by Namini Wijedasa
Anura Bandaranaike, who lost out the position of opposition leader to Mahinda Rajapakse earlier this month, said yesterday that he intends to be the People’s Alliance presidential candidate.

"I intend to be the presidential candidate," Bandaranaike told The Sunday Island in an interview shortly after his return from a vacation in the United States. "I will canvass for that very hard. I still believe that after the President (Chandrika Kumaratuga), the one who is most acceptable is myself."

"Mahinda can be a good deputy," he added. "Mahinda is useful, he’s a good organiser. In fact, there are a lot of talented people in the SLFP. Not only in parliament, but outside."

"Mahinda has talents, there’s no question about that," he added. "He’s hard working. He’s essentially a field worker. Somebody called him a street fighter but Parliament is not a street."

Bandaranaike observed that he had polled an enormous number of votes at the last general election even after crossing over from the United National Party to the People’s Alliance. He claimed that public response during the campaign had been "fantastic." "I went right round the country," he said. "The public response to me was absolutely fantastic."

"I know that Bandaranaikes have lost the glitter they had earlier because of various problems with the previous government," he observed. "But there’s not a fraction of a doubt in my mind that the magic is still there in rural areas."

It had been widely expected that Kumaratunga would make her brother opposition leader after PA lost December elections. However, Mahinda Rajapakse announced his intention to contest, forcing the President to nominate former prime minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake to the post in order to diffuse tension within ranks.

It was reported the Bandaranaike was crushed at not getting the leadership, particularly as he had crossed over with the intention of playing a star role in opposition. At present, he holds no position in the hierarchy of the SLFP.

In his interview, Bandaranaike said he had joined the SLFP because of a personal commitment he had made to his mother, Sirimavo, before her death. He claimed he had not been bothered by remarks that he was bad luck for any party he joined.

"I knew that the PA would lose the elections," he said. "It was on the cards. But the insults didn’t bother me for the mere reason that most politicians in this country cross over to suit their own purposes. I’m the only person who hasn’t crossed over to suit my own purpose. Every time I crossed over, that party has lost! Of course, not because of me."

Bandaranaike also said he had changed sides because he had felt that he "should stand by Chandrika at that point of time." Kumaratunga was in the midst of a severe political crisis following the defection of the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress and a mass of other parliamentarians. "She didn’t have anyone," he remarked.

His decision was influenced, too, by the fact that there was a certain hostility towards him within the UNP after he refused to summon parliament when his sister prorogued the legislature. "Because I was a member of their party, the UNP expected me to do the impossible."

Subsequently, Bandaranaike "felt they were hostile." "Not openly, because the UNP is a decent party. But I knew they were upset."

"I won’t cross over again," he claimed. "I crossed over once because I was sidelined and suspended from SLFP. Then I joined UNP and on my mother’s request I came back to the SLFP."

Bandaranaike admitted that he had wanted to be leader of the opposition. "I explained to the President that if the PA won, I wouldn’t want to be prime minister," he said. "But I said that if it lost, I would be interested in becoming leader of the opposition."

But he had decided not to campaign for it. "It was up to the PA to have recognised that I had 25 years of experience which Mr. Rajapakse hasn’t got," he asserted. "And I’ve been Speaker and leader of the opposition, as well. I thought that it might be possible to get it."

"The SLFP requires a united SLFP at this time because the UNP has won a clear mandate and we were rejected," he opined. "We need to build national status and national leadership which Mahinda does not have. Of course, Mahinda is a good friend of mine and he still is. I’m not criticising him personally."

Bandaranaike said that if he had got into the fray and campaigned, he would have got the post: "but I didn’t want to fight for it."

The former speaker believed that S.B. Dissanayake had a key role to play in his defeat. "I’m more or less certain that he did but as to exactly how, I’m going to find out. It was an attempt to stop me rather than an attempt to put Mahinda there."

Bandaranaike commented that the SLFP could never oust his sister from the leadership. "Oust my sister?" he said. "No way. She’s the one who is holding it together. If you remove her, the SLFP will go to pieces."

The SLFP would require a maximum of two years to recover its position, he said. However, it was too early to hope for a substantial victory at the local government elections.

Meanwhile, Bandaranaike had words of caution for his friend Ranil Wickremesinghe in his handling of the LTTE. "It seems to be moving well but I have one problem," he noted. "As a citizen, not a politician, I find that Prabhakaran never in his whole, miserable, wretched life has kept to a promise." The Indians, J.R. Jayawardene, Premadasa and Chandrika have all been let down by him.

"Ranil must be careful," he warned. "I have a feeling that the UNP has made far to many commitments to the LTTE. We don’t know what those commitments are, we can only guess. But if they go wrong... within two months the whole thing will break down and we’ll be back to total war, this time with our hands tied behind our backs."

Asked for an assessment of the new government, Bandaranaike said that cohabitation was being attempted for the first time in the history of South Asia with the president from one party and the government from another.

"In fairness to both the Prime Minister and President, they have worked in cohabitation extremely well," he commented. "Ranil is easy to work with," he explained. "I have told her (Kumaratunga) long, long time ago that it depends on how you handle him. I think she has found that out on her own, which is a very good thing... rather than I saying it because he’s a friend of mine."

"In fairness to the president, too, she’s also trying her level best to make it work," he said. "I think, so far, the government and the president seem to be working without any major conflict."

He hoped that the government could meet the expectations of the people, particularly in lowering the cost of living and solving the power crisis. But he accepted that "people don’t really seem to realise that there are no 24-hour solutions."

"We have yet to see results in economic management," he smiled. "Give them time."