Bouquets and bombshells
By Our Political Editor
Even if a three year ceasefire has put an end to a separatist war, the phobia remains. The killing spree by Tiger guerrillas coupled with the uncertainties posed by the signing of the Joint Mechanism (or P-TOMS) has only gone to enhance that mood of fear and caution.

This is why security men at No 177 Galle Road, Colombo 3 – the office of the Ministry of Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction - got alarmed when a floral bouquet arrived last week. The delicate package of fresh flowers was neatly wrapped in a large tissue paper and was addressed to M.S. Jayasinghe, the Ministry Secretary - the man who signed the JM or P-TOMS agreement with the LTTE.

The security men there decided they would not take any chances with what they thought was a suspicious parcel. They rang up the Bomb Disposal Squad. The men arrived in double quick time and went to work after cordoning off the area where the bouquet lay. With clinical precision, they began dismantling the metal wires on which the dainty flowers were so beautifully arranged. When the job ended, there was no bomb.

Now the bouquet looked like the dishevelled hair of a well groomed lady. Flowers were smashed and stood side by side with protruding metal wire. It was only after the drama ended that they discovered that the bouquet was from President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga to the Ministry Secretary, M.S. Jayasinghe.

That was her way of saying "thank you very much" for signing the JM (or P-TOMS) with the Tiger guerrillas. Naturally the news of a shattered bouquet reaching the triple "R" Ministry did not please Kumaratunga. She telephoned the Deputy Minister D.M. Dassanayake (she holds the Ministerial portfolio) to berate him over what happened. The embarrassed Anamaduwa politician explained that the security boys were from his electorate and thought it better to carry out a check. They were not the trained types who could have discerned one threat from another.

So his boys had thought it was better not to leave anything to chance. So it was not only the Joint Mechanism (or P-TOMS) that had got caught up in the eye of a political storm. Even tributes to those who execute it were going the same way. It came as a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Sarath Silva, granted leave to proceed on a case (under article 126 of the Constitution) filed by a group of JVP Parliamentarians. In fact there were three cases from three different groups made up of the 39 JVP parliamentarians.

One led by Wimal Weerawansa, ex Ministers Vijitha Herath, Chandrasena Wijesinghe, Anura Dissanayake, K.D. Lal Kantha ane nine others was a closely kept affair. Before last Tuesday, when the case was taken up, the petitioners had agreed not to divulge the name of their senior counsel. That was for fear that it may lead to pressure moves to keep him out of the case. It was only after President's Counsel H.L. de Silva, appeared in courts on Tuesday that telephones went busy. The word got around that a confidant of Kumaratunga, who advised her on many an issue relating to Tiger guerrillas, was convinced of the dangers posed by the Joint Mechanism. It was Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapakse, who had first sent counsel H.L. de Silva a copy of the JM through a confidant. He had wanted to know what he thought of it.

As a study of it had made one of the country's most eminent legal counsel deeply concerned about the dangers, the JVP made an approach to him. He agreed to take on their brief on condition it would not be divulged until the case was taken up in courts. The pledge was kept. The application before the Supreme Court contends that the JM is not a valid law creating act under legal norms that govern the State of Sri Lanka, the Constitution and is merely an understanding unlawfully reached. It points out that the President of the Republic who is the Head of the Executive has no lawful authority to assume law-making powers which are solely vested in Parliament. It contends that the President cannot lawfully authorise anyone to enter into an agreement of this nature on behalf of the Government without the authority of Parliament.

Details of the petition appear elsewhere in this newspaper. A ruling on an appeal to make an interim order restraining the parties from taking steps to implement JM is to be made on Tuesday - the same day that the UNP's Jana Bala Mehayuma, the campaign demanding the conduct of Presidential Elections this year, ends in Colombo.

Seated together to show their solidarity with the JVP when the Supreme Court heard the case were Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) Minister, Dinesh Gunawardena and Deputy Ministers Sripathi Sooriyaratchch.
At the Cabinet meeting the next day, ministers raised issue on the JVP court action only to be told by Kumaratunga that she had received a full report. According to a source at the President's office, Counsel Nigel Hatch had briefed Kumaratunga. Hatch had been in Courts watching the interests of his client, triple "R" Ministry Secretary Jayasinghe. JVP parliamentarians believe another aspect that would help them in Courts is an amendment that was moved in Parliament. That was when the House took up a bill to make the funding of terrorist organizations an offence. The law was to give effect to a UN resolution.

Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar who moved the Bill had accepted the amendment which in effect sought to deal with possible attempts at funding. Interestingly enough, though four UNP MPs were present in Parliament, no one made any contribution to the subject. Neither did the Jathika Hela Urumaya. The Tamil National Alliance, a proxy of the Tiger guerrillas, strongly opposed the new law.

Another all important issue that is taking centre stage in the country's political firmament is the question of who will be Sri Lanka Freedom Party's candidate at the upcoming Presidential elections? Though Kumaratunga dangled that carrot at arguably, the most eligible person, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, in her efforts to persuade him to support JM, things appear to have changed. Kumaratunga, weeks earlier, took credit for Rajapakse's political career saying she made him Leader of the Opposition and thereafter the Prime Minister. Similarly, she said, she would make him the Presidential candidate in time to come.

