling party organised the country-wide party for her. One of the headline grabbing events was her speech at a school's IT opening ceremony at Gampola. There, the President was reported as saying, typically, that she cares ' two hoots ' for the Opposition and that she was not in politics to play ' ata bola ' - marbles. Despite the advancing years, nothing much has changed. The racy lingo has appealed to sections of the masses, even if not quite mature Presidential stuff. But the more significant comment that seemed to have escaped the otherwise alert press corps has been a passing reference; a little drop of a hint; undoubtably a deliberate drop. Flicking her wind-swept hair, she said: “Mata thava thinyenne avurudhu dekak ho deka-hamarak” - ( " I have about two to two-and-a-half years more ) - a reference to her tenure of office as President of the Republic. Now, now, it seemed that she had slipped from IT, to politics, to new maths. Or was she still on the subject of politics ? For there is already a time-bomb issue, kept under a lid for the time being by both sides, as to when the President's term of office is to end. The Opposition says it is most definitely at the end of next year (2005) as she took her oath of office in December 1999 for a second and final six-year term. They say that though she was first elected to office in 1964, she forfeited an year by calling for early elections in 1999 after her first-term. A neat doosra, has been bowled in the meantime on the whole business of the oath when the Chief Justice confirmed a report that first appeared in the Lankadeepa and The Sunday Times saying that there had been a secret Presidential oath ceremony in August 2000. No formal announcement was made before or after that ceremony, and the argument goes that the second six year term therefore is effective from that date onward, and thus the President's second-term ends only in August of 2006. What was seemingly a by-the-way remark was probably not such a by-the-way remark. Clearly, this is working in the Presidential mind-set. Her taking a deep breath and holding hands with the JVP, followed immediately thereafter by her intervention in cutting short the 2-year old UNF government, and then, with the flush of victory, her hopes to implement constitutional reforms with a view to reverting to an Executive Prime Minister-ship in four months - and even demanding a letter of resignation from Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse before his appointment, were all part of that mind-set. The recent events by the Members of Pandemonium of her own party have put paid to most of these constitutional reforms, at least for the moment. Her loyalists have not given up on seducing the CWC to cross-over and castrating the Buddhist-monks of the JHU to silence to win at least a simple majority - from which launching pad, her loyalists will not stop at either circumventing the constitution, or work towards an unlikely two-thirds in the House. Not to be outdone by the sister hitting the headlines after her 'semi-official ', her brother followed suite. Hardly 24 hours after his return from a ' semi-official ' visit to Britain himself ( details in last week's column ), Anura Bandaranaike ' went to town' slamming his officials, including his ex-brother-in-law, of the Tourist Board. In London, at a function organised by the Tourist Board office in the city and attended by 38 persons of whom only 7 were Brits, Tourism Minister Bandaranaike had heard that no promotional work whatsoever was being done in those parts of the world despite a multi-million rupee contract given to a Singaporean advertising agency - Bateys, which prided itself in having promoted the world-famous 'Singapore-girl' image for the city-state's airline, and having done projects for the Singapore Tourist Board itself. The UNF government had contracted Bateys through a think-tank outfit on Tourism appointed by then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Chairman of which had one foot in Singapore, half a foot in India, and half a foot in Sri Lanka. So much for the appointees of that government. On arrival at the airport named after his father, the Minister was told that Bateys had organised a trip to Singapore for ten Tourist Board officials, including his ex-brother-in-law Udaya Nanayakkara. Termed a ' familiarisation visit, this was Bateys promoting themselves with the new UPFA government and keep its contract going. A telephone call went out to the Ministry Secretary whether he or the President had approved the joy-ride, and hearing a negative reply from both quarters, Anura Bandaranaike came charging into the cabinet room on Wednesday waiting to explode. But he bided his time till the cabinet meeting all but ended. The time was closing in on 9 pm., and the President was having to host the departing German Ambassador Juergen Elias at her farewell to him and his wife. Just when the Ministers thought that they could call it a day ( or a night ), Anura Bandaranaike said he had three matters to talk about. The President impatiently urged him to " hurry up, hurry up ". First that he was appointing a new BOI head - the man who blamed his classmate, the former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for being controlled by a 'Royal College mafia', conceded that the appointee was an old Royalist. " But he's much younger than I ", he said almost defensively. Second that he had stopped ten Tourist Board officials, including its Chairman from going on a joy-ride to Singapore. He had a litany of things to say about Bateys, and then told his sister presiding over the meeting, that he had much more to say to her, but would do so, privately. He said he was cancelling the trip because it was an utter waste of public funds, a cute remark indeed, considering that he had just returned from a trip to Britain where questions have been raised here and among Sri Lankans living in the UK about who footed the bill, and for what. Blissfully unaware of the gathering storm, Udaya Nanayakkara was calmly lunching at the Cyrstal Room of the Hotel Taj Samudra that day where Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was hosting a farewell for the departing German Ambassador. The ire of Anura Bandaranaike had been roused not just by the Bateys inefficiency, and their offer of a free ride to the Lion City, or so it seemed. He has been getting reports that his ex-brother-in-law was giving the impression to all and sundry in the travel and hospitality trade that his was a Presidential appointment, when it was apparently not the case. It was excusable for anyone to get that impression. For Udaya Nanayakkara has been a frequent visitor to the President's