Mano
Wijeratne: imparting rebellious steel
Mahinda Samarasinghe: not to
disclose secretsThe UNP has realized that it could be marginalised unless
it now takes a stand on the devolution package.
So far the UNP attitude has been negative in the current search for a settlement though it has stated its support for devolution in principle.
Some UNPers suggest that the party should dodge as far as possible and be non commital on this burning question, but the more appropriate question is how long it could evade the issue.
The UNP has been in this delicate situation for quite some time, unable to take a firm stand on the government’s proposals to devolve power.
But now there are moves to iron out differences between the UNP and the government and to make a joint effort to solve the crisis.
If the UNP remains silent and makes no effort to bring about a solution, it could face the wrath of the minorities - the Tamils and the Muslims - on whom the UNP has depended for a long time.
On the other hand, if the government goes ahead with its plan to hold a non-binding referendum, the UNP could find itself compelled to go along with the people’s will, whichever way it flows.
In this backdrop, the UNP is taking a totally different line and telling the government to talk to the LTTE.
But the government’s position is different. It wants to reach an accord with the UNP before talking to the LTTE.
However some others, both in the government and the UNP, are of the view that both parties should talk to the LTTE jointly. This, they think, would help bring about a speedy solution.
In the circumstances what is more important is to initiate a dialogue between President Kumaratunga and Opposition UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to work out a joint approach to solve the crisis.
At present the UNP appears to be opposing the three-Council concept in the East, which in its view would lead to the creation of councils on communal lines.
At the same time, the UNP is pushing for the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which is not entirely different from the present set of devolution proposals.
The UNP presented a divided image in Parliament two weeks ago, with some of the back benchers toeing a hard Sinhala line.
In government quarters, many expressed surprise that Henry Jayamaha of all people had raised a point of order when Minister G.L. Peiris presented the Constitutional Reforms on October 17.
They said they could not understand how a person of the calibre of Mr. Jayamaha raised this in Parliament, after the members of the Select Committee authorised Dr. Peiris to table it in Parliament as a special report.
Mr. Jayamaha in fact asked Dr. Peiris under which provision of the Standing Orders he was tabling the report.
When the Select Committee met on October 14, Dr. Peiris announced that a report would be submitted to Parliament as a government proposal.
At that stage, UNP’s K.N. Choksy wanted to know under what provision he was trying to do it and as to whether he could do so. This was raised because under normal circumstances the Select Committee presents a final report to Parliament.
Minister Peiris replying said they could look into the matter once they met again.
At the same time the Minister invited the UNP to submit its own report to Parliament expressing its views.
Later, the UNP found out that such a report could be submitted in Parliament under Standing Order 94 which states:
“If it is desired to enable a Select Committee to whom a Bill or matter has been referred to hear evidence thereon, Parliament may by resolution empower that Committee to send for persons, papers and records and any Committee on whom such powers have been conferred shall have leave to report their opinions and observations together with the minutes of evidence taken before them to Parliament and to make a special report of any matters which they may think fit to bring to the notice of Parliament.”
A Select Committee shall not, without the leave of Parliament, consist of more than twelve members. A motion for such leave requires notice.
After Mr. Jayamaha raised this issue, former Finance Minister Ronnie de Mel queried the Minister as to whether the Select Committee could continue.
But this question went unanswered in the midst of an uproar from some UNP back benchers.
However, during the Select Committee proceedings, Minister Peiris specifically mentioned that the Select Committee would continue its proceedings despite the progress report submitted to Parliament.
Standing Order 102 makes it possible for the Select Committee to continue its proceedings. It states:
“A Select Committee may continue its investigations although Parliament may be adjourned and shall not be dissolved until the presentation to Parliament of its report or by motion of Parliament.”
In other words a Select Committee could only be wound up after submitting its final report or resolution by Parliament itself.
The confusion in the UNP at the time of tabling the Select Committee report to Parliament was largely due to Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe being out of the Island In his absence nobody took the initiative to brief the members on the current position of the party. This ultimately led to utter confusion.
Party seniors also have failed to keep the back benchers informed of what was going on. More- over what most worried the UNPers was seeing Parliamentarian Mahinda Samarasinghe shuttling between Dr. Peiris’ chamber and the UNP members.
Confused UNP members wanted to find out what was happening.
Mr. Samarasinghe refused to part with the UNP document saying that it was confidential. Then the members took up the position that Mr. Samarasinghe was not a member of the Select Committee but he maintained he was acting under the directions of the party leader. This gave rise to more suspicion among the members who went to Party General Secretary Gamini Atukorale asking for explanation.
Mr. Atukorale met Mr. Samarasinghe in the corridor and obtained a copy of the UNP statement. It was only then some members learnt about the correct situation.
Matara district MP Mervyn de Silva in the midst of all these was about to raise another issue and inform Parliament that they had taken an oath under the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution which eschewed separatism. But P. Dayaratne prevented him from doing what could have caused more confusion.
However at the end of it, the UNP rebels prevented a new conference planned earlier by UNP members of the PSC to express their point of view.
At the end of it some were wondering whether it was a crisis within the party or a clash between Mr. Samarasinghe and some others.
Whatever the cause may be, the UNP painted a dismal picture of not knowing what it was doing, politically or otherwise, on that day.
By Monday, party leader Wickremesinghe returned home after a successful tour of India. He maintained the position that he was not under pressure from India to support the govt’s devolution package.
In short he told friends that the PA’s ‘package’ was not on the agenda and nobody there spoke to him on those lines.
Mr. Wickremesinghe scotched rumours that he discussed the package in detail with Indian leaders. He however said the UNP was committed to devolution and believed in the Provincial Council System.
In the evening he was present at a party hosted by Hema Premadasa at her Stanmore Crescent residence. Among the guests were Anura Bandaranaike, Minister Mangala Samaraweera, Mayor Karu Jayasuriya, former Minister K.N. Choksy, Tilak Karunaratne and several others. Many UNP MPs were critical of the UNP members of the PSC and were pressing Minister Samaraweera to say whether the government intends holding a referendum in early March. However Mr. Samaraweera dodged the issue saying it was not the proper forum to discuss these things.
At the party, Mr. Wickremesinghe sought a briefing from Mr. Choksy on what took place in Parliament. He apparently wanted to get a clear picture of what happened.
Ultimately, the party high command decided to meet over the weekend to discuss the latest developments.
Later on Wednesday, Mr. Wickremesinghe summoned Mano Wijeratne expecting some sort of explanation to what happened in Parliament the previous week.
Mr. Wijeratne had been described as the leader of the rebel group which prevented the UNP from holding the news conference.
Mr. Wijeratne pleaded ignorance as a matter of defence.
He said he felt the UNP members of the PSC were rushing to make a statement to the media creating a wrong impression in the minds of the backbenchers that such a statement would compromise the interests of the UNP.
This was aggravated by the conduct of Mahinda Samarasinghe who was running between the UNP members of the PSC and the office of Minister Peiris.
Hence due to lack of any particular direction given by other senior members of the party, they were compelled to initiate this action, Mr. Wijeratne explained.
But he said they were relieved when a copy of the rider which accompanied the main proposals of the government was made available to them.
They found nothing detrimental to the interests of the party in it.
Senior members have also advised the party leadership not to take drastic action against the members concerned.
As the UNP was assessing the political situation in the country while putting pressure on the government to initiate a dialogue with the LTTE, the TULF Batticaloa branch has passed a unanimous resolution that any solution to the crisis should recognise the right to self determination of the Tamil people.
They have also said that any proposed solution should be discussed and should have the approval of the LTTE. The Batticaloa branch wields some power in the TULF politburo, with four of the eleven members being from the eastern city.
At the same time, there are subtle moves within the TULF to bring about structural changes in the party hierarchy.
In the circumstances, it is likely that Joseph Pararajasingham would capture power in the party since he has been pushed into such a position by the expatriate community as well as other sections in the party.
Simultaneously Dr. Neelan Thiruchelvam came under heavy fire at the Batticaloa Politburo meeting. Many TULF members feel that Dr. Thiruchelvam is too close to the government and hence influenced to work against the interests of the party.
However, others say that Dr. Thiruchelvam is playing a key role in trying to bring about a solution to this long standing ethnic question in a peaceful manner.
While all these political events were taking place, President Kumaratunga was in Edinburgh for the Commonwealth Summit.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair hosted nearly fifty heads of state for a luncheon at the Old Course Hotel, St. Andrews on Sunday October 26 and the Commonwealth Secretariat, gave the menu in a media statement.