But Rajapakse was streadfast in his conviction that he could not support something he did not know anything about, something he was kept out of while it was being hatched in total secrecy. Hence, he flatly turned down a request at the eleventh hour to table the JM agreement in Parliament.
However, he did present the signed document last Tuesday. As an aide to Rajapakse explained, he had read the document, knew the signatories, and agreed there was nothing wrong in fulfilling a mere formalitiy -- tabling it in Parliment. Rajapakse was equally keen to make it known that he was not on a collision course with Kumaratunga. He told a meeting of SLFP lawyers who met him that insidious attempts were being made to drive a wedge between him and Kumaratunga. This was why, Rajapakse told them that some professional muckrakers were washing dirty linen about his so-called misdemeanors with regard to tsunami aid.

He said those behind the cheap campaign would never be able to prove he robbed or cheated in any way. The measures he took had received Cabinet approval, he claimed. (Please see story on the subject on Page 3). A lawyer from the Western Province was to point out what he called a very "important point".

He said even Kumaratunga and her brother Anura had left the Sri Lanka Freedom Party at one time or the other. He told him "do not make that mistake. You have remained in the party throughout and have become wiser with what you have learnt. Don't fall prey to the machinations of political manipulators and take any precipitate action."

He said what is due to Rajapakse could not be denied to him because he had carved for himself a place in the minds of the public. Another observed, "UNP lackeys did not hit you before. They only hit President Kumaratunga”.

Aides of Rajapakse were busy trying to ascertain who was behind the campaign. One source said it was those at the high levels of the SLFP who were leaking the information through a top rung businessman. Some felt it was done through a UNP MP in the Kegalle district. But another source said accounting staff and a bank official were responsible.
The subject of a Presidential candidate figured at last Thursday's meeting of the SLFP Central Committee chaired by Kumaratunga. General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena presented a political report. Kumaratunga noted that it was too early to decide on a Presidential candidate since the elections were not due until end next year. After a lengthy discussion where some speakers urged the need for a candidate to be named, so that preparatory measures could get under way, it was decided to appoint a committee. The important aspect of this committee is that it has been called upon to decide on a SLFP Presidential candidate within two weeks.

The committee headed by Kumaratunga comprises Maithripala Sirisena, Mangala Samaraweera, Susil Premajayantha, D.M. Jayaratne, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Lakshman Kadirgamar, Alavi Mowlana, Nimal Siripala de Silva and somewhat oddly, even the two main contenders -- Anura Bandaranaike and Mahinda Rajapakse.

Not to be left out totally in the cold, the Anura Bandaranaike camp was quick to have a story in the front page of the state run newspapers that it was he, and he alone, who was responsible for getting EU quotas approved for the local garment industry.And if that was not enough, posters sprung up in and around the Free Trade Zone area hailing the saviour of the garment industry - Anura Bandaranaike - much to the displeasure of Trade Minister Jeyeraj Fernandopulle, who believed it was he and none other that did all the spade work. The unkindest cut was to have put up Bandaranaike's posters in Fernandopulle's own constituency of Katana.

Satisfied with all the hard work put in - Bandaranaike will now take wing to Singapore for an investment seminar, and a hardly earned rest.
Another matter that came up before the Central Committee was the new rapprochement between the SLFP and the UNP at the Western Provincial Council. It was Minister Mangala Samaraweera who raised issue. He said the SLFP had joined the UNP in that Council and was headed to pursue their agenda. "When they decide to withdraw support we will look fools," he said. Kumaratunga was to chip in "what is the difference whether it is the UNP or the JVP?”

The matter also figured at the SLFP Parliamentary Group meeting which Kumaratunga presided. It was Deputy Minister Sripathi Sooriyaratchchi who raised issue. He said there were SLFPers who are opposed to the move. But his colleague Dilan Perera, now a staunch backer of Kumaratunga and an aspirant for a Cabinet portfolio, said there was no such thing. Kumaratunga added that someone was giving "dead ropes".A similar crisis is also brewing in the UNP. Sections of the party hierarchy are both embarrassed and angry.

They say that it was their party that levelled allegations against Reginold Cooray, Chief Minister of the Western Province. Such allegations included corrupt practices. "How can we now say the allegations are wrong and we find you the most suitable," asked a UNP Western Provincial Councillor who spoke on grounds of anonymity.

With the UNP supporting SLFP in the Western Provincial Council, the JVP has asked Western ProvinceGovernor Syed Alavi Moulana to make their councillor Waruna Rajapakse the Leader of the Opposition. A Communist Party member has also voiced support for this claim. However, Governor Moulana is yet to rule on the matter. A further change in the balance of power at the WPC is not ruled out.

The UNP's fortunes seem to be increasing, according to the outcome of a survey carried out by Charitha Ratwatte, the party's former Treasury Secretary. This has buoyed the UNP hierarchy who gather in Colombo for their Jana Bala Meheyuma this week. The UNP march was drumming up support for the party along the tsunami-hit coastal belt. The Premier had a close call with the marchers when he came to Induruwa for a housing project connected with the tsunami victims. The UNPers had just past the area.

The organisers were happy that sufficient numbers had joined the long march to Colombo, gathering steam in the towns as was witnessed at Beruwela on Friday. They now enter the gates of Colombo tomorrow for the showdown on Tuesday - July 12th, when the Supreme Court is scheduled to rule on the JVP-JHU sponsored Fundamental Rights petitions against the constitutional validity of the controversial P-TOMS.
That date is, not a good one for the President, astrologically, say the sooth-sayers, and the President is unlikely to be sending any floral bouquets either on that day to any one.

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