The unprecedented political events culminating in the swearing-in of Percy Mahinda Rajapaksa for a second term as the President of Sri Lanka were not only contemporary history, but some were also sure additions to the Guinness Book of Records or Ripley's Believe it or Not.
One was last Monday's ceremonies to plant 11 lakhs of trees in just 11 minutes. For every minute, 100,000 trees took root. In the years to come, that would make up at least partly for the thousands of trees that are felled illicitly mostly by those who wield political power. The joke about one of them from yesteryear in the western province is still doing the rounds. It spoke of how large trees had slogans on a board with his name around the trunk to say the trees loved him. The smaller, newly planted trees, had slogans planted nearby on sticks to say they would also love him when they grew up.
Tens of thousands of portraits of President Rajapaksa adorned every village and town, at road intersections and buildings. Political observers say this is one occasion in post independent Sri Lanka when such a vast number of pictures of one person were on display throughout the country. At no time before has one Sri Lankan leader gone on so much display over a national event, not even during elections. This time, every state institution or their branches in the provinces also displayed them. Perhaps, the government decree that no other posters, cut-outs or similar visual material could be displayed during the period of celebrations made it even more noticeable. That the producers of portraits and cut-outs found brisk business is no secret.
Opposition United National Party leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, was away on a private visit to south India. He returned yesterday after attending a Dharshan in a Hindu temple. In his absence, deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya and the party's new media chief Mangala Samaraweera, held a news conference on Thursday to announce the party would boycott the swearing-in. Jayasuriya said the event was just like "one of those held in Zimbabwe, Myanmar or North Korea" where only their leaders were projected.
Colossal waste of public funds
Added Samaraweera,"it is a colossal waste of public funds on such an extravaganza and an arrogant display of excessive pride by a few. Never before at a swearing-in ceremony has such a thing happened." The remarks drew an angry retort from presidential spokesperson Lucien Rajakarunanayake. He said, "there is a time in all countries where people pay tribute to their leaders for the freedom and victory they win from the bloodshed caused by terrorism. How can that be an extravaganza?" The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna also boycotted the event. However, a protest rally planned by it opposite the Fort Railway Station for Thursday was shifted to Lipton Circus. It was after fears that participants would face attacks. However, the turn out of nearly 2,000 participants was much less than what the JVP expected.
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| One of the world records at the Presidential inauguration was the preparing of kiribath weighing 15,000 kilos. But pieces of it were stuffed into dustbins at
Independence Square when the rains prevented people from partaking in it. |
Mount Lavinia Hotel's Chief Chef Pablis, a doyen of Sri Lanka's culinary experts, headed a team of 350 of his colleagues from five star hotels in Colombo to produce what is perhaps the largest kiribath spread (or the traditional milk rice) in Sri Lanka. At 1 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, Pablis, helped by two chefs each from leading hotels began the job using 1200 kilogrammes of rice. Going into it were 1500 litres of coconut milk, 350 kilogrammes of kitul jaggery, 150 litres of coconut treacle, cashew nuts and plums. Pablis said the 15,000-kilogramme kiribath laid out on a lengthy table was enough for 65,000 people to eat.
He said cooking was over around 6 p.m. and the kiribath was laid out immediately thereafter. It was around 7.30 p.m. when President Mahinda Rajapaksa arrived with his wife Shiranthi. Their schedule on Thursday was strenuous. Rajapaksa, who had turned 65, was in his ancestral home of Medamulana. He was forced to retire at 2.30 a.m. on Thursday. Nevertheless, he was up at 5.30 a.m. the same morning, after just three hours of sleep, to greet well-wishers. Later he visited Hambantota.
The newly built harbour was re-named Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port. He was on hand to receive a group of Buddhist clergy representing all nikayes) who arrived at the port from Galle harbour by Sri Lanka Navy's passenger vessel 'Jetliner'. A cargo vessel from Myanmar (Burma) with a load of Buddhist artefacts including statues followed. At a ceremony there, he declared Sri Lanka should be abreast with emerging strong regional economies like India and China.
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| Sail on oh ship of state: President Rajapaksa waving a party flag at the launching of the Hambantota Port project.
