Was President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s surprise presence in parliament on Thursday a sign of the coming colour? This was the question that animated political circles when the president who is the Minister of Education turned up in the House while the votes of that ministry were being discussed during the committee stage of the budget.

Mrs. Kumaratunga entered the chamber and took Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s seat to listened to the discussion on the votes of that ministry whose secretary is Dr. Tara de Mel, a close friend, confidante and associate of the president. Some MPs said that Kumaratunga’s own desire to ensure that the country’s far-from-satisfactory education set up is properly managed, as well as the closeness of her association with the secretary of the ministry would have influenced her decision to come to the House.

However, there was another school of thought that the president’s unexpected entry into the chamber had a connection with what Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said during the discussion on the president’s votes earlier in the week when he indicated that it was the government’s intention to replace the executive presidency with an executive prime ministry and called for the support of all in this endeavour.

"Maybe the president wanted to establish her own claim to the executive prime ministry,’’ one senior opposition MP said. "She has every right under the constitution to come to parliament, and not only for a throne speech, and she has exercised this right before,’’ he noted.

Some members remembered that Kumaratunga as finance minister herself presented in 1999 the last budget of her PA government before it lost its majority from the government frontbench and then handed over to her deputy minister, Prof. G.L. Peiris, who thereafter conducted the debate. Those were in the days before parting of the ways although CBK was not beyond taking the odd pot shot at her proxy in parliament, saying that GL’s role was only to read out the speech she had written. Perhaps that’s what provoked the pithy comment, katey brake ne on the First Lady of this democratic socialist republic.

Some purists argued that if Kumaratunga was to be faulted for what she did in parliament on Thursday, it was only on the ground that she occupied the prime minister’s seat. "If she was there in her capacity of education minister, then she should have occupied the education minister’s seat,’’ they argued. However that be, it clearly seemed to be a portend of the coming colour. But whether the government would succeed in its endeavour to get more UNPers to defect remains to be seen.

"They are targeting various MPs with all kinds of problems and are therefore vulnerable,’’ one knowledgeable UNP source said.

``The result is that there is a pall of suspicion, sometimes unfairly, over some people and that has created other problems.’’ Famously Keheliya Rambukwella came under suspicion because he sported a new suit to the House - just as Rohitha Bogollagama had done when he ``did the jump.’’

A faxed ``Letter from Washington’’ (which we publish elsewhere in this issue) reached this office on Friday before Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar announced in parliament that Mr. Jayantha Dhanapala will be fielded by Colombo for the post of UN Secretary General. This letter claimed that "the most effective ambassador Sri Lanka has had in Washington has been displaced to accommodate the ambitions of a `favourite son’ who is seeking the post of Secretary General of the UN.’’

"We have no quarrel with that. We wish him well but to us the price the country has to pay to help him pursue his personal ambition is unacceptable,’’ the faxed letter said. That apart, there is no doubt that Jayantha Dhanapala who has adorned the Sri Lanka foreign service and made a reputation for himself as a top UN official after Colombo, for inexplicable reasons, refused to nominate him for the job of head of the UN’s Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, a job that was his if he had the backing of the Sri Lanka government.

The talk in the grapevine was that Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was unenthusiastic about making the nomination arguing that Sri Lanka needed Dhanapala, then serving as Ambassador to the US, in Washington. Dhanapala chucked in his hand in disgust and sent in his retirement papers, quickly making his mark as the UN’s Under Secretary for Disarmament. He has been tipped in the New York Times a possible Secretary General (of the UN) when Asia’s turn comes round in 2006 and many believed that his acceptance of the job of Head of the Peace Secretariat was part of a strategy for bigger things.

Since Kadirgamar - he and Dhanapala were both at Trinity and were known to be close friends in Geneva where they both served at the same time - allegedly blocked the Vienna job, the chemistry between the two has not been the best although since Dhanapala came on board the Peace Secretariat (in an honorary capacity) official business has been conducted between them. The government decision to run him the Secretary General might signal a mending of fences, some diplomats believe.

They said that in the context of Thailand pushing its former Foreign Minister for the big job in UN, if Dhanapala was to run, it was necessary that his candidature be quickly announced and the government gets down to the business of pushing his case before the Thais wrap up more commitments for their candidate. Hence Kadirgamar’s decision to use the opportunity of the discussion on the foreign ministry votes at the committee stage of the budget to announce that Colombo will root for Dhanapala. The job is still far from wrapped-up and there’s still a long march ahead although the present candidate will certainly do much better than Tyronne Fernando due to be sworn Governor of the North-East this week.

"Moving Bernard Goonatillake from the UN in New York to Washington is part of the strategy,’’ one well informed diplomatic source said. "There is a feeling that Goonatillake (Dhanapala’s predecessor at the Peace Secretariat) may not be the best pointman for Dhanapala at the UN and hence his move to Washington.’’ Relations between the two former Sri Lanka Overseas Service colleagues are supposedly not the best.

Ranil’s 10th `birthday’’

We had an interesting letter titled "Ranil’s 10th Birthday’’ from a correspondent which we reproduce:

The UNP is having a birthday party of sorts. On November 5, the party, although 58 years old, will be holding its 50th party conference. It is quite possible that in the midst of the festivities, another landmark might go unnoticed. This month Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe will be completing 10 years as leader of the UNP. No one would disagree that this is as good a moment as any to assess the man’s track record.

