The Political Column

26th September 1999

UNP’s cement wall crumbles

By our Political Correspondent

Amidst dissension among PA ranks over various issues, President Chandrika Kumaratunga, on Thursday left for the United States. The special Sri Lankan Airlines plane, which carried her from the Bandaranaike International Airport, was kept in Male for 13 hours before it landed in Colombo to take the President.

It was so arranged that nobody felt that this was a special arrangement made by the national carrier to take the head of state. It is said that the President flew via Tokyo. In New York, the President will canvas for Senaka Bandaranayake who is bidding for the UNESCO’s top post. She is also expected to have talks with US officials on the LTTE issue.

Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar addressed the UN General Assembly sesssions on Thursday. With him in New York was Foreign Secretary Lionel Fernando when the President arrived there.

The President’s visit to New York was undertaken at a time when her party is going through stormy political weather.

It was only last week Education Minister Richard Pathirana came out strongly against the President over the issue of appointing Tamil teachers in Sinhala schools and Sinhala teachers in Tamil schools. When the President said Mr. Pathirana had failed to execute the plan in spite of her approval, an angry minister blew a fuse. Saying that the allegation was baseless, he threatened to quit his cabinet portfolio and accused the Treasury officials of thwarting the plan. A few days later, Mr. Pathirana was again an angry man when the President queried as to why the Galle rally presided over by her was poorly organised.

“Don’t ask me,” he said adding that it was organised by Keerthi Mawalage, the private secretary to Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

In the backdrop of such confrontations, Mr. Pathirana, who is ailing for some time, believes there are moves underway to appoint Tara de Mel, a close confidante of the President, as the education minister in the next PA government. Feeling insecure, he now feels it is time for retirement from active politics. He expects that he would be appointed as Southern Province governor following the death of Dr. Neville Kanakaratne.

Not only Mr. Pathirana, even Minister Amarasiri Dodangoda had felt his position was insecure. However, at a function hosted by the President, she assured him that there were no threats to his position. But the President reassured that his position would be safe.

Coming back to Mr. Pathirana, it is also said though he was the minister in charge of education and higher education, he has little to do with the proposed educational reforms. Insiders say the person behind the reforms is Dr. Tara de Mel, but it is Mr. Pathirana who is taking the brunt of the UNP’s criticism on the reforms.

Apparently upset over these developments, Mr. Pathirana is said to be asserting himself.

In parliament last week, he warned ministers and deputy ministers that he would not answer questions on their behalf any longer. He asked them to be present in parliament to answer oral questions.

An irritated Mr. Pathirana said he could not go on like this for a long time when Minister A. H. M. Fowzie was not present to reply a question posed by UNP member Tissa Attanayake.

He also earned applause when he refused to answer a question posed by Ravi Karunanayake on the channel 9 issue. He said he would not like to get involved in sensitive matters and did not want to talk much about matters he did not know. Apart from Mr. Pathirana’s outburst, Parliament also saw Minister M. H. M. Ashraff sailing through when the Ports Authority bill was taken up for debate. Opposition MPs such as Sarath Ranawake were expected to come out with scathing attacks on the Minister but their performance left much to be desired. UNP General Secretary Gamini Atukorale was also not too happy about the performance of the UNP speakers. He smelt something fishy and tried to find out why the UNP speakers failed to expose the alleged land deal between the Tokyo Cement and the government.

It is alleged that Tokyo Cement, of which A. Y. S. Gnanam is the main shareholder, had struck a deal with the Ports Ministry to build a cement plant inside the port. It is said that the Ports Authority had agreed to lease out a block of land, which is the last vacant land inside the port, while it is looking for land on rent. Mr. Atukorale later decided to expose the Tokyo Cement land deal and assigned Gamini Lokuge on Wednesday for the job.

The UNP on Tuesday had a closed-door meeting with party members who were to speak on the Ports Authority Bill. Although party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe before he left on a European trip listed Ronnie de Mel to open the debate, he refused to participate. He said it would be difficult for him to speak on the subject as it was he who first initiated the privatisation programme during the J. R. Jayewardene regime. However, after much persuasion, Mr. de Mel agreed to speak at the debate.

It was not easy sailing for Minister Ashraff. It was much easier for him than he expected. Though Mr. Ranawake did not come out strongly against the minister, he was somewhat critical of him. Unlike on other occasions, Mr. Ranawake was there to listen to Mr. Ashraff’s reply. Later on Wednesday Mr. Ranawake came out with another story.

He alleged that a director of the Ports Authority had threatened to kill him if he spoke against the cement deal. Ports Ministry Secretary M. M. Janaid who was present in parliament immediately got through to the director concerned and inquired about the matter. But the director denied the allegation.

During the lunch break Minister Ashraff was seen walking upto Mr. Ranawake and telling him that the director in question had denied the allegation in toto. Ports Secretary Junaid also told Mr. Ranawake later that he was very sorry if something of this nature had happened, but said that the director named by Mr. Ranawake had no knowledge of what he had spoken about.

The director later made a statement to the police and submitted it to parliament together with an affidavit denying allegations made against him by Mr. Ranawake.

During the debate, Minister Ashraff invited opposition member Anura Bandaranaike to join his National Unity Alliance, telling him he could be their presidential candidate. He told Mr. Bandaranaike that he was on the wrong side and to join him for the betterment of the country. Mr. Bandaranaike later left a message for Minister Ashraff thanking him for his compliments. But now Mr. Ashraff is wondering as to how President Kumaratunga would take up his suggestion to Mr. Bandaranaike.