House, especially in the company of business magnate Harry Stassen Jayawardene, the power behind the throne nowadays. During the National New Year holidays in April, the two of them were the President's select-guests at the President's House in the highlands of Nuwara-Eliya where she must have enjoyed their company so much to have invited them again for the Vesak holidays in May as well. That Harry Jayawardene has a tight grip on Anura Bandaranaike is no secret in Colombo's political circles. He is the one who got him to withdraw his claim in the Premier Stakes in favour of the incumbent Mahinda Rajapakse in those tense hours soon after the April 2 elections. He is now the virtual shadow Minister of Tourism, Investment and Industries and the appointment of Udaya Nanayakkara through Anura Bandaranaike - not so much President Kumaratunga - would then come as no surprise. Then why the outburst from Anura Banadaranaike. So sudden that even Harry Jayawardene was unable to act. A million rupee question ? Not really. It would seem it was more a case of wounded pride, and pique, than anything else. The Minister's third point was that he had met former Malaysian Prime Minister Mohammed Mahathir when he was in London. To those in the cabinet who had not heard of the famous Father of modern Malaysia, Anura Bandaranaike did a little explanation of the man and said he was still a very influential figure. He told his cabinet colleagues that during these talks in London, Mahathir had said that he would visit Sri Lanka shortly to discuss investment issues. His colleagues were impressed. But probably the late hour, and the urgency of the President to leave prevented the Minister from saying that he actually met Mohammed Mahathir at the famous landmark shopping complex of Harrod's, owned by the controversial Egyptian born business magnate Mohammed Al-Fayed when the two were shopping. Of course, later, Mahathir had invited Anura Bandaranaike to his hotel where they had a longer chat, and a gift of a wrist-watch was made to the Minister. Arguably, his first investment in Sri Lanka.
UPFA on three tracks: Entice the Tiger, woo the JHU and attack the
UNF The UPFA still has to fine tune its communications apparatus to project its image properly. Both the Trade and Agriculture Ministers were unaware of what was happening . As Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and Anura Kumara Dissanayake found to their embarrassment the criticism by Bandula Gunawardena of the UPFA economic order at a political discussion aired over a state media channel, an official of the Finance Ministry had to come to their rescue. But the Alliance face more problems in the form of the total breakdown of the President’s media unit. With Janadasa Peiris retiring as Director of the media unit the whole system appears to be almost dying with the responsibility for handling the media policy being handed over to the Policy Research and Information Unit (PRIU). T here seem to have arisen a communication gap with journalists on major developments works of the government starving the public of information. While the PRIU head in a report submitted to Kumaratunga on possible restructuring of her media unit has also successfully convinced her of the absurdity of maintaining the said unit. The Alliance doesn't seem to be feeling the gravity of this issue as this media unit coordinated most events of the SLFP and the PA. Thus short - circuiting of this operation may prove to be costly for the government. It is quite obvious that in the communication unit of the President is found wanting in that the questions posed having to be answered by the head of PRIU. The UNP too seem to be experimenting with its communications strategy though without much success. In its effort of restructuring a team of MPs have been assigned to handle media with Ravindra Randeniya and Keheliya Rambukwella carrying the flag. But Randeniya has not dominated the media scene as he did during his cinema career. The greens may need someone better to blow their trumpet. Meanwhile the UPFA desperately seeks an exit strategy to break the deadlock over the stalled peace process. The appointment of Lt Gen Shantha Kottegoda as the new Army commander politically is also seen as a tactical move in the form of a signal to the LTTE. His appointment came despite stiff opposition from her Cabinet and advisors like Mano Tittawella. But backed by Cyril Herath and former secretary to President K. Balapatabendi. President Kumaratunga's reasoning has been to appoint an Army commander who has a positive ideology on the peace initiative instead of an individual with a war complex. The response from the LTTE remains ominous in the face of the fresh demand to deal with the Karuna faction. The LTTE seeks government assistance to either aid them in flushing out the dissident group from the Eastern province or the SL security forces to carry out an operation to clear the Eastern front of all Karuna elements. Politically the LTTE is attempting to take the UPFA onto a mine - field. In crisis situations windows of opportunity can still be found. If the government makes clear its position on the whole process the LTTE will not attempt to discredit by subterfuge the image of the UPFA both nationally and internationally. The UPFA arm established for probing the activities of the UNF ex-ministers is proceeding unabated coordinated by Nihal Sri Ameresekera. The team includes Minister Mangala Samaraweera and former Presidential Secretary K. Balapatabendi. This team has already acquired files dealing with matters that were handled by former ministers S.B Dissanayake, G.L. Peiris and Mahinda Samarasinghe. This probe could lead to a battle royal among the powerful men in politics of Lanka today. The first operation of this team was directed against Ravi Karunanayake, the Kotte MP. The UPFA in an effort to woo the support of the JHU has come up with a modified anti -conversion bill about which the Church is not happy. But at a time when the country is desperately trying to seek a compromise in extending or securing quotas for a multifibre agreement with the United States to save our apparel industry, there exists a threat in the form of US watchdog body called the US Commission on International Religious Freedoms based on the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. If we make this bill a law, we can be subjected to a blacklisting by the US government with imposition of trade embargoes for curtailing religious freedom. Thus the government must also look into matters of foreign policy more seriously while playing to the tunes of various national political entities. |
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