Pic. by J Weerasekara. |
Rajapaksa did praise the Chefs' Guild of Sri Lanka for the record job they had carried out at the Independence Hall. This is the first time this historic hall, a national monument to mark the Independence of then Ceylon (and later Sri Lanka) from British rule, was used for a mass kiribath fiesta. On February 4, 1948 Prince Henry, the Duke of Gloucester formally opened the first Parliament of Sri Lanka at these precincts earlier known as Torrington Square. The monument with multiple pillars was built on this site after this formal ceremony.
Yesterday, President Rajapaksa's address to the nation after the second swearing-in was played out on loudspeakers placed at the Jaffna town. On the previous day, several government institutions including those in the north distributed sweets and other food to residents in the area.
Foreign dignitaries
Unlike most previous swearing-in ceremonies of Presidents, this time there were foreign dignitaries taking part. The highest in terms of protocol was the delegation led by Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed followed by Bhutan's Prime Minister Jigme Thinley. The Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan is the current chairman of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC). China's President Hu Jintao sent a team led by a special emissary, Sang Guo Wei. He is Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. He is neither a member of the Central Committee nor an alternate member suggesting in terms of protocol he was lower down the line. Others in the team included Hu Zhen Gyue, Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhang Wei Gue, Counsellor, Department of Asian Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and S. Wang Yutin, Security Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security.
Rajapaksa entertained some of the visiting dignitaries to lunch at Temple Trees. Later, he flew to Kandy to call on the Venerable Maha Nayake Theras of the Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters. Later that night, at the President's House in the hill capital, he entertained to dinner heads of three different delegations that were superior in terms of protocol. They were the President of Maldivian President, Bhutan's Prime Minister and Pakistan's Senate Chairman Farouk Naik. Rajapaksa will be on a religious tour in the next few days visiting Anuradhapura and Kataragama.
In the corridors of both the External Affairs Ministry and Colombo's diplomatic community, the talking point was the Indian representation, which was at a low level of a Minister of State (Deputy Minister) for External Affairs, Praneeth Kaur. Though not public, a sudden cold wave in the dialogue between Colombo and New Delhi had caused some concern. This, according to well placed sources at the External Affairs Ministry, related to post-war Indian development projects including the coal fired power plant in Sampur. These sources said New Delhi felt that Colombo either was responding slowly or not at all over some of the issues it had raised. On the other hand, Colombo argued that some of the matters required careful study which was time consuming.
So much so, doubts have been caused whether the Indo-Sri Lanka Joint Commission meeting would be held as earlier planned when Indian Foreign Minister, S.M. Krishna arrives in Colombo on Thursday for a three-day visit. This is on the basis that the groundwork related to the talks was not completed. The same sources say the accepted practice has been for the host country to prepare a statement for release after the Joint Commission meeting. However, New Delhi had taken the initiative.
"There have been hiccups with several suggestions from New Delhi," these sources added. Krishna's first assignment will be to fly to Hambantota to open an Indian consulate there. Thereafter, he will also visit Jaffna to open a similar consulate, something India has been seeking for quite some time and successive Sri Lankan governments have been deftly ignoring, i.e. until now. Besides an agreement related to a university in the plantation area, Krishna is also billed to meet representatives of the Opposition including Tamil political parties. It is not immediately clear whether a separate meeting will be slated for a delegation of the Tamil National Alliance.
Religious ceremonies including the chanting of Seth Kavi for the President's inauguration began at Buddhist places of worship last Monday and will end today. However, there was a religious event, which seemed to suggest a discordant note. A group of 21 persons including Anoma, the wife of former General Sarath Fonseka, travelled to a devale located inside the Yala National Park. She has denied it was the Kebeliththe Devale (Kebelithe Devale) located in the thick jungle in Block II of the park where devotees seeking to invoke the wrath of the gods on those whom they dislike. Some even perform what is described as kaasi kapanawa (or cutting coins) for this purpose at this devale.
Anoma appeals to the gods
Ms. Fonseka told the Sunday Times she went to a sacred place where there is a huge ancient Bo-tree (sacred tree) but no devalaya or temple. This is believed to be a place where Kataragama deviyo wedi hitiya thenak (a place blessed by the presence of God Kataragama) and not the Kebaliththa devalaya which is deep inside the jungle. No permit was needed to travel she says because she did not go there through the Yala National Park but through a different route from Buttala.
