Early this week, President Mahinda Rajapaksa told South Asian leaders that they should be bold enough to introspect. "We must take measures to improve the existing mechanisms through review, rationalisation and reinvigoration," he told the summit meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) in the mountain kingdom of Bhutan.
Returning to Colombo yesterday after the event, where he ceded the regional body's chair to Bhutan's Prime Minister, Jigme Thinley, Rajapaksa signed a Gazette notification. It contained the allocation of subjects to the 37 Cabinet of Ministers he swore in last week. The gazette will become public tomorrow.
Rajapaksa appears to have put into practice even locally the words he uttered in the Bhutanese capital of Thimpu. They are measures to improve existing mechanisms in the working of the Ministries as well as ensuring the greater participation of MPs in the process. He is expected to outline this when the UPFA Parliamentary group meets at Temple Trees today. He is also expected to set out the guidelines when the first meeting of the Cabinet is held on Wednesday.
Playing a pivotal role in these tasks will be Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Economic Development -- a Ministry that has been endowed with responsibility for co-ordinating the work of all other ministries tasked with development-oriented subjects. They include agriculture, fisheries, textiles, rural development, investment, Maga Neguma and Samurdhi.
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| UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe warmly greeting Sajith Premadasa, at a commemoration ceremony held at Hulftsdorp to mark the anniversary of the death of President R. Premadasa. Pic by Sanka Vidanagama |
An example of how this works played out on Friday when Minister Rajapaksa chaired a meeting with officials and the Minister handling the textile sector. The subject of discussion was how to boost exports from the existing Rs. 2.2 billion a year to Rs. 4 to Rs. 5 billion a year. The Ministry in question will now formulate plans for achieving new targets with the co-ordination of the Economic Development Ministry.
Another example of the role for the Ministry of Economic Development could be illustrated from its goals to increase paddy production. The Ministry will co-ordinate with the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resource Management with regard to the inputs the farmers will receive. It will also assist the latter to obtain the resources that would be required.
The Ministry of Economic Development has been assigned the Board of Investment, the agency tasked with bringing in foreign investment. Minister Rajapaksa told the Sunday Times other State bodies dealing with investment came within the purview of different ministries. One such example, he said, was the Gem Corporation. He said one of the areas for emphasis would be investment in the real estate sector. This was for building shopping malls, apartments, housing complexes and other property development. Small and medium industries are also to be provided loans from a World Bank grant of $50 million.
Like in the real estate sector, in the field of tourism, Minister Rajapaksa said, the Government planned to work with the private sector. He said a study was under way to discern the needs of tourists visiting Sri Lanka. "I want to make sure that all needs of the tourists, from the time they board an aircraft, arrive in Sri Lanka and leave, are looked after," he said. This would have to be done by improving the present facilities and making sure problem areas are isolated. In this regard, Rajapaksa said, there were roles for ministries dealing with archaeological sites and aviation.
Minister Rajapaksa said he was also laying particular emphasis on tourists from India. "Their corporate meetings could be held in Sri Lanka. They could come with their families. We have to identify the needs of those families, like for example, safari parks, theme parks and other areas of interest," he said. Minister Rajapaksa is to hold regular co-ordinating meetings with other Ministers in charge of development-oriented subjects. The upshot of it all is that Minister Basil Rajapaksa will be the 'super minister' co-ordinating all the economic development activities of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government.
The coming week is one in which the new administration of President Rajapaksa will go into high gear. This is with each Minister now knowing the subjects allotted to him or her. Yet, some tasks remain to be done by these ministers, among them the job of appointing chairpersons and directors of corporations and other statutory bodies under their purview.
For President Rajapaksa too, a number of other tasks remain to be done. One of them is the swearing in of three or four ministers from the Kandy district. Their appointments have been held up in view of a disciplinary inquiry into the disruption of polls in booths in the Nawalapitiya electorate. Also expected to be appointed minister is Tissa Vitharana who represents the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) in the UPFA. It was most ironic that President Rajapaksa had overlooked the appointment of a representative from the country's oldest political party, the LSSP into the Cabinet - what a fate has befallen the Old Left in Sri Lanka.
The three-member Nawalapitiya disciplinary committee headed by People's Bank chairman W. Karunajeeva includes Saliya Mathew, attorney at law and D.G. Mendis. The trio visited the Nawalapitiya electorate to personally interview voters who had faced intimidation, threats and attacks. They also interviewed all the UPFA candidates who contested in the district. The report was handed over to President Rajapaksa yesterday. No heads are expected to roll, however.
