The Political Column

9th August 1998

Relegated whip gets the rap too

By our Political Correspondent

It was a 'going, going, gone' scenario for the provincial elections. For weeks, most political analysts believed that though nominations had been called for and received and though some parties already had begun campaigning, the provincial elections would not be held.

The first bell sounding the 'no-go' for elections came on Tuesday morning through a gazette notification, extending the state of emergency islandwide. By midnight, it was curtains for the provincial polls, though President Kumaratunga earlier that evening assured government MPs elections would be held within a few months.

President Kumaratunga put off the elections under the Public Security Ordinance. As a prelude, the emergency was extended countrywide. The gazette notification said the elections would not be held until the state of emergency was lifted, but addressing the government parliamentary group on Tuesday, the President assured the elections would be held as soon as possible and explained only she had to finally decide to postpone.

She said the war in the North had reached a critical stage and the government felt it would be unwise to pull out troops from the battlefront for security at election meetings and polling booths.

She said two-thirds of the road linking Vavuniya with the rest of the North had been cleared and the troops were now clearing the most vulnerable area.

"If we abandon that and hold elections the whole war effort might falter,'' she said.

The President also gave an assurance that the postponement was only for a few months until the armed forces achieved their objectives.

"We will review the situation every month and hold elections as soon as possible,'' she said.

On party lines, Ms. Kumaratunga said the PA was strong in all provinces except for some areas in Uva.

She pointed out that in any event the PC polls could not change the government at the centre and as soon as the war effort ended the government intended to work out a permanent solution to remaining problems.

Communist Party Secretary K.P. Silva and member Chandrasiri Gajadheera were not convinced by the President's explanation. They expressed reservations about the postponement. But at the other extreme, Matara District MP Mahinda Wijesekara went as far as to call for the abolition of provincial councils.

At the end of the two-hour group meeting CP frontliner and Minister Indika Gunawardena walked up to the President and insisted that a free vote should not be allowed in Parliament when the islandwide extension of emergency was debated.

He warned the President of a possible danger if a free vote was allowed.

For all to hear, the President said she would not allow a free vote. It was obvious that Mr. Gunawardena had moved to thwart attempts by several members of the left wing to vote against the extension of the emergency.

During the debate LSSP MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara spoke out against the extension of the emergency islandwide and walked out, but his party colleague and Deputy Minister Athauda Seneviratne voted with the government. On Monday the President had held another meeting for the parliamentary group at her official residence, Temple Trees.

But she was not present at the start of the meeting and Chief Government Whip Richard Pathirana presided.

At the start, Deputy Minister Reggie Ranatunga moved a vote of appreciation of the skilful manner in which the President had conducted the SAARC Summit in Colombo.

Mr. Pathirana seconded the vote of appreciation but with a rider, he said everything was done well except the seating arrangements for the opening ceremony.

As reported in this column last week, Mr. Pathirana had erupted at the BMICH when he found he was relegated to a back row while junior Cabinet Ministers were in front.

"Some MPs who came with their wives had to send them elsewhere to sit and it was a real muddle,'' he complained.

Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle too joined the offensive pointing out that only three Supreme Court Judges were seen at the opening ceremony, apparently due to bad organisation. The minister, a senior lawyer, said, Chief Justice G.P.S. de Silva and his wife were forced to languish under the porch of the BMICH for over half an hour since the security men did not know who he was.

"We are working with security men who do not know our Chief Justice," the minister lamented.

At that stage President Kumaratunga arrived at the group meeting and Mr. Pathirana briefed her on what had gone on.

The President then asked that the vote of appreciation be read out again - and Mr. Pathirana seconded it with the rider on the protocol breakdown.

The President was not impressed with the rider but reacted aggressively. "When you came here also you have cast some unnecessary remarks at the Chief Security Officer. It is in bad taste,'' she retorted.

She said she had been involved in every aspect of the arrangements for the Summit.