Ms Fonseka said she went with many relatives and friends to fulfil a vow (baarayak wenna) and observed sil at a Bo-tree. It was to appeal to the gods "to open the eyes of those accusing the innocent of crimes. It was also to seek justice and fair play from the gods". The Sunday Times learnt that the 21 member group included her sister, former national cricket captain Hashan Tillekeratne and two members of the Buddhist clergy.
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| The jailed ex-Army Commander Sarath Fonseka’s wife Anoma clad in black, participating in a pooja before breaking coconuts at a Hindu kovil in Kochchikade at the auspicious time of 10.14 am on Friday when President Rajapaksa took oaths for his 2nd term. Pic. by Sanka Vidanagama. |
She had heard from many who have gone to this shrine that when "honest and clean people" seek the help of Kataragama Deviyo (God Kataragama) miracles are performed at that spot (anuhasa thiyenava kiyala) She had been told by many that when you go with a clean mind without committing any wrong or crime, the gods listen to your pleas. "Currently when everything is second to money or personal gain, I wanted the gods to open the eyes of the people so that justice and fair play will prevail," she said.
"There were about five vehicles, all family and friends", she declared. She said she has numerous friends and family members who have not isolated her but are supportive. She claimed that on the instructions from "a higher up" they were stopped at about four spots, firstly by the army, then by the Civil Defence Force and later by the police. They checked them and she said she understood they had to do their duty. Then they apologised for the trouble caused to them.
To visit Block II of the Yala National Park, where there is no road network, an application has to be made to the head office of the Department of Wildlife Conservation in Colombo for a permit. Such a permit is given subject to certain conditions including the use of at least two or more four-wheel drive vehicles. This is because the journey is through uncleared forest, often crossing waterways and mud holes. The permit would have to be produced at the office of the Department of Wildlife at Yala (Palatupana) for clearance and assigning of expert trackers who know the terrain.
Other sources said on Tuesday, that accompanied by a tractor laden with food supplies, the group had travelled in six vehicles. Before entering the park, they had left behind two vehicles and hired two vans instead. They had been on their way back from the jungles the next day, when the authorities, it was claimed, had been tipped off that the group had included a most wanted person, former General Fonseka's son-in-law Danuna Tillekeratne who is wanted by the Criminal Investigation Department in connection with several criminal cases. They conducted searches but the reports proved wrong. On Friday, at the Mariamman Kovil at Kochchikade Anoma Fonseka and her supporters broke coconuts at the auspicious time of 10.14 a.m. when Chief Justice Asoka de Silva swore-in President Rajapaksa.
New Cabinet Ministers
Now that he is President for a second term, Rajapaksa begins his new six year tenure with a major move. He is to name new ministers to the cabinet. Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauf Hakeem is expected to be the new Minister of Justice. Mervyn Silva, now Deputy Minister of Highways is to be elevated to Cabinet rank with a portfolio dealing with public relations matters. Others who are to become ministers are Dilan Perera, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Gunaratne Weerakoon, Jagath Pushpakumara and Chandrasiri Gajadeera. A group of ministers are also to be designated Senior Ministers.
They include A.H.M. Fowzie, S.B. Nawinna and Athauda Seneviratne. One minister who will be out of the cabinet is D.E.W. Gunasekera who now holds the portfolio of Prison Reforms. The new ministries are being created putting together subjects currently held by the President as well as drawing in a few subjects that have now been allotted to Ministers. One such example is the exclusion of the Department of Wildlife Conservation from the Ministry of Economic Development. At present, there are 41 cabinet Ministers."
It is with a larger Cabinet that Rajapaksa will present his first budget under the new term in Parliament tomorrow. Just five days later, he will play host to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari who is visiting Colombo with a high-level delegation of nearly 30. It will include Foreign Minister Shah Mohamed Qureshi and Defence Minister, Ahmed Mukthar. One of the key subjects of discussion is a proposed defence co-operation agreement between Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Both Islamabad and Colombo are learnt to be making preparations for this. After China, Pakistan was the second largest supplier of military hardware to Sri Lanka in the military campaign against Tiger guerrillas.
UNP holds Working Committee
meetings
For the UNP a major event was last Monday's Working Committee meeting. Besides formally deciding to boycott Friday's swearing-in ceremony of the President, the meeting endorsed the party's new Constitution. It comes up for ratification before the annual sessions of the party on December 12.