A good leader is endowed with certain attributes. The leader of a democratic political party may or may not be blessed with leadership qualities, but regardless of qualification for the post, he/she is expected in the minimum to consolidate and expand the voter base of the party. This constitutes the A, B and C of the game called electoral politics.

These are the facts, both in relative and absolute terms:

Barring the 2001 result, there has been a significant decline in the party’s fortunes, a deterioration that is made all the more stark by the fact that during the said 10 years, there has been a tremendous increase in

the number of eligible voters. As for the 2001 "blip" (the only time the UNP polled more than it did in 1994), the UNF was helped by the CWC, SLMC and key PA dissidents, and yet obtained only 45.62% of the vote. If the PA and JVP had joined hands the UNP would not have been able to form a government at all. In short, 2001 "fell into Ranil’s lap" with Rauff Hakeem and Co. The Great Leader cannot take any credit for that solitary and aberrational electoral victory.

Ranil began his tenure as UNP leaders with an electoral defeat. This was nothing to be ashamed of. He had just been handed over the leadership of the party and it was facing a rejuvenated opposition led by someone who did appear to be more charismatic than she actually is.

The UNP had been in power for 17

years and that alone makes for a brief that is not easy to defend.

The fact remains that since then the man has not succeeded in increasing the party’s voter base by even

10, i.e. at the rate of one extra vote per year!

The conclusion therefore is that the UNP, as a party, either does not know mediocrity when it sees it, or

else does not care. I am sure there are people in the sandanaya who would be praying that the UNP

changes its constitution to enable Ranil to be leader for life. Judging by the sheer lethargy and

indifference of the party rank and file, this might even become a reality!

by Ranil-watcher

Perhaps it is worth also looking at the votes the SLFP/PA got at the relevant elections and those of the JVP as a straight comparison between the UNP and the UPFA may not be the fairest method. It must not be forgotten that the Sirima Bandaranaike administration brutally suppressed the JVP’s insurrection in 1971 and the president has been on public record saying that her present ally was her husband’s killer. But the PA and JVP are together though for how long is anybody’s guess.Of course the old dictum remains forever valid that in politics as in statecraft "there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies. Only permanent interests.’’

Anandasangaree

TULF leader V. Anandasangaree now touring Germany had last week given a no-holds-barred interview to a public broadcasting station in Berlin where he has said that it was unfortunate that asylum-giving European governments are unaware of the fact that Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who have sought asylum in their countries are pressured by a handful of people claiming their authority through the LTTE leadership in Wanni.

Anandasangaree had asked European governments to safeguard these refugees and asylum seekers in their territory from the "iron clutches’’ of a handful claiming to be the sole representatives of the LTTE.

He has said that no European governments have so far taken any action against these "inhuman activities’’ in their countries by a handful of so-called representatives of the LTTE and demanded that this situation be ended forthwith with the necessary protection given by the host governments from threats and intimidation "by a handful of terror cliques.’’

Asked by an interviewer about his letter to Germany’s Interior Minister, Otto Schilly, saying that although ceasefire agreement was in place, Tamils returning home are not safe in Sri Lanka the interviewer asked: "You say they run grave risks of their lives. By whom? Do they run the risk of their life by the Government of Sri Lanka? The Sinhalese? Tell us why you say they will not be safe in Sri Lanka?

Anandasangaree: "Neither from the Government of Sri Lanka nor from the Sinhalese people. The situation today under the ceasefire agreement, one of the conditions was that all the other armed paramilitary groups should be disarmed. Having disarmed them, one group has stabilised themselves. And they are now killing others freely. Every other day you find somebody getting killed since the ceasefire was signed.’’

Anandasangaree made clear that the people risk their lives at the hands of the armed Tamil group "who have signed the ceasefire agreement with the Government of Sri Lanka.’’

He told the interviewer that the CFA had helped "one particular group’’ to re-establish themselves and to extend their control to other parts of the country and bring those parts also under them.

He said that if Germany were to send somebody back to Sri Lanka, (they) will find out who he is, where he was earlier and to what group earlier he belonged. Based on those details, "there is every likelihood of unfavourable sentencing against him.’’

"First they will be screened. After that you know what could happen. Every other day some one is killed either in Jaffna or Batticaloa. This is the sickening reality,’’ Anandsangaree said.

Interviewer: So those Tamils who sought asylum in Germany, no matter whether they belonged to the LTTE or the Karuna group, they are running a risk?

Anandasangaree: Not just those from Karuna’s group, even those from other groups risk their lives. EPDP candidates, local body members are killed at random. I am not speaking for the EPDP alone. (There were) other groups too. Lots of other armed groups have now returned to normal life, the democratic mainstream. They are now being killed. It is not only Karuna’s group or EPDP group but those including TULF members lives (are at risk).

Election Votes Polled % of total vote

1994 General Election 3,498,370 44.04

1999 Presidential Election 3,602,748 42.71

2000 General Election 3,477,770 40.22

2001 General Election 4,086,026 45.62