Political Column

Ousted Cabinet Minister Mangala Samaraweera was at his official residence at Stanmore Crescent when his mobile phone rang on Tuesday evening. He did not think that by responding to the call, it would lead to what may portend to be a new direction in his political career.

The caller was Governor of Western Province and veteran Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) trade unionist Syed Alavi Mowlana. He asked Samaraweera whether he could come over immediately to meet him. Not knowing what was in store, except for a report in the press last week, and eager to find out, Samaraweera readily agreed. After all, Mowlana had been a close friend of Samaraweera's father, the late Mahanama, and his mother.

Mowlana had walked out of a meeting of the SLFP Central Committee that was in progress at Temple Trees to make that call. Chairing the session was President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He was briefing CC members on proposals to end the ethnic conflict. His party's proposals are due to be publicised on May 1. Though not armed with any official text, Rajapaksa took the participants through a process of spelling out the highlights and winning their endorsements on each one of them.

For example, CC members raised their hands in unison to say "yes" to do away with the existing Provincial Council system and replace it with District Councils. That would be the main unit of devolution. They also said "yes" to abolish the existing local bodies and replace them with Grama Rajyas. There would be a Senate of sorts as a second chamber or Upper House of Parliament, though not like the one that existed before the Republican Constitution of 1972.

Interesting enough, some of those who raised their hands were those who staunchly backed sweeping devolution proposals by then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in 2000 drafted mainly by then Constitutional Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris, who is now back in an SLFP-led Government as a Minister. That was a time when then opposition United National Party (UNP) stoutly opposed it on the grounds that they went too far. They even burnt copies of these proposals in Parliament. At the time, even some SLFPers agreed that CBK had "gone overboard" with that set of Peiris proposals. The wheel of politics seems to be turning fast. Now, there are fears that the UNP may even pull out of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) on the grounds that the proposals were "too little and too late." But a significant point in the latest SLFP proposals is one thing which many politicians have periodically pledged and never carried out - the abolition of the Executive Presidency.

The UNP's mood to distance itself from these proposals that are "less convincing" was apparent even before the SLFP had made them public. A Western diplomat and an Asian colleague had separate meetings with a group of UNPers. The Western diplomat disclosed that according to reports they have received, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had made clear that any proposal that is "far short" of what has been declared before February 2002, the date of the Ceasefire Agreement, "would not be acceptable." In such an event, the Western diplomat warned, the LTTE had made clear it would step up its military confrontations with the Security Forces. The Asian diplomat was harsher. He said the SLFP proposals, from the few accounts that have appeared in the media, were a "sham." He opined that it would invite prompt rejection by the LTTE. Hence, instead of the resumption of peace talks, that would spell heightened war, he argued.

But President Rajapaksa is determined. He feels that the SLFP proposals, in their present form, could be easily carried through the South though the UNP may not favour it. Some senior Cabinet Ministers, however, were sceptical but were hesitant to go public with their reservations. Declared one of them; "Let us hope the proposals are tagged as 'minimum on offer', and not the maximum. That will provide greater leverage for further discussion. However, it must be left in the hands of capable parties to market it." But SLFP sources insist that there will be no compromise in the broad structure that is being offered since the proposals have been formulated within the unitary character of Sri Lanka.

Mowlana had excused himself while this CC meeting was in progress to walk out and make the hurried call to Samaraweera. Thereafter, he proceeded to Samaraweera's residence. "You have been invited to attend the Central Committee meeting. I thought you will come," remarked Mowlana, who has extended his trade union negotiating skills to the political arena. It was only two weeks ago, when Samaraweera and his mother had returned to Sri Lanka, that he telephoned the sacked Minister. He then declared he wanted to see his mother and arrived at Stanmore Crescent with a cake baked at the Hilton. During that meeting he had laid the foundation for a thawing of relations between Samaraweera and the President. This time, though there was no cake, Mowlana had a more important message to Samaraweera. "H.E. would like to see you at anytime today. I have come to take you with me," he told Samaraweera. He added he was willing to wait whatever time it takes for Samaraweera to be ready, even late at night.

A smiling Samaraweera found he had little choice. Already in a political dilemma, speeded up by his own colleague Sripathi Sooriyarachchi's heavy leaning towards the UNP, much to the chagrin of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Samaraweera decided to take on the offer. Barely half an hour later, Samaraweera was off in Mowlana's official vehicle to Temple Trees.

The security staff was befuddled as they waved Mowlana and Samaraweera through the gates of Temple Trees. The latter was greeted with a firm handshake by Rajapaksa. By then, the CC meeting had concluded, and the President was watching the Sri Lanka-New Zealand World Cup semi-final. Joining in was Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga. Conversations began with Rajapaksa giving his views on the match that was under way and expressing fervent hope the Sri Lankan team would soon be in the finals. Then he came to a more important subject - the SLFP proposals. He explained to Samaraweera the highlights of the party's proposals and said he had just won the endorsement of the Central Committee. Rajapaksa was to emphasise that the proposals in that form would not meet with objections of either the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) or the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU). That statement seemed to underscore that the Rajapaksa Administration would be unwilling to change from the scope and content of the proposals lest they offend the JVP or the JHU, and thus earn their wrath and street protests.

Later, Samaraweera was to discount reports in sections of the media that he discussed the ten points he raised with Rajapaksa. This was the 10-points he had raised in a letter he wrote to the President after being expelled together with Anura Bandaranaike and Sripathi Sooriyarachchi. Nor did the Court case involving the latter figure in any formal discussion that evening with the President. Samaraweera told a close friend that he explained to Rajapaksa his inability to meet him on a previous occasions since he had to go to Courts for the Sooriyarachchi case. The President's response ended the conversation. He told Samaraweera, "I thought he is already out on bail." The former Foreign Minister, now well used to the fine art of diplomacy, confided in his friend that the President was "pretending" and "knew only too well what was happening to Sripathi." Yet, Samaraweera was happy the meeting had taken place without any rancour or exchange of heated words.

During the course of the conversation, Presidential staff began serving egg hoppers, hoppers, seeni-sambol, ala-thel-dala and katta-sambol among other dishes. The trio, for a while, focused on their sizzling food and the sizzling cricket on the TV screen. The cordial meeting ended some two hours later with President Rajapaksa telling Samaraweera, "let us know when you are ready" - clearly a weighted suggestion that he was prepared to take Mangala Samaraweera back to the fold.

As Samaraweera confessed to his friend upon returning to his official residence in a vehicle provided from the President's fleet, "I didn't realize the President would place the ball firmly in my court at the end of the meeting." At one stage of the conversation, in fact, Rajapaksa had asked Samaraweera whether he planned to travel abroad for a long stay, possibly two to three months. The former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ports and Aviation replied that he had wanted to do so. However, as a member of the family was away in the United States, he was compelled to defer travel plans.

The news of the Rajapaksa-Samaraweera meeting came as a surprise to most JVP leaders. As one of them explained, it was "a sweet and sour response." It was sweet because they were happy Samaraweera was not falling into the vortex of the UNP through Sripathi Sooriyarachchi. JVPers say the latter has had a number of meetings with top rung UNP leaders and was working towards bringing in Samaraweera in a Grand Coalition which had some following in the SLFP. Backing Sooriyarachchi in this task had been Samaraweera confidante Ruwan Ferdinandez. The JVP had expected Samaraweera, upon his expulsion, to have at least discussed his plans informally with them before heeding Sooriyarachchi's pressures to consort with the UNP. It was sour because the JVP was unhappy there was going to be a rapprochement between Rajapaksa and Samaraweera, the man who forged the tie-up earlier between the SLFP and the JVP.

JVPers said they had been told that Samaraweera had been asked to give a date and time on which he could be sworn in as a Cabinet Minister. They surmise that the portfolios of Ports and Aviation will be returned to him in addition to restoring his position as the SLFP organizer for Matara district. However, Samaraweera told friends no such matters were ever discussed though a decision on the next course of action rests very much in his hands. In determining such a course, Samaraweera aides say the fate of Sooriyarachchi now facing charges in courts as well as Tiran Alles, the former Chairman of Airports Authority, publisher and Samaraweera confidant, now under investigation will be taken into account.

According to legal sources, the Attorney General's Department is expected to file indictments against Sooriyarachchi next week, a move which they say may see him being enlarged on bail. The Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) probes into Alles and his newspaper organization are still continuing, but not at the pace at which it was launched. There was also discomfort at the highest levels of the UNP over Samaraweera's meeting with Rajapaksa. A group of UNPers including some media personnel who staunchly backed the opposition party met at the residence of a close confidante of Samaraweera. They were trying to pressure the confidant to tell Samaraweera not to return to the Rajapaksa fold and were offering him a "better political future in the UNP."

Even if the SLFP proposals are made public on Tuesday, issues arising out of them will be enmeshed in two different events. One is the upcoming Vesak holidays and the other is the cricket fever this week over the World Cup in the Caribbean. President Mahinda Rajapaksa boarded a specially chartered plane from Colombo on Thursday morning with a large entourage. He was to witness the World Cup finals in Barbados where the Sri Lankan team faced the Australians. Some Ministers have already gone to the West Indies whilst others, who hold portfolios not even remotely connected with cricket, are headed there as well.

By the time President Rajapaksa returns, the winners would have carried the World Cup home. If it's going to be Sri Lanka's luck, the glory is bound to linger for weeks to come. Still, big matches for Rajapaksa, both in the war and peace front, remain to be played. That is whilst a deteriorating economy is sending food and fuel prices sky high whilst the law and order situation is taking a plunge. Whether propaganda, and propaganda alone, can make up for all the goings-on remains the critical question.

After the World Cup, the bigger match