Such a ratification would not mean that the party would immediately thereafter get down to the task of electing its senior members. After the constitution is ratified, it will come before the Working Committee again for re-endorsement after which it will be effective.
In the absence of Tilak Marapana, a one time Attorney General, Defence Minister and a senior member of the Working Committee, Wijeyadasa Rajapaksha, MP explained the highlights of the new constitution. As previously agreed, five top positions in the party - the leader, deputy, assistant leader, national organiser and chairman - will be "elected by consensus from and among the members of the Working Committee." In the event of any competition for such office, the new Constitution stipulates, "an election shall be held by secret ballot." It will be the party leader's prerogative to appoint the General Secretary in consultation with the Working Committee. All other officials are to be appointed by a committee comprising the leader, deputy leader, assistant leader, national organiser, the chairman and the General Secretary.
Ahead of the Working Committee meeting, fears of a possible disruption was to prompt senior members to hold behind the scenes talks. A group headed by deputy leader, Karu Jayasuriya and comprising Gamini Jayawickrema Perera (Chairman), Tissa Attanayake (General Secretary) Wijeyadasa Rajapaksha and Joseph Michael Perera met Sajith Premadasa and his supporters. They included MPs Ranjit Madduma Bandara and Dayasiri Jayasekera, The meeting at Siri Kotha was to ensure there was no disruption or heated exchanges at the Working Committee meeting.
An accord was reached. However, on Tuesday, just the day after the meeting, Premadasa told a TV channel that "for the sake of the party" he had been amenable at the Working Committee meeting. He complained that a proposal he made to include provincial and local council members to vote in the election of top UNP leaders had not gone on record. However, he told a Sinhala Sunday weekly in a report which appears today he was happy he was able to bring about party reforms. The remarks appeared to contradict what he told the TV station that his proposals had not been recorded.
The accord reached however led to a smoother meeting of the Working Committee. Nevertheless, Sajith Premadasa, read out a statement and had it tabled requesting that its contents be incorporated in the minutes of the meeting. In that letter, Premadasa had re-iterated his demand that UNP provincial council and local council representatives be among those in the Electoral College for the election to the four top most positions in the party. He complained that the views expressed by him at a previous meeting had not been recorded in the minutes. Premadasa's letter came despite the Reforms Committee recommendations of the party being unanimously endorsed by the Working Committee and a panel of expert lawyers being named by this main policy making body to formulate the new constitution. The Working Committee had decided that there should be more women participation in all decision making arms of the party, but neither the Working Committee nor the Reforms Committee had agreed to Premadasa's proposal to include provincial council and local council representatives to vote for the top posts.
Premadasa sticks to Sasunata Aruna
For a second time, there was speculation that Premadasa would take part in this weekend's Grama Charika programme in Kundasale. This is said to follow assurances given to General Secretary, Attanayake. However, Premadasa loyalists said he planned to continue his Sasunata Aruna programme where he makes donations of Rs 50,000 each to Buddhist temples. As revealed in these columns previously, the prelate of a leading temple in Horana refused to accept his donation until Premadasa resolve his differences with the party leadership. Premadasa loyalists denied there had been such a refusal, and with his knowledge got a purported denial published in a Sunday political newsheet.
However, in an exclusive account elsewhere in the Sunday Times today, Venerable Ingiriye Vipulasara, the chief incumbent of the temple in question, reveals why he refused Premadasa's Rs 50,000. A dayakaya (a lay custodian) of the temple also alleged they received telephone calls after the refusal and the monk was abused for not accepting the money.
At Monday's Working Committee meeting, Range Bandara (Puttalam District) came to near blows with John Ameratunga (Gampaha District). This was after it was announced that the UNP disciplinary committee had recommended that a UNP member of the North Western Provincial Council be suspended for assaulting Bandara immediately after April's General Elections. Bandara was unhappy on the course of action decided by the disciplinary committee and accused General Secretary Attanayake of dragging his feet. Ameratunga had intervened to suggest that the matter be sent back to the disciplinary committee when a heated altercation developed.
Several others however backed Bandara who complained that the punishment of suspension for a short period was insufficient for the grievous hurt inflicted on him. Wijeyadasa Rajapaksha said the punishment should be enhanced and some even asked for the sacking of the Provincial Councillor.
With that skirmish done, Karu Jayasuriya presented a report to the Working Committee on the progress of ongoing Grama Charika programmes.
Last week's references in these columns to a German Non Governmental Organisation that had made recommendations to the UNP on how to establish a Cabinet drew responses from other similar organisations operating in Colombo saying it was not them. As revealed last week, this organisation had also funded a seminar on defence reforms where a Committee report which was not public then was discussed. These Colombo based NGOs wanted to dissociate themselves from the NGO that had made the recommendations to the UNP. In fact, the NGO in question together with the Professor who headed it has since been asked to shut down operations and leave Sri Lanka.
The Sunday Times revealed last week how UNP leaders, who believed former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka would win the presidential elections, discussed the appointment of a presidential secretary and the formation of a transitional government. Fonseka, however, had not wanted to engage in the subject until the outcome of the presidential poll was known. Such a discussion did not become necessary since he lost.
Gen. Fonseka refuses to join UNP
This week, there were more developments involving Fonseka. A badly leaking roof in his cell was to keep Fonseka wet and awake. A lung complication developed and he had to be warded at the Prison Hospital. His personal secretary and election campaign co-ordinator Senaka Haripriya Arnold de Silva (or Sha Silva) who was in a different cell in a different ward had also developed health problems. He also was warded in the same Prison Hospital where Fonseka remained.
The duo, the Sunday Times learnt, met and a detailed conversation ensued. Silva who is a staunch UNP supporter had suggested to Fonseka that he should sever his links with the JVP and join the UNP. However, the former General was adamant that he wanted to remain in his own party and continue politics and praised his close ally, Tiran Alles. Fonseka is the President of the Democratic National Alliance and Tiran Alles is its General Secretary. The two Vice Presidents are Arjuna Ranatunga and Jayantha Ketagoda. Fonseka had rejected Silva's advice and declared he would have nothing to do with the UNP as long as Ranil Wickremesinghe remained its leader.
According to a statement made to the CID by de Silva, it was Wickremesinghe who had first asked him to initiate a political dialogue with Fonseka when he served as Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). De Silva was a supporter of the UNP. One of their first meetings with Fonseka, de Silva has told detectives, took place at Brodie House, an Army establishment located adjoining the official residence of the Commander at Bullers Road. Thereafter, Fonseka had visited him on a few occasions at de Silva's private residence in Nawala. It was thereafter that UNP and JVP leaders had begun a dialogue with Fonseka.
However, Fonseka's plans to register the DNA as a political party have run into problems. It was in June this year that the Commissioner of Elections called for applications from political parties for registration. He received 73 applications including one from the DNA. The Sunday Times learnt that the DNA will not qualify to be registered as a political party since it has not met with the legal provision that such parties should have functioned for five or more years. This means Fonseka, Alles and group will be left with no choice but to remain with the JVP and for reasons of showing that they were an independent entity function as the DNA.
This is not good news for Fonseka and his supporters who fear that the JVP campaign to free him had slowed down. Last Thursday's JVP protest campaign was against the rising cost of living. If the JVP was pre occupied for weeks with student protests in university, its attention has now been focused on the dastardly attack on Sunil Handunetti, its parliamentarian, while in Jaffna. The JVP is busy organising protest campaigns in various districts. For the first time, it accused the Army's intelligence operatives of carrying out the attack - a charge which is strongly denied by Military Spokesman Udaya Madawala. He said military intelligence was one of the most respected units in the Army. Fears of attacks on a meeting planned outside the Fort Railway Station prompted the JVP to shift the venue to Lipton Circus last Thursday. Whoever is responsible for the attack, a fear psychosis has already hit a party that was both fear infusing and fearless at different times.
It is in the backdrop of these events that President Rajapaksa declared in his address to the nation "Our task as a nation on the rise to be among the great nations of the world, is to prevent such bloodshed in another twenty or thirty years. Therefore, our first task is to ensure lasting national unity and sustainable, permanent peace in our motherland. "Those remarks are timely. They come at a time when Opposition political parties have continued to show that there is no unity among them. Thus, there is no lasting peace for them to function as a democratic opposition to better serve the needs of the people. |
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