It went like this. “Vegetable Broth or Smoked Rannock Venison; Supreme of Highland Pheasant or Grilled East Neuk Turbot; Bread and Butter Pudding with Dundee Orange Marmalade or Grilled Baby Pineapple with Poached Fruits and Spearmint Ice Cream; Coffee (Petits Fours);
Wines: Petit Chablis (Lamblin) 1995 La Motte Millennium (Franschloek Valley) 1993.”
But a Commonwealth media release, regarding the Queen’s banquet made no mention of the toast by President Kumaratunga. It is now clear that her retinue of media advisers and Information Department officials did not see to it.
They were also reportedly not present at the media reception accorded to the Commonwealth media institutions by the Queen at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
However, President Kumaratunga won accolades back at home for her performances both at the London Business Forum and the Commonwealth Summit.
A resolution congratulating the President proposed by Minister C.V. Gooneratne and seconded by Minister Lakshman Jayakody was unanimously approved by the Cabinet at its weekly meeting.
While in Britain, the President was in constant touch with her officials in Colombo to ascertain what was going on.
When she heard about the cordon and search operations conducted by the Security Forces on Saturday October 25 she had been perturbed and immediately telephoned Defence Secretary Chandrananda de Silva and Police Chief W.B. Rajaguru to express her reservations over the matter.
It is now evident that many friends of the President had apparently complained about the inconveniences the Tamil people had to undergo at the hands of the Security Forces.
Though the President was critical of the operation conducted in Colombo, Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte told the Minister during one of their recent meetings that he would take measures to enforce strict security in the city.
He made these remarks in response to a query raised by one of the Ministers with regard to security aspects in the city.
Gen. Ratwatte told the Ministers he was implementing a strict security plan in Colombo to avert further disasters. No one should protest about this plan and later complain of a lack of security when something happens.
Besides the President’s reaction to the cordon and search operations in Colombo, it is reported that the President had given orders to stop a bill prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture to enact laws on land ownership.
The bill created much controversy among government MPs who said this would lead to unnecessary problems. But Minister D.M. Jayaratne vowed that he would bring in legislation to re-register all lands and the ownership but the President had taken steps to stop it. A similar fate befell Minister Mahinda Rajapakse’s Workers’ Charter.
Amidst all this hulabaloo the US government decided to withdraw the controversial Green Berets troops from Sri Lanka.
It is speculated that the deteriorating security situation in the country had compelled the US government to pull out the Green Berets.
It is reported that there were atleast 14 members of the Green Berets contingent at the Hotel Galadari at the time of the Twin Tower explosion set off by the LTTE on October 15.
Last week, a US investigator was at Galadari taking photographs and making a first hand evaluation of the extent of the damage caused by the LTTE bomb. It appears that the US government does not want to get involved in the internal conflict after having learnt disastrous lessons from Vietnam and elsewhere.
During the past month the Green Berets had carried out an “Air Mobile” training for the Sri Lanka Army’s special forces under an Expanded Relations programme of the US Army’s Pacific Command.
The “Air Mobile” training programme had helped the Sri Lankan Army to make its 53rd division one of the most effective fighting units.
The 53 division of the Sri Lanka Army had deployed its Air Mobile unit during the Operation Jaya Sikurui successfully.
A US command and staff college team was scheduled to visit Colombo this month. There were four military training units from the US this year.
The US training programme was negotiated initially under the UNP regime in 1993.
However it began the next year with casualty evacuation exercises etc., under a US programme called the International Military Education Training (IMET).
The first training exercise involving the Green Berets was called “Operation Balanced Style”. Later Sri Lanka was included in the USARPAC’s Expanded Relations Programme.
The ERP was expected to develop US-Sri Lanka military relations with visits by senior officers of the US army moving on to staff information exchanges, discussions, conferences, individual training, medical exercises, small unit training, bilateral exercises and joint and multinational training.
However the US is likely to review the situation later to extend its military assistance to Sri Lanka. On the other hand the withdrawal of Green Berets could have been aimed at taking the heat off the normal US citizens in Sri Lanka who come here on business and other missions.
The US Ambassador designate to Sri Lanka has also said that he would put security at the top of his responsibilities.
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