"I personally checked everything including toilet soap at the BMICH. The seating arrangements was the only aspect that I could not check because of the heavy work load. You come here and make a big din over a minor matter. One person accused me of giving ''Polkudu Cake" (cake with coconut refuse), she said. At this stage Mr. Fernandopulle came up with an explanation saying he had made the remark only to another minister and not to anybody else.

But some of the Sunday papers also reported that some of the guests were given 'Polkudu Cake'.

One member said even this exchange of words would be reported in the newspapers and the President added cream by saying she hoped it would.

Thereafter the President called for the BMICH box plan and found that Mr. Pathirana had been allocated a seat in the fourth row.

Mr. Pathirana then pointed out that he had been relegated further and sent to the sixth row. "Then you must have come late,'' the President said.

Minister Pathirana did not give in. "If there was a seat allocated, it should have been kept for me, even if I were late,'' he snapped back.

At this stage, the President turned towards the foreign minister and said the officials there were not pulling their weight and most of them were UNPers.

"They were given the task of preparing my speech for the SAARC Summit but it was hopeless and very poor in quality. Fortunately I received it the day before and after going through it, I thought it would be better if I prepare my own speech," she said. "There were other instances where foreign ministry officials had faulted but I did not want to push them too much since they too were very tired. Anyway I will talk to them quietly,'' she said.

At Tuesday's group meeting, the President again referred to the SAARC Summit and indicated she was annoyed by the attitude of some ministers who criticised seating and other arrangements when even the UNP had commended her.

She said she was ashamed to talk about some ministers. Referring to the banquet held in honour of the visiting South Asian leaders, she blamed some ministers for ignoring protocol. Two ministers who had confirmed to attend with their wives did not attend. As a result four seats were vacant, she said.

Reprimanding the ministers for the lack of common courtesy, the President again said some people only found fault and could not see the good side of the Summit.

Mr. Fernandopulle said the government should have given the proper place to Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. He said that when the UNP was in office, Opposition Leader, Sirima Bandaranaike was given her due place at all state functions by Presidents J.R. Jayewardene, R. Premadasa and D.B. Wijetunga.

Ignoring Mr. Fernandopulle's remarks the President said they could have shown Mr. Wickremesinghe on Rupavahini if not for Deputy Minister Salinda Dissanayake who was seen nodding and falling asleep not knowing what was going on. Referring to Mr. Wickremesinghe's reactions, the President said she observed Ranil watching her and thought he envied her.

The main problem for the President appeared to be the stand of some ministers. There wasn't much praise for the President, except from Reggie Ranatunga and SLMC Leader and Minister M.H.M. Ashraff.

At Tuesday's group meeting Mr. Ashraff praised the President saying she had given an outstanding performance.

He gave a vivid description of how she kept a majority of the guests spellbound and won the hearts of the visiting leaders. The President left the meeting hall with a smile.

Overall, the SAARC Summit gave a boost to Sri Lanka and to President Kumaratunga.

This was even tacitly admitted by the UNP's Gamini Jayawickrama Perera in his winding up speech at the debate on the emergency last Wednesday.

Mr. Perera said he was happy that President Kumaratunga was now Chairperson of SAARC. However, he also criticised some of the arrangements.

Amidst all the ups and downs of the Summit, there was a notable absentee - senior UNPer A.C.S. Hameed, one of the pioneers of SAARC when the concept was first mooted in the late seventies. The first meeting of South Asian Foreign Secretaries was held in Colombo in 1987 and it was declared open by the then Foreign Minister Hameed.

Whatever the after-glow or after-effects of SAARC, the key issue this month is the postponement of provincial council elections with opposition parties likely to take the issue to the Supreme Court.

At a special group meeting summoned by UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe on Thursday it was decided to convene a meeting of the All Island Executive Committee to discuss the matter in detail.

Mr. Wickremesinghe said, a big rally would also be held at Hyde Park. Later about 50 meetings would be held countrywide to explain the political situation arising from the postponement of the PC elections.

It is likely the UNP would challenge the decision in Court, along with several other parties.

The UNP also held two group meetings last week to discuss current developments.

