Political Column

Sri Lankans will be treated to a sparkling spectacle today. They will see live on television and hear on radio how their elected representatives to Parliament create history. Like some of the movies, it will be a political blockbuster, richly packed with plots of treachery, skullduggery, betrayal and pure bootlicking.

The cause celebre would be the group of United National Party (UNP) parliamentarians led by its former deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya. All of them, with no exception, were arch rivals of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Government. In equal measure, they were also avowed loyalists of UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. But times are changing. Yesterday's political foes will become darlings from today. The darlings of yesterday, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in particular, have turned foes. That is if they are not arch enemies already.

Not even the man who made them the darling by forging a marriage between the JVP and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Minister Mangala Samaraweera could stop it. He wrote a lengthy letter to President Rajapaksa challenging the wisdom of his actions. That did cause some ripples, though Rajapaksa remained unmoved and determined to go ahead. Last minute moves were made to patch up differences, but they were of no avail.

On Thursday night, three VIPs arrived at the Stanmore Crescent residence of Samaraweera. They were Lalith Weeratunga, Sri Lanka's number one public servant, the Secretary to the President, the President's brother and senior Advisor Basil Rajapaksa, and parliamentarian Dullas Alahapperuma. The latter is a confidant of both President Rajapaksa and Basil, and will today join the ranks of the Cabinet.

The trio had arrived to persuade Samaraweera to take part in a breakfast meeting with the President on Friday morning at 'Temple Trees'. He had declined to attend on the grounds that such a meeting, ahead of the Cabinet re-shuffle would send the wrong message - he was negotiating for plum portfolios. Moreover, he had made clear that accommodating UNP dissidents, who were all clothed in a new robe as "reformists," would not be in the best interest of the SLFP or the Government. For two and half hours, a cordial dialogue ensued. Arguments went to and fro. Eventually, Samaraweera, now an experienced politician sans the rebellious rhetoric or spontaneous outbursts of past years, agreed to a formula. Yet, Samaraweera made clear he was not willing to give up any of his portfolios if they were to be distributed to UNP crossovers. If he was to forego a portfolio, he was willing to give up the Foreign Ministry, but would like to retain the rest i.e. Ports and Aviation. He said he was a politician, and therefore had an electorate to nurse.

He said he would attend the breakfast meeting with the President if there was an undertaking that no matters relating to the Cabinet re-shuffle would be discussed. The trio, in particular Weeratunga, agreed to convey that request. He felt there was no issue over the matter since the President would be completely at ease over the request. After all, a Cabinet reshuffle was his prerogative, and was not a subject for open negotiation.

Samaraweera turned up at 'Temple Trees' on Friday morning. On hand with Rajapaksa were Lalith Weeratunga and Dullas Alahapperuma. They sat down at the breakfast table. Discussions began on various extraneous issues and were largely on a humourous note. Then, Samaraweera broke the ice with references to the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the SLFP with the UNP. He also referred to the JVP support for the Government. He expressed the view that the Government should proceed with these two arrangements.

"How can I do that," responded Rajapaksa. He said he wanted to go ahead and accommodate the UNPers who were crossing over. He traced the sequence of events. It was those UNP leaders who originally promoted close co-operation with the President and the Government. Wickremesinghe had mooted an MoU, got it signed and began to penalize those leaders. This is why he felt committed to taking them over since they had been genuine in their efforts. On the other hand, the UNP Leader had been duplicitous, criticizing him with the international community and sending messages to join his Government.

As for the JVP, Rajapaksa said he had made several attempts to meet them. They had not responded favourably. On one occasion, they had suggested a time that happened to be his regular siesta hour. Samaraweera said he did not share that view and declared the JVP was still in favour of supporting the Government. This saw the President asking an aide to get the JVP parliamentary group leader Wimal Weerawansa on the telephone.

He asked Weerawansa whether he could meet with the JVP. The JVP frontliner had replied that he would consult his leader, Somawansa Amerasinghe and get back. Later, from the breakfast table the President himself telephoned Amerasinghe. The latter said he would consult others in the party and respond with a date and time. But insiders in the JVP said the leadership was not inclined to cede an immediate meeting. They had decided to wait and see, until after the crossover by the UNP took place.