Besides all these problems in hand for President Kumaratunga, a number of parliamentarians from the PA have had secret talks with the UNP and with another MP who has direct links to the UNP leadership. Their main grouse is that they are fed up with provincial leaders of the PA, because they have failed to deliver the goods to the people. These MPs know that if a general election is held, their future is at stake. In fact, they wanted an insurance policy from the UNP.

But the UNP is not ready to accommodate them immediately. What the UNP is thinking about is to form a national government soon after the next election with the participation of many key figures from the PA.

The UNP still believes that there should be a parliamentary election before a presidential one. Its argument is based on the President’s promise to abolish the executive presidency. The UNP’s main question is – how could the president go before people in a presidential campaign after giving a solemn pledge to abolish the executive presidency within one year.

Under these circumstances, it could be an embarrassment for the President to go for a presidential election. But PA strategists know very well that a general election means committing political hara-kiri. Hence the better choice is to go for a presidential election without much delay.

Of course, the minorities are placed in a difficult situation under the present political climate. What have the PA got to offer to the Tamil minorities if it is to woo their support? The President has delivered little to compensate the Tamil minority during the past five years. It is probably in this context that the President defended the Equal Opportunities Bill at the last cabinet meeting saying that the government had not done anything concrete to appease the demands of the Tamils. Hence, the government is uncertain about the minority support at a presidential election.

But the other pertinent question is as to what has the UNP offered. The UNP has not offered anything more than what the government had offered. In terms of devolution, the UNP is behind the government’s proposals. But what is important is that the UNP’s proposal to grant asymmetrical devolution and place the north-east on a pedestal. This is likely to attract Tamil voters and the minority parties. Such devolution is practised in India with states being given special status.

But in the event of a UNP victory, will it get the required two thirds majority to push its proposals through parliament? The proposals may also warrant a referendum. Tamil parties would weigh the proposals made by the two major parties before they decide on whom to support.

In the UNP, new faces have emerged during the past couple of years. Most of them are likely to contest the Colombo district. It appears that the UNP leader is depending on candidates who are professionals and pushing them to mingle with the people and build up a vote base for them. Though most of these new faces are highly qualified technocrats, they lack political acumen, which comes with experience.

But to the UNP leader’s credit, he has chosen some talented people from various professions Nivard Cabraal, Milinda Moragoda and Rohitha Bogollagama are some of them .The UNP leader has also chosen former deputy mayor of Colombo M. Mahroof to contest the Colombo Central to get Muslim votes. A businessman of high-profile Mr. Mahroof has made headway in the electorate where he built up a strong base while he was close to the former UNP strongman Sirisena Cooray.

It is likely that Mr. Mahroof and Mr. Cooray, though at extremes at the moment, would patch up shortly to fight the next elections. It is likely that Mr. Cooray would fully back Mr. Mahroof and Mr. Moragoda. The duo are making a tireless effort to bring Mr. Cooray back to the party. They are likely to organise a meeting between Mr. Cooray and Mr. Wickremesinghe soon after the latter returns from Germany with a view to defeating the PA.

In the meantime, the UNP leader will kick off a campaign in the Kurunegala district from Friday. On Thursday, UNP chairman Karu Jayasuriya and general secretary Gamini Atukorala will be at Nikeweritiya to launch the UNP campaign there under the stewardship of Rohitha Bogollagama.

In another development, the Marxist left Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna says that there is a conspiracy among the so-called left parties to put forward Minister Mahinda Rajapakse as a common candidate to contest the presidency.

The JVP says it is in no way involved in such a move, though it may support a person with no political affiliations as the common candidate.

In the meantime, embassies of some far-eastern countries such as Japan and South Korea are closely monitoring JVP activities because the party is reportedly trying to play a role in bringing the splinter groups of the left movements in those countries together.

While all political parties are gearing for the next national elections, the business community led peace initiative headed by Ceylinco Group chairman Lalith Kotelawala is scheduled to meet on October 14. But it is doubtful whether it could make any progress since the UNP’s main peace broker A.C.S. Hameed is no more. However, it appears that Mr. Kotelawala is determined to make some headway at the next meeting.

For Mr. Kotelawala, business is as important as his effort to bring about peace. In a proposal to the government, one of Mr. Kotelawala’s companies has offered to supply 2,500 locally built buses to the government.

Excerpts

Mr. Kotalawela’s proposal to President Chandrika Kumaratunga are as follows: “Credit proposal of US$55 million for the supply of 2500 locally built Ashok Leyland - Colombo Rider 42 seater buses to the Government of Sri Lanka.

M/s. Ceymo Automobiles Manufacturing in collaboration with M/s, Lanka Ashok Leyland Limited (a joint venture company of Government of Sri Lanka) is progressively manufacturing Ashok Leyland - Colombo Rider buses locally by using local components and local workforces.

Proposal

US$ 55 MILLION EXIM BANK CREDIT FOR THE LOCAL ASSEMBLY OF 2500 NOS. B TYPE VIKING BUSES

a) 2500 nos.. Viking Chassis will be supplied in SKD condition to be assembled at Lanka Ashok Leyland factory which is a joint venture company of Ashok Leyland Limited India in collaboration with Government of Sri Lanka under Ministry of Industrial Development. Presently providing jobs for 350 local youths.

b) 2500 nos. bodies will be supplied and built by M/s Ceymo Automobiles Manufacturers (Pvt) Limited. A company promoted by Ceylinco Group. Presently M/s. Ceymo Automobile Manufacturers (Pvt) Limited is providing jobs for 200 youths and progressively assembling “Ashok Leyland - Colombo Rider Buses” in Sri Lanka in collaboration with M/s. Lanka Ashok Leyland Limited. These buses are very well accepted by private operators and are in high demand.

Situation Report

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