Tightropes for birthday cake

• President rocked and chilled on human rights issues
• Ranil-Karu gap widens after court drama

By Our Political Editor

President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe were chatting about Affairs of State on Monday.

Rajapaksa was quite agitated. Understandbly so. The German Ambassador had told the Opposition Leader the previous night over dinner that his country took a very dim view of the human rights record of the Rajapaksa administration.

Germany had already suspended new aid to Sri Lanka, a kind of sanction on Sri Lanka if you like. Others were also breathing down Rajapaksa's neck, picking holes in the manner he was handling things. He told Wickremesinghe that Norway was controlling the EU, and that he could retaliate in the way he knew against these so-called bleeding-hearts.

Earlier, Rajapaksa had referred to how he too would like to be Hugo Chavez --Venezuela's enigmatic socialist President who makes Bush-bashing and baiting the rapacious West his hobby-horse; except that Chavez can afford to do it because he has the big bucks from his oil revenue.

The same day, UN Ambassador Allan Rock, a Canadian diplomat, had also called on the President and made some accusations against the military, saying that he had information that they were supporting the Karuna faction recruiting children for war purposes. Rock had visited Ampara, Batticaloa, Vakarai and Jaffna to ascertain the status of child-soldiers. He had seen kids running about nearby Karuna faction camps in Batticaloa, and met IDP (internally displaced persons) and foreign NGO workers in these areas who had made noises about this.

Back in Colombo, Rock thought it proper to go public on this matter despite an assurance from Rajapaksa that he would investigate any credible information on this score. The Rajapaksa Government immediately reacted to the Rock revelation by issuing a statement by the President's secretary, and then followed it up by a snide remark from its defence spokesman on Rock's own credentials back in Canada where he had purportedly attended some LTTE fund-raiser dinners.

That was not the only encounter over sections of the security forces helping Karuna faction cadres to to recruit child soldiers. Another episode figured at a dinner President Rajapaksa hosted to British Premier Tony Blair's special representative, Paul Murphy. The former Northern Ireland peace negotiator was here to ascertain how Britain could help restart the peace process. It was Rajapaksa who referred to Rock's remarks. He said it was wrong for him to have made those remarks, moreso publicly. High Commissioner Chilcott concurred but something worse was to come. He said that "we knew" it much earlier. Rajapaksa reddened with anger. He asked the envoy from the Court of St. James "how can you say that." Chilcott remained chilled. He looked down and could not respond.

Though it was Rajapaksa who had to face the brunt of the International Community’s (IC) needling, it was Wickremesinghe who had to face a more immediate threat -- yet another counter-attack from within his party to castrate him, politically.

If he thought that he had overcome a putsch by a section of the party the previous week, by neutralising them before the party's highest decision-making body, the Working Committee, over some reforms to the party set-up they were trying to introduce, he was in for a surprise.

The self-styled Reformists in the party refused to accept the fact that they didn't have the numbers to carry their reforms through the WC, nor had they prepared their proposals legitimately.

They had a pre-set plan which they couldn't implement the previous week, i.e. to walk out of the WC and then go to courts challenging the WC. But this week, spearheaded by G.L. Peiris and Milinda Moragoda, the Reformists mounted another bid to stall the party's annual convention fixed for today -- by going to courts.

They needed an excuse to do so. And the plan was hatched.

They decided that they should ask courts for an injunction against the holding of the party convention on the grounds that different electorates had been asked to bring different numbers for the convention when the party constitution specifically stated that each electorate should be asked to send 55 members. They had two examples - M.H. Mohamed (Borella) was asked to bring 200 and Rajitha Senaratne (Kalutara) 150. That, they claimed would not be fair when it comes to voting on resolutions, and was good enough grounds to ask for the convention to be cancelled. The other major issue was that 10 days prior notice had not been given of the Agenda for the convention.

They had to find petitioners to bring this case to court, and they found them in three former Ministers, viz., Wijeyapala Mendis, Dharmadasa Banda and Imtiaz Bakeer-Marker, of whom only Banda is an MP now.

Last week, the Reformist Group had virtually called it a day as former SLFP Samurdhi Minister S.B. Dissanayake, in whose name the proposals for changes within the UNP were, discussed matters with Wickremesinghe and the two decided that his suggestions be accomodated in a different kind of way by the party hierarchy.

It was thereby agreed that the Dissanayake proposals come as an item on the annual convention agenda so drafted that they are in conformity with the UNP Constitution, and with what lawyers say. The Reformists had consulted K.N. Choksy and L.C. Seneviratne, both PCs. It was held that most of the proposals were either "out-of-time", or "not in conformity", and had to be otherwise remedied in some way or other.

On Wednesday, therefore, Dissanayake, Tissa Attanayake, the party's incoming secretary, Bodhi Ranasinghe, onetime Hotels Corporation chairman and Ravi Karunanayake, MP met with party lawyer Ronald Perera to work out how the Dissanayake proposals could be churned into acceptable resolutions that could be adopted at the party convention - despite the fact that they could not pass muster at the WC meeting. In the midst of an all-island power-cut, these gentlemen were trying to see how to power-cut the party leader, without making him entirely powerless.

They struck upon the idea that these Dissanayake proposals would now be called 'Political Principles', and these principles contained a bulk of what Dissanayake had originally recommended to widen the scope of appointments to the WC, and other incidental issues that would clip the wings of Wickremesinghe.

Perera, then translated the 'Political Principles' so drafted into Sinhala by the next morning and handed them over to Kurunegala's Gamini Jayawickrama Perera, the man the Reformists proposed, unsuccessfully, to be the party secretary. J-Perera agreed to the R-Perera draft, and Dissanayake was agreeable to its format. He then told lawyer Perera that he would come and see him alone that Thursday to finalise these 'Political Principles'.

At the same time, however, unknown to many, the Refromists had gone to the Mount Lavinia District Court that same Thursday with the hope of filing that action they had contemplated. This took UNP's Wickremesinghe-backed leadership by surprise. Either S.B. Dissanayake was playing games by feigning agreement to the 'Political Principles', or somebody was pulling the strings from behind-the-scenes.

Lawyer Sudath Perera was the instructing attorney on behalf of the three petitioners, Mendis, Banda and Markar. Sudath Perera was S.B. Dissanayake's lawyer in the contempt case on which he went to jail. He met the Judge in his chambers and apprised him of the impending case he was going to file.

The Judge refused to take the matter up the same day (Thursday). The case was entered as a motion, and then scratched off. In other words, the case was not technically filed. The next day, Friday was the last date court would sit, and the only day left if the Reformists were going to get court intervention to stall the convention.

Ronald Perera was waiting for Dissanayake, who never came to his Deanstone Road chambers in Kollupitiya. Instead, Dissanayake went to - or was asked to come to - Dharmadasa Banda's Colombo residence. There, Peiris, Moragoda, Senaratne and the UNP's deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya were meeting. And there, it was agreed that they had a cast iron case to stop the convention. President's Counsel Romesh de Silva was going to appear for them. Victory was assured, and to hell with the 'Political Principles'.
Once there was no show by Dissanayake at Ronald Perera's house, it was clear that other plans were afoot. And it had to be a court case. UNP's chief legal secretary, Daya Pelpola was tasked with finding Wickremesinghe's senior counsel. They had spoken to Shanki Parathalingam PC for any eventuality on Thursday , but he was going abroad on Friday and would not be available. Then, they had asked Ben Eliathamby PC, but he declined to appear, and to Lakshman Perera, who was tied up in an Avissawella court on Friday.

The UNP, a party once with a surfeit of lawyers , was without one to appear for its leadership. Enter Asoka Samararatna, a long-time dyed-in-greenwool party lawyer. He suggested Faiz Mustapha PC, but asked Wickremesinghe himself to coax him to appear because, Mustapha rarely appears in the original courts, and outside his usual turf of Hulftsdorp. A formidable team of juniors was assigned to him - Harsha Soyza PC, Dr. Harsha Cabraal, Shevan Cooray and Farman Cassim instructed by Samararatne Associates.

Romesh de Silva appeared with Maithri Wickremesinghe and Sudath Perera for the petitiorers.

The petitioners had opted to bring the case to Mount Lavinia courts despite the fact that all three Defendants, viz., Ranil Wickremesinghe, party chairman Malik Samarawickrama and secretary N. Weragoda resided in Colombo.

The fact that 'Siri Kotha', the party headquarters came under the Mount Lavinia jurisdiction was the possible explanation, but the presiding Judge of Thursday was absent on Friday. The matter therefore went before the Additional District Judge.

In the meantime, the Wickremesinghe Group was ready and waiting. They had kept a lawyer, Reshan Gamage to keep an eye on what was happening at Mount Lavinia, with proxies in hand. The previous day, they had anticipated action being filed in Colombo courts, and were taken by surprise when they heard that the Reformists had gone to Mount Lavinia instead. Once they heard Sudath Perera had turned up at Mount Lavinia, the defence lawyers rushed to Mount Lavinia and 20 MPs were summoned from Parliament sittings to Cambridge Terrace, the office of the Leader of the Opposition. They were given a cup of tea and despatched to Mount Lavina courts, pronto. John Amaratunge, Lakshman Kiriella, Johnston Fernando, Jayalath Jayawardene, Lakshman Seneviratne, Vajira Abeywardene, Myown Mustapha, Range Bandara etc., were among the 20.

On the petitioners' side there was none. None of the petitoners, Mendis, Banda or Markar was present. There was no S.B. Dissanayake, G.L. Peiris, Milinda Moragoda, Rajitha Senaratne present. The three hapless lawyers for the three petitioners left to themselves, with no moral support from those who have retained them, against this mass of humanity cheek-by-jowl cramping the modest court room.

The defence argued that M.H. Mohamed received his letter asking him to bring so many members for the convention on October 8 - more than a month ago. On 8 November, the Working Committee met - all the petitioners were present at that meeting, but none complained. Material facts had been suppressed, and the internal remedies had not been exhausted before coming before court.

The arguments did not take long. The Dissanayake reforms were not before court. It took an hour in the morning, and shortly after court resumed at 1.45pm., arguments briefly continued, and after a short break a brief order was made rejecting the petitions.

At Cambridge Terrace, Wickremesinghe was quite angry. He told his supporters he was most disappointed with his deputy Karu Jayasuriya, whom he felt was deliberately being scarce with the truth with him as party leader. Wickremesinghe had met Jayasuriya on Tuesday to brief him about his meeting with President Rajapaksa the previous day, then at the Parliamentary Group meeting, but mum was the word about all these happenings except to say that internal disputes must be settled.

The Wickremesinghe Group claimed that it was Jayasuriya's office that had booked the Nippon Hotel at Kompanna Veediya, and Moragoda's office which had made the arrangements for a post-court judgment press conference hoping to announce a victory. Instead, it was at Cambridge Terrace that once famous Nippon chinese rolls were freely distributed to those who came to greet the victorious party leader.

Former Health Minister Renuka Herath was one of them. She was making it clear that the party can do without a deputy leader or a national organizer -- a direct reference to Karu Jayasuriya and S.B. Dissanayake. Others were chiding the 'golden brains' of the party and saying that teaching law and practising law were two different things -- a direct reference to G.L. Peiris. Some were asking whether he still hasn't had enough of Milinda Moragoda. And the verbal abuse against whom they called the 'Plotters' continued till well past 6 pm., when Wickremesinghe decided to adjourn the post-mortem to his 5th Lane residence.

There they were discussing the future of the partymen who tried to sabotage the annual convention of today. Ironically, it was Jayasuriya who is the Chairman of the Organising Committee of the very convention they claim he tried to sabotage. MPs asked Wickremesinghe whether he would still appoint Jayasuriya as his deputy for another year, while others asked whether Jayasuriya would turn up at all. Jayasuriya told journalists that he would. What would happen today is anybody's guess.

UNP annual conventions are usually boring affairs, with long speeches, hand clappings and raising of hands for pre-arranged resolutions which most don't understand. The last time there was some excitement was in 1972 when J.R. Jayewardene and R. Premadasa clashed under the party leadership of Dudley Senanayake. Premadasa stomed out of the sessions, Dudley Senanayake had to be escurted away and J.R. Jayewardene called for a snap vote to defeat Premadasa resolutions. As it later turned out, Jayewardene and Premadasa made up eventually, and one became President and the other his Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, there were many other chores for Rajapaksa who completes one year in office as President today. Early this week he telephoned Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera to tell him to make the Government's position on various issues known to the Colombo-based diplomatic community. This was in the wake of the upcoming meeting of the donor co chairs in Washington DC. Mangala began with Indian diplomats and later spoke to US, EU and Japanese diplomats. Rajapaksa's call came after he learnt that Norway may push the co-chairs into making a strong statement against Sri Lanka. This was to forestall any drastic statements being made by LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in his "Maveerar Day" address.

JVP's politburo in the meanwhile discussed the Rock statements. It was their leader Somawansa Amerasinghe who declared that the remarks were an international conspiracy. It was aimed at laying the ground work for foreign troops to come to Sri Lanka. General Secretary Tilvin Silva was to complain that the Govenment was unable to understand the seriousness of the situation. Tomorrow, the Patriotic National Movement will stage a protest outside the United Nations office in Colombo over Rock's remarks.
On November 13 (Monday) morning a four member JVP delegation met President Rajapaksa. It comprised Tilvin Silva, Wimal Weerawansa, Anura Kumara Dissanayake and K. D. Lalkantha. Leader Amerasinghe had explained he was unable to come in view of a previous urgent engagement. Associated with the President were Ministers Nimal Siripala de Silva, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Maithripala Sirisena and and parliamentarian Dullas Allahapperuma.

SLFP General Secretary Sirisena was to raise issue over remarks made by UNP leader Wickremesinghe that the armed forces cannot defeat terrorism. Rajapaksa asked where the remarks were made. He replied it was after the Government had given him an excellent opportunity after the signing of the MoU between the SLFP and the UNP. It was during a gathering of the Buddhist clergy in Galle where Wickremesinghe had explained matters relating to the MoU. Rajapaksa lamented that he had asked his Ministers also to take part in public events and explain Government's own position. Alas, not many were doing it.

Sirisena was also to say he was meeting two representatives each weekly from the party's youth front. Most of them did not approve the MoU signed by the SLFP with the UNP. JVP's Tilvin Silva asked whether the UN had agreed to escort food vessels to the North under their flag. Rajapaksa was to say that a UN team was in Sri Lanka going into the matter. They were of the view that such a step by the UN would require the approval of the LTTE too. Silva said it would not be a good idea to involve the UN since it would have an adverse effect on the country.

Rajapaksa wanted to continue to maintain good relations with the JVP. It was Anura Kumara Dissanayake who asked how that could happen when the State media was not even promoting such a relationship. To the contrary, they were doing things that tended to wreck that unity. Media Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa was told by Rajapaksa to speak to the state media organisations and ensure the situation was rectified. Being President, it seems, is to be a trapeze-artiste. You must know to balance -- and keep your balance.