But a subject that took considerable time during the talks was a newly-launched Sinhala newspaper. President Rajapaksa was to complain that Tiran Alles who was behind the publication was bitterly critical of him and his family. Alles was Chairman of Airport and Aviation Services and Samaraweera seemed to have no control over his actions. Samaraweera denied he had any hand in the move and explained that the newspaper may have published them as part of efforts to sell the paper. It was only last week that officials of the Inland Revenue Department raided the newspaper in question and took away several files. A similar raid had also been carried out on another anti-Rajapaksa newspaper house though it had not been publicized, until later in the State media.

With the inclusion of the UNP dissidents, the Cabinet is expected to be a little over 50 Ministers and an equal number of deputies. There were indications yesterday that the Foreign Ministry portfolio would be taken away from Samaraweera and given to a person who had remained long enough with the PA Government. There were several contenders jockeying yesterday to become Foreign Minister. Main among them was Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, who has been telling sources close to Rajapaksa that he had the best credentials and could deliver. This is on the basis that he had developed a great rapport with the Colombo-based diplomatic community and international non-governmental agencies. But highly-placed Government sources said his name was not even under consideration.

The UNP group is to receive nine portfolios. One is to be given to the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and another to the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU). It is not likely that the JHU Minister will be sworn in today in view of internal tussles. Whilst a section of the JHU and even the Government had favoured inducting Champika Ranawaka, Ven. Athureliya Rathana is said to be opposed to the move. Ven. Omalpe Sobitha is learnt to have offered to resign as a National List MP to pave the way for Ranawaka.

After today's swearing in, the UNP dissidents are to visit Kandy tomorrow for religious ceremonies at the Dalada Maligawa. This is whilst the UNP leadership sans their Leader is planning to hold a news conference where they planned to either set fire or tear down the MoU with the SLFP.

The dissidents a.k.a. Reformists, want to retain their identity as UNPers. That is not all. Insiders say they also plan to launch a campaign to oust their erstwhile Leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe both from the party Leadership and the office of the Leader of the Opposition. On the other hand, UNPers feel confident that the Supreme Court will not necessarily give them automatic permission and the comfort of sitting in the Cabinet and sitting in an Opposition party.

Either way, Wickremesinghe who is now on a visit to Nepal has suffered more than some humiliation. Instead of taking a tough stance against the dissidents and asserting that he was the leader of the country's second oldest, and single largest political party with a voter base of nearly four million, his efforts to beat the dissidents and trying to join the Government have ended in disaster. He has shown neither restraint nor leadership, been off-hand to party seniors, and at the same time run behind them; he has taken neither a hardline, nor a soft approach, falling between two stools in the process.

Last ditch moves were set in motion this week to see that the Karu Jayasuriya-led defections were stopped. Last week, two senior UNPers positioned to cross-over, P. Dayaratne (Ampara) and Gamini Lokuge (Mahara), had proposed that the party join in a National Government with Rajapaksa, and that this would stem a breakaway of the party. The Wickremesinghe-Jayasuriya meeting on Monday also produced nothing.

Jayasuriya was insistent that his post of Deputy Leader which he surrendered by not attending the annual convention last December was not up for discussion. Most of the time, he had been looking up while Wickremesinghe was talking to him. Kurunegala's Gamini Jayawickrama Perera also met Jayasuriya on Thursday, but got nowhere.

It was clear that the defections were now confirmed, and there was nothing more to be done. The Jayasuriya-led defectors were contacting UNP's trade union JSS leaders at Lake House, the Port etc., telling them the first thing they would be doing once they become Cabinet Ministers was to redress the grievances of the 40,000 on the list of political victims. They were asked to come to the new breakaway office of theirs at Kirullapone to discuss matters.

Wickremesinghe knew that the cross-over river was not going to flow backwards, and despite muttering resignation from even his own remaining faithfuls, he emplaned on yet another overseas visit - this time to Nepal and India leaving his proxy with his personal lawyer, and his party rudderless and almost in tatters. Just prior to emplaning he met S.B. Dissanayake, the one-time SLFP General Secretary and discuss both Dissanayake's future, and the party's future. It was agreed to make him National Organiser, but other party seniors were concerned whether it was Jayasuriya's vacant slot of Deputy Leader that Dissanayake was bargaining for.

New alignments in the country's political canvass will surely be in store from tomorrow.