At one meeting, party spokesman Karunasena Kodituwakku said the government should make a statement on the privatization of the Colombo Port's Queen Elizabeth Quay.

He pointed out that it was the first time since 1505, the Colombo Port was being handed over to a foreign company.

In 1505, the Portuguese landed in Colombo and took over the Port and the maritime provinces in a subsequent move.

Party Leader Wickremesinghe told the group he had now handed over some of his work to the new Opposition Chief Whip W.J.M. Lokubandara and Dharmadasa Banda.

He said additional responsibilities would be given to Nanda Mathew and Tyronne Fernando too as well.

The group also discussed about the SAARC Summit when former Minister John Amaratunga raised the issue.

It was like a ''Pus Vedilla'', Mr. Wickremesinghe said.

At least the other leaders such as President Premadasa had some vision. And so did President Gayoom, but President Kumaratunga had no plan, no vision or theme, he said.

Citing examples, he pointed out that while the US, Europe and the whole world was focusing on the financial collapse of East Asia, the SAARC had made little or no mention of it.

When several members spoke about the mess-up in seating arrangements at the opening ceremony, Mr. Wickremesinghe said he was not bothered.

"Even if I was relegated to the last row, I don't care because I know I have a place among the common people,'' he claimed.

The UNP leader said the nett result of the Summit caused more problems and inconvenience to the already burdened people of Sri Lanka.

"Roads were closed, people were inconvenienced, and some blamed the SAARC leaders too for the closure of roads.

It was a waste of time for most of the SAARC leaders. Many of the appointments did not take place on time and even I had to suffer,'' he added.

When someone pointed out that the President had named Mr. Wickremesinghe as the common enemy, he said, "The PA is going behind the common enemy and we will go to the common people. I have no common enemy but a vision." Apart from these, another important topic of the week was the no-confidence motion against Mangala Samaraweera.

The UNP had obviously hoped to get political mileage from it but it did not and Mr. Samaraweera remained basically unscathed. Some UNPers felt the timing of the motion was unwise.

Some UNP insiders say the party should not have used Parliamentary privilege to target individuals. The party had failed to get its message across to the people and some of the allegations appeared to be distorted, they said.

Others felt that these were opportunities for the Opposition to get on the offensive. They claimed that the government was not always over-scrupulous of facts, when its members were on their feet in this House.

They said that the conduct of the UNPers during the previous regime was still fresh in the minds of the people and the UNP should understand this before embarking on such offensives.

Minister Samaraweera in the meanwhile has focused attention to an article in the Thursday edition of the Lankadipa writer under the pseudonym ''Rasin''

At the Cabinet news briefing, he said it was an excellent article. But at a meeting of state media chiefs, the minister criticised the writer for asking him to resign because 81 MPs had voted for the no-confidence motion.

SLBC Chairman Janadasa Pieris said there was nothing to worry since he had already planned another article to counter ''Rasin'' in the Sunday Silumina.

When ITN Chairman Newton Gunaratne said the article had given a boost to the image of the minister, Mr. Samaraweera paused for a moment and said at the same time he had deflated it by carefully choosing words to attack him in a subtle manner at the meeting. Minister Samaraweera expressed his concern over the leaking out of information to the Press. "What we talk here appears in newspapers, I can understand when it comes to the Cabinet, but who is leaking information here. I won't spare anyone if I get to know," he warned the state media chiefs.

Mr. Samaraweera appeared, disturbed over the ''Rasin'' article in Lankadipa but President's media advisor Sanath Gunathilleke persuaded him to calm down and related a story as to how he met Asitha Perera in Parliament.

"When Asitha was talking to me in Parliament, Ranil came in and wanted to talk to Asitha. But excusing Ranil, Asitha continued the conversation with me,'' Sanath said.

"It was about providing police protection to former TNL News Director Ishini Wickremesinghe (Asitha's wife). I think he (Ranil) overheard what we were talking about,'' Mr. Gunathilleke said.

"I gave this information to our newspapers since I thought it would serve no purpose in giving this to other papers. Why should we bother about them when we have our own papers to give us publicity,'' he said.

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