Political parties and birthday parties
By Our Political Editor
Last Sunday, Embilipitiya was the venue for a political discussion on the controversial P-TOMS (Post-Tsumani Operations Management Structure) that had just resulted in the collapse of the much-heralded UPFA coalition government.

Embilipitiya was the venue where President Chandrika Kumaratunga, then a political novice of sorts, campaigned for some recognition over the bodies of students brutally massacred by some soldiers on the orders of a crazy principal. But Embilipitiya last Sunday was not in the same mood to give the embattled President a rousing welcome, no, not even her own partymen.

It was an SLFP meeting (to be distinguished from a PA affaire) of town councillors and Praadeshiya Sabha members of the area, and the event was organised to shore up flagging support from her own party for the P-TOMS. Unfortunately, the President herself did not show up.
The vibes must not have been too good, and the signal would have gone out not to come. Instead, her loyal party secretary Maithripala Sirisena, who was handed the onerous duty of even presenting the P-TOMS to Parliament when Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse ducked the issue (how could he, he told his supporters, when the motion was given to him only at 9 o'clock on that Friday morning when the motion was to be presented to the House) had to preside at the Embilipitiya meeting.

One of the chief advocates of P-TOMS, Deputy Minister Dilan Perera, was there for moral support, so was UNP's new love Western Province Chief Minister Reginold Cooray and UNP's new-hate Rohitha Bogollagama, with the Embilipitiya SLFP chief organiser Jayatissa Ranaweera, the master of ceremonies.

The meeting got off to a subdued start with the party secretary now boasting away that their government can now, with the P-TOMS in place, "even go to Kilinochchi". And Dilan Perera followed in much the same vein. But crunch time came at question time. The SLFP secretary probably anticipated the mood, and instructed that there shall be no questions from the floor. Anyone wanting to ask questions must write his name on a piece of paper that will be handed over to such person, and the question must be written down, and handed over to the head table where he sat with Dilan Perera & Co.

The town councillors and PS members began scribbling some awkward questions on the note paper handed over to them. Not that it shows the quality of these elected representatives of the people, but their concerns were not so much on the P-TOMS, but on other issues that have a direct-bearing on them and their future.

One question read: "who will be the next SLFP presidential candidate ". Another asked: "Why is Mangala Samaraweera silent? ". And yet another asked: "why is Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse side-lined? "
An infuriated Maithripala Sirisena was seen crushing some of the papers and throwing them away. And so, this exercise at democracy at the grass-roots seemed to be an exercise in futility. 'Koheda yanne, malle pol', a local saying directly translated 'where are you going? There are coconuts in the bag’-- a pithy comparison to the questions being asked when one had come to answer questions on the P-TOMS, the virtues of which they had just articulated.

A meeting that was scheduled to go on till 5.30 pm folded up at shortly past 12.30 pm when an SLFP organiser from Kelaniya got up and proposed the name of Premier Mahinda Rajapakse to be the next SLFP presidential candidate. The proposal was seconded by an organiser from Ratnapura who was there.

The party secretary said this was not the forum to decide such issues, and as he asked the local organiser to wrap up the session, some in the audience began shouting that the party secretary bring their views -- that the Prime Minister be made the next presidential candidate -- to the notice of the leadership in Colombo Fort. That was how the first (and probably last) party seminar after the P-TOMS ended.

The next day, Monday June 27, state-run Rupavahini (SLRC) was to telecast a programme on P-TOMS, as part of the orders from the top to make the public aware of the joint mechanism it had just signed with the LTTE over the distribution of foreign funds for tsunami victims. After all, a survey done by the President's own office had stated that a majority of the people were against this mechanism.The SLFP however was unable to field a participant for this telecast. Constitutional Affairs Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera, himself a former chairman of SLRC was to represent the UPFA government, or what is left of it. Gunasekera as everyone knows is a member of the Communist Party. There was no SLFP speaker. The JVP was represented by Nandana Gunathillake.

The next day, TNL's 'Jana-Handa' programme also had no SLFP participant. This time the government was represented by Science Minister Tissa Vitharana. As everyone knows, Dr. Vitharana is a member of the Trotksyite LSSP. And on Wednesday, the show continued on Swarnavahini's 'Kinihira' prgramme, again it was Prof. Vitharana doing yeoman service on behalf of the government, so much so that he had to ask for a cup of plain tea behind the cameras to keep awake. These programmes sometimes go on till well past the witching hour, when most of Sri Lankans are asleep anyway.

Arguably the most interesting episode, however, must have been what happened during the state-run ITN's 'Thulawa' programme where the subject for discussion was not the P-TOMS, but the proposed electoral reforms. These reforms suggest a blending process between the existing proportional representation (PR) system of voting, and the old British-style first-past-the-post system of voting where instead of the districts, you have the old-fashioned electorates. We are told that this blend is the German-system.

The JVP's participant, former Agriculture Minister Anura Dissanayake, was in no mood to discuss electoral reforms. The JVP is not that enamoured by this new blend. It fears, the de-merits for a party such as theirs, outweigh the merits thereof.

So, Dissanayake started lashing out at the P-TOMS instead. He said, what earthly purpose was there to be discussing these electoral reforms when the nation's sovereignty was being bartered away through the P-TOMS.

And just then, Anura Dissanayake, P-TOMS, ITN and everyone in that box went black. And some white snowy flakes followed. The show was off-air. The official reason given; well, that the ITN's transmission station at the Yatiyantota towers broke down. One can’t surely blame the JVP unions for that one.

While the debates were on through the tv channels, and the printed media, President Kumaratunga found the Deputy Ministers Forum safe turf to make her pitch on the tsunami P-TOMS she had ushered come hell or high water. It was 'That man' Dilan Perera again to the fore in organising the event.