President Rajapaksa is also mulling over issues relating to constitutional amendments. One is said to relate to a change in the existing provisions to allow a President to contest for a third term or even unlimited terms. In any event, it would go against the grain of limiting the term of a President to two terms as is the case in most countries with a Presidential system of government purely to ensure there is no life-terms for individuals even if they can get the mandate of the people. It is not immediately clear whether these changes will be effected ahead of Rajapaksa taking his oaths of office for a second term as President in November, this year. Government sources say a few other amendments were also under consideration.
Like on most occasions when a Cabinet is sworn in, there was heartburn among some when ministers were sworn in last week too. Many showed a brave face when they faced media interviews immediately after accepting their new portfolios. They all praised the President for giving them such crucial ministries such as water supply and drainage or national heritage and cultural affairs. But to their friends and supporters many of them could not hide their disappointment. They saw that the important ministries were under the firm control of the Rajapaksa brothers and with the exception of Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne, External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris, Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiyutheen, Power & Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka, Post & Telecommunications Minister Jeevan Kumaranatunga, Agriculture Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene and Internal Trade and Cooperatives Minister Johnston Fernando, the others could be said to be more than a little miffed.
It was understandable if former Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake was disappointed at not being re-appointed to the post, even though he would understand the yearning of Jayaratne to have his job. There were attempts to persuade Wickramanayake to quietly keep away from the Cabinet, but he would have none of it. The Ministry of Public Management & Reform given to him baffled many. MP for Nuwara-Eliya Naveen Dissanayake, son of the late UNP leader Gamini Dissanayake, informed the President that he would wait his turn for a Cabinet portfolio and thereby refused to accept a Deputy Ministership. He argued that as the one who came first among the Sinhalese candidates in Nuwara Eliya he felt it was his due to get a Cabinet portfolio when the one who came second, C.B. Ratnayake got a Cabinet slot, and many others who entered Parliament either with him in 2000, or thereafter were included in the Cabinet. Several other ministers had wanted their old portfolios for keeps, and some felt they deserved a leg-up with a plum ministry; but it was not to be.
However, such heartburn was equally, if not more evident in the main opposition United National Party (UNP), now prone to turbulence after successive defeats at elections. At least as far as the Ministers were concerned they had a portfolio, a car and some bodyguards and perks. For the opposition stalwarts there was none of that. Naturally, UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has become the focal point of attention.
Sections of the party want him out as leader and the election of new faces. Wickremesinghe, however, is in no mood to say quits though there is widespread speculation he plans to leave Sri Lanka for a longer stint abroad after putting into place some steps towards transition to hand over the leadership to the younger crop of MPs.
During the week, Wickremesinghe has been consulting party frontliners over what is described as three main issues. One is the need for a new group to emerge in the party hierarchy. Next is to safeguard party unity and the third to continue the party's struggle to achieve its ideals. Causing a sense of urgency over the move is the impending elections to local councils sometime next year.
Wickremesinghe held the first meeting with Hambantota district MP, Sajith Premadasa. The latter did not wish to go alone. He had asked Kegalle MP Kabeer Hashim to be present. As John Amaratunga, the new opposition chief whip was present in the building, he had asked him to join in the discussion as well. Premadasa was to make clear that he was not after Wickremesinghe's post nor was he ambitious for power. However, Wickremesinghe had said he could be the Assistant Leader of the party, the position held by Rukman Senanayake, who resigned from the post over his omission from the National List.
Premadasa had been amenable but had asked for "substantive responsibility", and said that all party officials should be elected, rather than selected. He said that who should vote, whether it should be the Working Committee or the larger Executive Committee, could be decided by the party,
Wickremesinghe told Premadasa that he had asked Kabeer Hashim, in the absence of party General Secretary Tissa Attanayake who is abroad, to prepare a paper on how reforms in the party could be carried out -- a move that caused some discomfort among his opponents. They complained that it was such unilateral measures, without consulting other party members over reforms, that were contributing to Wickremesinghe's failures. However, the UNP leader had explained that the document, once ready, was open for discussion by the party membership, and that he had given Hashim a time limit to prepare the report.
However, the offer to Premadasa, in nursery terms, has become like the battle between two small kids for a lollipop. Colombo North Parliamentarian, Ravi Karunanayake, has made it known that he insists on receiving the same positions (Assistant Leader) and perks given to Premadasa. Wickremesinghe wanted a meeting with Karunanayake but he was not available early this week, as he too had gone abroad -- with permission from Court for the release of his passport. Such a meeting is now expected in the coming week. It is not clear what Wickremesinghe's options are if Karunanayake does not change his stance. More so since Wickremesinghe has conceded to his confidantes that he (Karunanayake) had done "much to the party."
Others Wickremesinghe is billed to meet are Dayasiri Jayasekera, (UNP-Kurunegala District), who says he got the highest number of preferential votes next to the party leader and Lakshman Seneviratne (UNP - Badulla District), a long time critic of Wickremesinghe's leadership style. These are among MPs who are seeking a complete overhaul of the party structure with new faces being inducted to the leadership. They want the party's Working Committee overhauled. Wickremesinghe has explained that a Working Committee meeting could not even be summoned since the General Secretary Tissa Attanayake is still out of the country. Here again, Wickremesinghe loyalists have branded the duo (Jayasekera and Seneviratne) and others backing them as those who had the backing of the UPFA. They claim that Jayasekera also wants to be an assistant leader; that he would want Premadasa propelled for leadership first so that the government fire would come on him, and thus pave the way for him some day later. They allege that funds for the polls campaign of some of these anti-leadership elements were provided by UPFA sources, a charge strongly denied by them.
Wickremesinghe told the Sunday Times that "there will be no minority decisions. We will go by consensus, where at least 75 percent agree over changes needed." Referring to last week's report in these columns, he said, he had told the party's deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya before meeting President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and that he had not done so without informing anyone in the party. Wickremesinghe defended his choice of the party's National List and said, "It was done collectively." Yet, the constituent partners of the United National Front (UNF) were incensed by his move, and challenged his assertion.
In the forefront of this challenge is the party's lawyers, the National Lawyers Association (NLA) currently headed by Upul Jayasuriya, president of the Colombo Law Society. Wickremesinghe was adamant in breaking up the challenge and got lawyers loyal to him to question the Jayasuriya-led revolt. Jayasuriya for his part kept insisting that he was not asking for Wickremesinghe to be removed, but asking that all posts in the party be by election, a position of the Premadasa camp.
The ire of the NLA stemmed from Wickremesinghe ignoring its members in the appointment of National List MPs while picking two relative newcomers whom they claimed had done very little for the party, though they may have helped Wickremesinghe privately.
A new critic of Wickremesinghe this week was the Sirasa TV channel of the Maharajah Organisation. The channel commenced a campaign against Wickremesinghe whom it otherwise supported during the Presidential and Parliamentary election campaigns. Political analysts saw this as a move by the Organisation to back young Premadasa. It was well known in the past that President R. Premadasa had the support of the Organisation in his early political career.
However, senior UNP sources speculated that a cause for the channel to target Wickremesinghe could be due to one of its employees, Sri Ranga Jayaratnam, who came second from the UNF in the Nuwara Eliya district at the April 8 elections, not being given more National List seats as demanded by him.
Jayaratnam had originally told the UNF Nomination Board that he wanted two slots from the National List, but the UNF High Command had told him that the two seats would be considered should he win five seats and thereby the Nuwara Eliya district for the UNF, something he couldn't deliver. Thus the demand for two National List seats has gone by the wayside and Jayaratnam, who heads a registered political party called the Puravasi Peramuna (Citizens Front) now wants a front-row seat in Parliament on the basis of being a 'party leader'.
This week, Wickremesinghe explained to SLFP (M) leader, Mangala Samaraweera, why his request for the nomination of Ruwan Ferdinands could not be made. He invited Samaraweera and his supporters to join the United National Party. Samaraweera had asked for time to think over.
A similar meeting with Democratic People's Front (DPF) leader Mano Ganeshan, though planned for Friday did not materialise this week as Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauff Hakeem was unavailable. He is expected to meet Wickremesinghe and Hakeem in the coming week. Ganeshan has bitterly criticised Wickremesinghe for not naming a member from his party on the National List, but Wickremesinghe says they had asked Mano Ganeshan to contest from the Colombo district, but he had preferred to contest from Kandy where he lost.
The UNF agreement was to have the first seven seats on the National List go to the UNP as the main party in the UNF, and the balance to be distributed, but as they were entitled to only nine seats eventually, the SLMC received the balance two leaving Ganeshan out of the equation.
The appointments to the National List seats have caused more than a headache for Wickremesinghe, but the headache has been caused as a result of the poor showing at the hustings and the UNF's inability to garner sufficient votes to boost its entitlement to more National List seats.
And so, Wickremesinghe's troubles will overlap to the coming week, and a Working Committee meeting either on Tuesday or Wednesday will be quite an event, to say the least. The April 8 polls, therefore, seem to have left not only very many left out of the picture unhappy, but the few very elected, also not so happy on both sides of the political divide. |
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