Had Anura Bandaranaike backed then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidential election campaign and earned his rightful place in a Rajapaksa administration, he wouldn’t have found himself in a political mess which Merrick Gooneratne, a long time friend believed had contributed to the rapid deterioration of Bandaranaike’s health.

Gamini Gunaratne, former Western Provincial Councillor and a close pal of Bandaranaike echoed Gooneratne. They were among a small group of associates whose decades long friendship with Bandaranaike remained unbroken until his death.

In an interview with The Sunday Island to coincide with the former MP’s first death anniversary tomorrow (March 16), they said that Bandaranaike could have easily avoided a nasty confrontation with President Mahinda Rajapaksa had he listened to reason. They asserted that the rapid progress on the war front and overwhelming UPFA victories at recent Provincial Council elections in Sabaragamuwa, North Central, Central and Wayamba Provinces had proved how wrong Bandaranaike was in his assessment that Rajapaksa wasn’t a winner. The elections to the Western Provincial Council on April 25 would give a further boost to the administration ahead of forthcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.

Bandaranaike had strongly believed that Ranil Wickremesinghe would comfortably win the November 2005 presidential election. His confidence on a Wickremesinghe victory had prompted him to confide in his close associates that he would be foreign minister in a Wickremesinghe presidency.

"We tried to discourage him from taking pot shots at the then prime minister but he continued to antagonize the Rajapaksa camp," Merrick said. Although many members of the UPFA parliamentary group had both overtly and covertly sided with then President Kumaratunga, they swiftly switched allegiance once the Supreme Court effectively ended an attempt to prolong CBK’s tenure. But Bandaranaike had remained hostile to Rajapaksa as revealed in his on and off attacks on the presidential candidate of the SLFP.

Merrick said that he joined Bandaranaike to watch the live television coverage of the announcement of the presidential election results at the home of Saman Fernando, the owner of Vajira Builders. Anura skipped almost the entire campaign after attending just the launch in Colombo as he firmly believed that Rajapaksa couldn’t win. Despite the pre-election surveys by television stations being favourable to Rajapaksa, Bandaranaike continued to believe that Wickremesinghe could emerge winner with a few major victories. Had the LTTE not prevented the Tamil speaking voters in the northern and eastern districts from voting, Bandaranaike could have been right.

Producing a hitherto unpublished photograph shot at Bandaranaike’s last birthday bash on February 15, 2007, Merrick asserted that the late MP had a tendency to side with losers. The photograph showed Bandaranaike, Ranil Wickremesinghe, CBK and Lasantha Wickrematunga sharing a light moment at Visumpaya, the state guest house.

"When Chandrika was in power he was in the Opposition. In fact, he was one of her strongest critics. When he had the opportunity to work with President Rajapaksa, he chose to go against him," he said, adding that nothing could have been as bad as the impulsive political alliances Bandaranaike made.

A few hours before other guests had arrived for the birthday party, Rajapaksa had visited Visumpaya. But the President couldn’t have been unaware of what was going on, Merrick said. Although Anura and the president patched up their differences after the presidential election, this truce was short-lived as revealed by Bandaranaike’s decision to switch allegiance to the UNP at the Budget vote later in the year (2007).

Business tycoon and close friend Harry Jayawardena, Ravi Karunanayake, Pam Cooray (widow of Chrisantha Cooray, Chairman of Brown’s and HNB) and Sonali Samarasinghe had been among the invitees to Bandaranaike’s last birthday party which brought together friends and those who had on and off clashed with the host.

Merrick and Gamini Gunaratne said that they shared a very long friendship with Bandaranaike and continued it until his untimely death but never really understood his failure to realize what was good for him.

The birthday bash had been held against the backdrop of Bandaranaike’s sudden decision to abandon Mangala Samaraweera and Sripathi Sooriyarachchi who challenged the Rajapaksa style of governance. Samaraweera who issued a statement severely critical of the President on February 14, 2007, had found Bandaranaike’s meeting with the President on the following day unpalatable. In a lengthy letter to the President, Samaraweera said that Rajapaksa, as Minister of Defence, was responsible for their lives.

Gamini Gunaratne said that although Bandaranaike had sometimes realized his follies and attempted to rectify them, his failing was that he repeatedly blundered - unfortunately on the same issue. A case in point was his relationship with the President.

Unlike Samaraweera and Sooriyarachchi who had tirelessly worked to elect Rajapaksa president, Bandaranaike had kept out of the campaign. Sooriyarachchi, who had been at its forefront, had earned Bandaranaike’s wrath for his efforts on behalf of the eventual winner. Although they pledged to resist what they called Rajapaksa’s dictatorial regime, their alliance which I believe had the tactical support of the UNP, Kumaratunga and even a section of the Marxist JVP collapsed due to Bandaranaike bailing out.

Merrick said that the swiftness of the President’s counter attack demoralized Bandaranaike. He strongly believed he could win over several UPFA MPs ahead of a direct confrontation with the President. But the President on February 9, 2007 acted decisively removing National Heritage Minister Bandaranaike, Ports and Civil Aviation Minister Samaraweera and Non-Cabinet Minister Suriyarachchi from office under powers vested in him by the Constitution. This made Bandaranaike nervous and placed him under heavy pressure; hence the February 15 reconciliation with the President.

