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| CBK-Mahinda
in battle of the blues
For Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse the political battle to become Sri Lanka's fifth executive President has begun. Paradoxical enough, it is not with his main contender, former Premier and UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. That no doubt will come. He will have to first win the battles with his own leader and President, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. On Friday she breathed fire and brimstone, shooting off a letter to Rajapakse. She demanded his explanation for breaching party discipline by entering into a deal without permission with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. She said he had "unilaterally decided to reject the tsunami aid sharing structure" which had been "approved by our entire party, the Cabinet - including yourself - and presented to Parliament". She charged that Rajapakse had breached party discipline. Details of the letter appear elsewhere in this newspaper. For Rajapakse, weeks of talks with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) ended last Thursday (September 8). He signed a 12-point agreement with JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva at a ceremony at Temple Trees, his official residence. Hours later, Kumaratunga was reported to be infuriated. That very night she ordered the state media to play down coverage to the barest minimum. Lake House newspapers hurriedly pulled out an entire page of pictures in their English and Sinhala editions. Rupavahini, the national television network, made only a passing reference to the story. Kumaratunga was seething with anger. Behind the scenes, she had been moving heaven and earth to make amendments. It came about only after she had read it in the Lake House newspapers that reported on a JVP news conference held on September 5. That had come only a day after the Sri Lanka Freedom Party's (SLFP) Central Committee had endorsed Rajapakse's candidature. The JVP, it seemed, had pulled off a political coup. Angered by the reportage she summoned heads of the state media the next day. She asked Lake House Chairman Janadasa Peiris whether the reports on the 12 -point programme announced at the news conference were correct. She wanted to know if it was checked with the Prime Minister's office before it was published. She said Peiris should resign if he could not do his job. But the Lake House boss insisted it was a correct version and was published because all others were doing so. Kumaratunga was now receiving calls about a drastic change in SLFP policies. She tried to reach Rajapakse on the telephone. He was out of Colombo. A retinue of Presidential confidantes - Minister Sarath Amunugama, Dilan Perera, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, spokesmen Harim Peiris and Eric Fernando - were all on hand. She spoke to SLFP General Secretary, Maithripala Sirisena and asked him to come over to Janadipathi Mandiraya. Before that, she advised him to read the day's newspapers. Sirisena first went to Temple Trees and later met Kumaratunga. She told him how Rajapakse had agreed to the 12 points of the JVP without the permission of the party. The Central Committee which met only that week knew nothing of this. The same evening, in the absence of Rajapakse, Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva spoke on the phone to the premier's secretary, Lalith Weeratunga. He told him that the agreement should be changed. Kumaratunga sent a draft statement to be issued by Rajapakse to say that no decisions about the 12-point MoU had been made. It also emphasised that all matters relating to the upcoming polls had been discussed and concluded at the Central Committee meeting. Rajapakse was defiant. He was in no mood to release the same statement. He consulted Mangala Samaraweera and a different statement, which was more a clarification, was issued. There he accused the media of twisting facts and declared "although, SLFP seniors after discussion with the JVP have come to some understanding, no agreement has been signed yet". Samaraweera himself was on low key last week after the death of his brother in Fiji. Kumaratunga paid a visit to him in the company of Deputy Minister Mervyn Silva. The latter was busy on his mobile phone. It later turned out that they were to visit the residence of UNP Chairman, Malik Samarawickrema to condole with him over his mother's death. There Kumaratunga also had a chance one-on-one meeting with Ranil Wickremesinghe. They seem to be making a habit of this, last having met at a funeral just a month ago when Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was murdered. Kumaratunga was not happy with Samaraweera's statement. A war of words began between Rajapakse and Kumaratunga when the two arrived at the former Race Course grounds for the 54th anniversary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. It was also the first public event where Rajapakse was being anointed as the party's presidential candidate. So much so Kumaratunga, in her speech, urged the nation to vote for Rajapakse to make him the next President and drive the country forward to prosperity. But, before she stood up to speak, it was a different story. This is how it went. Kumaratunga
began blasting Rajapakse. What are you doing? How can you do this
to our party? Rajapakse: We will talk about that later. I don't know many things. You did not teach me. You never invited me for the peace talks. You never invited me for meetings of the National Security Council. If you did not send the JVP out, they would still have remained with us. Then, they would have supported us unconditionally. Kumaratunga:
I did not send the JVP out. They went on their own. It is during this war of words that the media cameramen began taking pictures of the two. The photographs clearly showed their body language. The duo was not exchanging pleasantries. They were having a heated argument. It
was then that Rajapakse patted Kumaratunga on her shoulders and
pleaded "in the name of god let us stop this". There it
ended. In his speech, Rajapakse devoted almost all his time to extol
the virtues of Kumaratunga. In return, she also asked that Rajapakse
be voted to usher in economic prosperity for Sri Lanka. But there
was some confusion too. Kumaratunga praised Ranil Wickremesinghe
for signing the Ceasefire Agreement with the LTTE. She said it had
led to economic growth. Our Defence Correspondent deals with this
aspect on the facing page. Rajapakse was to later tell his supporters that he was not fighting Ranil but Kumaratunga. He said when she was the Presidential candidate in 1994, she had introduced the concept of federalism to resolve the ethnic conflict. She had done so without recourse to any consultation with the party or any of its policy making bodies. But
Kumaratunga was clearly irked by at least two of the 12 points.
One was the assurance to the JVP to do away with the P-TOMS (Post
Tsunami Operational Management Strucutre), a pet project of Kumaratunga
to share tsunami relief with Tiger guerrillas. The fate of the P-TOMS
now rests with the Supreme Court where the JVP has challenged its
constitutionality. The case comes up for hearing tomorrow. With
the signing of the MoU set for Thursday (September 8), Kumaratunga
was more distressed. On Wednesday night Kumaratunga sent amendments
to the MoU to Rajapakse through Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva.
Later Kumaratunga invited UPFA General Secretary Susil Premajayantha
to come over to Janadipathi Mandiraya. She told him to make sure
the amendments were incorporated. Premjayantha went to Temple Trees
and handed in the changes. But Rajapakse was in no mood. Thereafter, Rajapakse had telephoned Kumaratunga's sister Sunethra. He had explained that he wanted to show the MoU to the President but she was not available. Thereafter, Anura was invited to the signing ceremony. He did not object. He arrived and was present at the signing ceremony. However, on Friday Anura Bandaranaike lashed out at Rajapakse at a meeting in Attanagalla. Rajapakse
remained upstairs at Temple Trees last Thursday until it was time
to sign the MoU with the JVP. Later, when it was signed and finished,
Rupavahini Chairman M.M. Zuhair had asked his cameramen to take
voice cuts of those present. Many extolled the virtues of the new
MoU with the JVP but there were problems when it came to airing
them. As the Rajapakse-Kumaratunga battle hotted up, there was speculation that at least one senior Cabinet Minister and a deputy may join the United National Party. Both have been vociferous critics of the JVP and say they will find it difficult to play a role under a Rajapakse presidency. Rajapakse aides complain that officials close to President Kumaratunga were busy planning scholarships and visitor programmes abroad for government parliamentarians. They see this as an attempt to keep them away, from backing Rajapakse's presidential campaign. They point out that during the last presidential election parliamentarians were specifically debarred from overseas travel. But, judging by the bickering that is now going on, Rajapakse will have to first win his battles with Kumaratunga. It is only then can he make an effort to defeat Ranil Wickremesinghe to become President. Not easy in a country that speaks of a five star democracy where everyone is at fault except those who are responsible. Like gods, they make no mistakes and no apologies. |
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