The President thanked the Deputy Ministers for their support. She said that the SLFP was resurrecting itself through the P-TOMS, whatever that meant, because it would imply that the SLFP was a dead party before the P-TOMS. She told the deputies that countless number of foreign leaders were congratulating her for introducing the P-TOMS.

She went on to say that the JVP had isolated itself by withdrawing its support for her government, and then she laughed to herself and said that suddenly she found herself with half the cabinet in her hands, and with a mischievous dint in her eyes, she looked at the eager deputies, and said, "I hope to fill these vacancies very soon". The Deputy Ministers blushed. The President assured them, that there will be no general elections, and when someone murmured 'what about presidential elections?", she re-assured that there would be a presidential election only in a year and four months time, i.e. end of 2006.

She went on to say that UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had also assured her that he would not topple the government, so in short, it was to be business as usual for the government, despite its minority status in Parliament.

The President went on to say that Wickremesinghe had internal problems within his UNP, and that was why he was already on the presidential election campaign. "We don’t have to get caught up in such a campaign", she said.

No prizes for who gave the vote-of-thanks; who else but Dilan Perera.
Having convinced the convinced, or so to say, President Kumaratunga took time off to enjoy her birthday on Wednesday, the 29th June. Turning 60 on that day, the Head of a divided State and Head of a broken down Government must have much to ponder -- and eflect on. But the party animal in her took over, and it was a day for rejoice.

With her party's backing now questionable after her foray into the P-TOMS agreement with the LTTE, she relied on her family members, most of them hailing from Kandy to be her guests. Never mind the historical fact that the Ratwatte's signed the Kandyan Convention handing over sovereignty to the British -- in Tamil, where else but Kandy should be the venue for her birthday party.

The five-star Mahaweli Reach Hotel was booked for special guests coming from Colombo for the occasion. One of the hotel’s proprietors was Rohan Panabokke, a contender for the Diyawadana Nilame post at elections due the next day, and the President had thrown her entire weight behind his candidature. So much so she had even asked Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse to persuade the eventual winner Nilanga Bandara to withdraw from the race, something Rajapakse said he just can’t do.

The only politician present seemed to be Mangala Samaraweera. Of course, her brother Anura was present, but then as a sibling, not as a cabinet minister and presidential candidate hopeful.

Samaraweera's presence was to show that though there may be sharp political differences between the two, especially over the rift with the JVP, and this included the stripping of the Media Ministry from his charge -- that there were no personal animosity.

And the President also made it clear that this was a personal event, a birthday party, not a political event. When a group of her relatives were chatting the Minister up, the President barged in to say "now, now - politics is banned at this party, ok".Despite the charged atmosphere outside, the President seemed rather relaxed. One of the reasons for this is attributed to the fact that the main opposition party, the UNP, has opted not to stir the pot.

In fact, when one of the local language dailies ran a story quoting former UNP Minister Johnston Fernando as saying that the UNP was prepared to topple the government, UNP leader who was in neighbouring Chennai, having gone to condone with the Vasan family that had lost a daughter in a tragic road accident, telephoned Johnston upon his return and sought clarification.

The UNP has also moved in, in a rather surprising turn of events, to support the very man against whom they brought a vote of no-confidence in the Western Province Provincial Council -- Chief Minister Reginold Cooray.

The motion to oust Cooray had the backing of the JVP at the time, and Cooray was forced out of his job with the UNP -- and also the JVP -- supporting the induction of SLFPer Nandana Mendis to be the Chief Minister.

Within days, the UNP has done a somersault and backed Cooray back for the job, clearly a move to send the JVP a message that they can’t eat the cake, and have it as well. By doing what they have done, the UNP has now split the ranks of the SLFP as well between the Mendis faction and the Cooray faction in the Western Province PC.

So, it may not be quite correct to say that the UNP will keep aloof in the post-UPFA coalition fall-out. A party wag remarked that their leader keeps to his promises. He promised not to topple the government, and he has in fact even re-instated a toppled government chief minister.

At its political affairs committee, the UNP hierarchy discussed P-TOMS and other related issues this week, including what to do next with the collapse of the UPFA government. It was clear that diplomatic pressure was influencing the conduct of the UNP. Leader Wickremesinghe was to tell them that their focus should be on a presidential election, because whoever won a presidential election, there would be stability in the country.

So much so, that some of the party leaders were worried whether the very 'Jana Bala Meheyuma' or the peoples power march from down south demanding a presidential election should not boomerang on the President calling for a general election, instead.What prayers Wickremesinghe made at the Kataragama Hindu devale on Friday evening, and then at the Devundera Buddhist temple that night, he won’t say, but when he saw the crowd that assembled for the start of the JBM - Jana Bala Meheyuma yesterday, he must have thought that the UNP is prepared for any election now.

But everyone in politics knows that crowds can be a misleader.
At the JVP's special session at Colombo's Town Hall premises coinciding with the President's birthday on Wednesday, they endorsed the decision by the party hierarchy to leave the UPFA coalition over the signing of the P-TOMS agreement, and to contest future elections independently.
While they may have some difficulty in romping home as victors at a general election, the least they will do is to split the Sinhalese vote in three directions, giving no one party a clear majority.

And at a Presidential election, they seem to have a game-plan. Even if they come third, they could prevent any one candidate clearing the 50 per cent plus one vote hurdle to be declared winner in the first round of counting.

Whereupon, the second round of votes will start by counting the third candidate's preferential vote (2nd optional vote). That second vote will their bargaining chip for the President -- of their choice. Interesting times ahead.

Back to Top

Back to Columns

Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved.