With its popularity declining, the government is making a valiant effort to boost the economy with its programme of privatisation and a massive programme to develop the Southern Province.
But both these schemes are being strongly opposed by the UNP.
UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe emphatically told UNP MPs at a group meeting at the parliamentary complex on Monday that the Public Enterprises Reforms Commission bill and the Southern Province Development bill would reduce the powers of Parliament. "Through these the President has arrogated powers to herself," Mr. Wickremesinghe said. Both these institutions are not responsible to Parliament which exercises sovereignty of the people.
With the government attacking the UNP on all fronts Mr. Wickremesinghe said the opposition also would be taking a hard line. He recalled how he restrained himself when his own partymen criticised the UNP for inaction. But now, he said the party would take a hard line since the slandering campaign by the government continued unabated.
The UNP leader also spelt out a series of incidents where he felt the President and the government were entering into a collision course with the UNP.
"There are doubts about her genuineness. At every stage she looks for a confrontation", Mr. Wickremesinghe said.
"I had a very sincere discussion with the President on the proposed political package. But what did she do within two weeks? She condemned the whole discussion and accused me of not co-operating saying "Kate Pittu".
"Even the local government elections were postponed and they are planning to hold it on a staggered basis".
"The two UNP held councils, namely the North Central and the North Western, were dissolved and by this she portrayed her thinking as a person who is not in favour of devolution", Mr. Wickremesinghe said.
He said even during the Ceylon Electricity Board strike the government accused the UNP of trying to topple the government with the help of the LTTE.
It is now clear that various remarks made by President Chandrika Kumaratunga at different places during the fast few months had provoked the UNP to take a tougher stand and not to co-operate with the government.
In the circumstances, it is likely that Mr. Wickremesinghe would not want to have direct talks with President Kumaratunga on any matter, including devolution.
This has apparently been conveyed to Minister G. L. Peiris when he met Mr. Wickremesinghe for further talks on devolution.
The UNP leader has raised this issue with the Tamil party leaders whom President Kumaratunga had urged to persuade the UNP to agree to the government's devolution package.
Quoting the President's remarks, Mr. Wickremesinghe said the UNP never opposed devolution at any stage. There a certain things that should be sorted out. But he said the fear of the President was if this package was implemented she would have to quit Presidency and come to Parliament since the President had linked the abolition of the Presidency with the constitutional reforms envisaged to give more autonomy to the regions.
Mr. Wickremesinghe spelling out UNP's stand on the package said there were three primary issues to be sorted out.
Firstly, the UNP is in doubt whether this package would be the final solution for the ethnic crisis.
How can we be sure of this? he asked.
After agreeing on the package the government would come back and say that it could not defeat the LTTE. Therefore the government should clearly spell out its position and as to how it would deal with the situation.
Secondly, the confusion regarding the North-East merger should be cleared, he said.
"The package is silent about this and in our opinion the people of the East should decide whether they want to go along with the people of the North".
Thirdly, Mr. Wickremesinghe said there were doubts whether the Union of Region would fall within the requirement of an indivisible Sri Lanka.
He said these were matters to be clarified and solutions found. Mr. Wickremesinghe said he informally met all Tamil political party leaders in Parliament and expressed his views on the package.
After Mr. Wickremesinghe's lengthly statement on the package Gamini Lokuge and Premaratne Gunasekera raised questions about the UNP's alleged arms deal with the LTTE.
It was revealed during the proceedings of the Kobbekaduwa assassination commission that the LTTE was given arms and amunition by the then UNP government.
Raising the matter, Mr. Lokuge said he had reliable information that former Defence Secretary Sepala Attygalle had allegedly made a statement to the effect that the UNP's arms deal was known to three Cabinet Ministers.
Premaratne Gunasekera said that Gamini Jayawickrama Perera, a former Minister, had admitted this in Parliament and said that it was done in order to fight the Indian Army.
Mr. Wickremesinghe answering the question said he was not aware of such an incident. If the government decided to give arms to the LTTE, the Cabinet should have been informed of such a move. But at no stage, was such a decision taken by the government and conveyed to the Cabinet.
He said that as the leader of the house he asked for clarification from President Premadasa and the reply was that there was no such move.
As far as Gamini Jayawickrama Perera's admission in Parliament is concerned Mr. Wickremesinghe said he would ask Mr. Perera on what basis he admitted the supply of arms to the LTTE.
Questions were also raised about the alleged meeting between the former UNP General Secretary, Sirisena Cooray and President Chandrika Kumaratunga six months ago.
Mr. Wickremesinghe said Mr. Cooray casually mentioned about such a meeting but he (Mr. Wickremesinghe) did not want to ask for details since it was not a matter of much importance.
Besides all these, Mr. Wickremesinghe is engaged in organising seminars and workshops for the UNP group members in a bid to educate them on current politics, economics, etc. But it appears he would have to devote extra time in bringing more discipline into his group since some members seem to forget their responsibilities as citizens.
Sometime ago there were rumours that a minister who was tipsy after a couple of drinks had made his way to a swimming pool of a five star hotel to urinate. The controversy dragged on for a while as to who committed this obscene act. But the UNPers were some what better than the person described in the earlier incident since they only spat at the pool while swimming. But of course anybody would have condemned the act where a UNP member from the Kurunegala area allegedly packed his bag with two towels belonging to the hotel when he was checking out at the end of the seminar. The security officers were compelled to check the bags of this member when the house keeping department informed the front desk of the hotel of the missing towels.
In another incident, another member from the same area thought it fit to wear a pair of shorts belonging to a foreigner staying one floor above. The garment hanging on the railing close to the foreigner's apartment fell to the UNP members balcony due to the strong wind. But the most hilarious incident took place in the lobby of the hotel when the foreigner identified his pair of shorts.
All these incidents happened a week ago when the UNPers were camping at Tangerine Beach Hotel in Kalutara.
Now they think that the UNP leader would have to give them more lessons about discipline rather than politics.
But his primary idea is to train his team to take the UNP's new vision to the grassroots. Please see box.
The government Parliamentary group also had its meeting last week where several issues were taken up.
Mulberry activist Upali Gunaratne raised the matter about the coal fired power project and the government's decision to award this
BOO/BOT project to Barclay Mowlem of Australia.
The President denied that it was to be given to Barclay Mowlem outside the accepted tender procedures. She said the government decided to consider the proposal since it was the second best proposal received by the UNP government when it called for worldwide tenders for the project.
The Daily News, however, reported the President as saying, "When the energy crisis aggravated, Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte proposed that the project should be awarded without delay to the second best bidder Barclay Mowlem instead of calling for fresh tenders.
But the pertinent question is, could it be an immediate solution for the current energy crisis, since the coal fired power project would come into operation only in 2003.
Obviously then this couldn't be a solution to the aggravating energy crisis.
As it was reported earlier the Cabinet paper to award the tender to Barclay Mowlem was presented somewhere around the end of February and if Minister Ratwatte knew about an energy crisis at that stage, the question arises as to why the Minister did not direct the CEB to take some measures to avert a severe crisis.
It is also reported that Barclay Mowlem was not the second best bidder. In fact the Barclay Mowlem did not even respond to the original advertisement by the Ceylon Electricity Board in the newspapers in March 1992.
In short they did not submit their proposals before the closing date of the tender but later wrote to the then Secretary, Power and Energy showing some interest.
The Secretary in turn requested them to send in their proposal later but ignored it since it was not within the given timeframe.
The firms that responded to the CEB's invitation are:
i) Mihaly International Ltd.
ii) R.P.G. Industries
iii) Anglo-Japanese Australian Consortium.
Finally out of these three firms, Mihaly International came out with an acceptable proposal and hence the UNP government decided to award the tender to Mihaly.
The Barclay Mowlem presented its proposal only in March 1993 which was not considered.
This shows Barclay Mowlem was not the second best bidder which submitted a proposal, though the government group seemed satisfied with the explanation given.
Apart from this, the MP's raised questions about the functioning of the peoplised depots and said the transport services are deteriorating day by day.
Transport Minister Srimani Athulathmudali had a explanation. She said the inefficiency in the Ministry was caused by a union leader, one Abeysiri of the SLFP union who is allegedly operating with the blessings of Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte. Though measures had been taken to relieve him of his duties, it was not fruitful because of obvious reasons. She said he even could change the circulars sent by the Ministry and the government had failed to remove him.
She also said the management of the peoplised depots had been appointed on the recommendations of the MP's and if they were inefficient, it had to be handled by them.
The Minister said she was aware of the serious problems faced by commuters, but couldn't do anything since the Treasury was not releasing adequate funds to buy new buses necessary to strengthen the transport services.
Ms. Athulathmudali said she would give more powers to the committee appointed to probe malpractices and corruption of the institutions under her Ministry.
The group also urged the government to take action against a senior official in the Mahaweli Authority who had allegedly gone to the UNP headquarters (Sirikotha) to deliver a lecture, but there wasn't immediate response to this, most probably because he was very close to the Minister in charge.
While the MP's were urging the government to take steps to remedy social ills and get rid of UNP stooges in the state sector to facilitate their (government) activities, the UNP MP and the estranged brother of the President, Anura Bandaranaike met his mother Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike to discuss matters pertaining to the present political crisis in Bangladesh.
Mr. Bandaranaike was asked by the International Centre for ethnic studies in Dhaka to help find a solution to the constitutional crisis that was developing after Sheikh Hasina's Awami League emerged the party with the largest number of seats in the recent parliamentary elections.
At the discussion held at the Rosmead Place residence of the Prime Minister, Anura Bandaranaike agreed to take with him two letters addressed to Sheikh Hasina and Khalida Zia by Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike requesting them to resolve matters amicably.
Mr. Bandaranaike left Sri Lanka on Wednesday morning hoping to mediate in the matter and bring about a solution for the problem. In the meantime he is also scheduled to hand over the two letters to the two Bangladeshi leaders.
Though Ms. Bandaranaike is now 80, she has not given up her interest in state affairs. In fact she actively participates in her day to day duties, at times setting an example to the other leaders. The call by the President that politicians should retire at the age of 60 has been ignored by her saying that she would serve the nation as long as she was in good health.
Another contemporary of Ms. Bandaranaike who completed fifty years in politics is former speaker M. H. Mohamed who is 75. At the celebration held to mark this occasion Minister Dharmasiri Senanayake recalled Mr. Mohamed's remarks that he was 75 and that he could continue in politics despite his age as long as there were no health problems.
Mr. Senanayake said he was also 63 and rejected the call by some people that politicians should retire at the age of sixty.
Some view Mr. Senanayake's sentiments as an indirect hit at President Kumaratunga who wants to relieve him of his media portfolio. The matter was under consideration for sometime but the President was waiting for the most appropriate moment to make changes.
Now it appears that Trade and Commerce Minister Kingsley Wickramaratne would be called upon to shoulder the additional responsibility of handling the Media. Minister Wickramaratne who is at present battling to bring the rising cost of living down to a reasonable limit is facing problems with Agriculture Minister D.M. Jayaratne.
At last Wednesday's meeting of the Ministers, Mr. Wickramaratne pointed out the need to reduce the prices of some essential commodities and sought the permission of the Cabinet to import some 5000 metric tonnes of potatoes in a bid to reduce the prices of vegetables.
He told the Ministers there was a shortfall of potato production due to the opening up of the Jaffna market where the demand of essential food items was considerably high, but Minister D.M. Jayaratne opposed the move in his bid to protect the local potato growers and the common citizen would continue to buy potatoes at a price beyond their means.
Though Mr. Wickramaratne came out with a reasonable explanation and argument it has fallen into the deaf ears of the government in the face of the opposition by Minister Jayaratne. Minister Wickramaratne is also faced with problems in an effort to make CWE a profitable venture which could compete with the private sector.
He sees the tender system in the CWE as an impediment which bars the massive business establishment from forward buying. As an immediate solution he had recommended to the Cabinet that the tender system prevailing in the CWE should be done away with enabling it to compete with the private sector. In this endeavour he would join hands with the largest state owned Trading House of India (MMTC) for forward buying which would help him to bring about some stability in prices at least for six months.
At the Parliamentary group meeting also some members commended Minister Wickramaratne for his effort to have an efficient food distribution system. He was also thanked by the Committee of the Mulberry group who probed the alleged malpractices of the CWE which led to the removal of the CWE Chairman.
The government is likely to take somewhat similar action against the Director General of the Rupavahini Corporation after the Ministry of Agriculture submitted a report about his alleged activities as an Assistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services.
The report is now before Media Minister Dharmasiri Senanayake who is most likely to act on the matter before the Cabinet is reshuffled by the President.
However, at present the immediate problem faced by the government is the implementation of the political package. The Tamil parties who want the package implemented as soon as possible doubt the genuineness of the government because no finality has been reached so far.
But the government somehow wants it delayed for some time probably because the implementation of the political package is linked with the abolition of the Executive Presidency.
As a result, the Tamil parties who initially supported the government may turn against it, but it would be temporary.
The Tamil groups who initially supported the government have begun to criticise it because no positive steps have been taken at least to convince them that the government's efforts are genuine.
Not only the Tamil groups, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress is also not happy about the situation since the government has failed to look into the problems of the Muslims of the East when the devolution package was drafted.
The Muslims have taken up the position right from the beginning that they should be allocated with a separate council if powers are to be devolved to the regions. The Muslims vehemently refuse to be second class citizens in a Tamil dominated North and East.
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