But his former allies hadn’t given up the fight and determinedly advanced their strategy until it prompted Bandaranaike to switch sides at the Budget vote. But to his horror he found out within seconds of voting that there were no followers.

"He was a broken man," Gunaratne who had faithfully followed Bandaranaike for many years said. A representative of the Western Provincial Council, Gunaratne had been among the trustees named in Bandaranaike’s last will and testament.

Gamini Gunaratne asserted that the Samaraweera-Bandaranaike-Sripathy revolt against the President was perhaps one of the shortest lived directed at an incumbent leader. It hadn’t lasted even a week.

Samaraweera had been away in Singapore when the President stripped him of his portfolios. Although he returned to the country and rode a motorcade from the airport to Colombo with the support of the joint opposition, his group never managed to sustain their campaign.

Had they realized the potential of a counter-attack, the dissidents would have known that the President would convene the Executive Committee of the SLFP via telephone and internal discussions given maximum possible coverage. In fact, the President had done what the UNP did best using the media to isolate opponents and politically finish them off. Over the past two and half years, the President had mastered this strategy thereby neutralizing many media personalities previously supportive of the UNP.

According to Merrick, Bandaranaike had been diagnosed with cancer in 2005. This was before the last presidential elections in November, 2005. "We took him to Singapore where he underwent a series of tests. He was distressed but quickly got over it," he said.

Responding to The Sunday Island queries, he said that he along with A. H. M. Onais, the then private secretary to the ‘boss’ accompanied him to Singapore. Bandaranaike had warned them not to discuss his illness with anyone. "He was particularly worried about the family getting to know about it," he said.

Despite Bandaranaike’s warning, Merrick had mentioned it without going into details to Dr. Seevali Ratwatte. When Dr. Ratwatte had inquired from Bandaranaike, he was angry about the `leak.’

"He didn’t talk to me for two days," Merrick said.

Anura had to give up hard liquor and turned to wine. But whether he actually followed medical advice would never be known, his friend recounted.

Gamini Gunaratne said that Bandaranaike never recovered from the shock of having to accept the toothless National Heritage portfolio. Had he received the foreign ministry he may not have got involved with Samaraweera. But angered by his demotion, he threw his lot with Mangala and Sripathy who believed that they could cut the ground under Rajapaksa’s feet with the help of Kumaratunga and the UNP. The ring leaders made a desperate attempt to prevent Bandaranaike’s return to Rajapaksa’s Cabinet which he at once called a ``carnival of clowns.’’

Gunaratne said that he repeatedly attempted to discourage Bandaranaike from issuing statements critical of the government but wasn’t unsuccessful. He was blind to the possibility of the government denying him all perks and privileges if he continued to snipe at the President. He didn’t see the political reality until the government sent him out of Visumpaya and he lost a 90-strong staff including bodyguards and housekeepers.

Although his family couldn’t have provided the support Bandaranaike needed, he had blindly engaged in political maneuvers which had been detrimental to his interest. Had he been patient and prudent, he could have achieved his goals despite his reluctance to get involved in any serious campaigning on behalf of Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Although some of his friends including Merrick had urged him to apologize to the President after he lost national heritage portfolio in February 2007, Bandaranaike had not done so.

Towards the end of 2007, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Sunethra Bandaranaike took their brother to Singapore. That was his last overseas visit before he was bed ridden. Unfortunately, the family failed to seize President Rajapaksa’s offer to send Bandaranaike abroad for treatment, Merrick said. On his death bed, Anura was appreciative of the President’s gesture.

Merrick said that Bandaranaike always felt that Kumaratunga stole his legacy and he was angry with Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike for failing to promote his political career. He switched allegiance to the UNP when Kumaratunga returned to lead the People’s Alliance to a historic victory at the Southern Provincial Council elections in early 1993. Had she not returned, the outcome of that crucial election could have been different. But Bandaranaike had never really understood his sister’s role of the turning the tide against the UNP.

Once from a UNP platform, Bandaranaike boasted that he would see Kumaratunga off at the Bandaranaike International Airport following her defeat.

Merrick said that after Mrs. B’s death, Anura was miserable. "He was insecure and quickly turned to CBK for guidance," he said.

"He was hot tempered and reacted angrily to anyone who stepped on his toes," they said. Merrick said that his verbal attacks on colleague Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and the then Indian High Commissioner Nirupama Rao were examples of this trait. He was also quick to tears, said Gunaratne who had been present at Rosmead Place when Anura received a letter from his mother suspending him from the SLFP.

A shocked Bandaranaike had immediately called Sunethra to his home, hugged her and started crying. The dispute with his mother had been over moves to bring CBK back from her self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom to lead the battle against the UNP.

"We urged him to face Mrs. B’s challenge by meeting party organizers and members. We wanted to win them over but he was not bothered. He simply called his valet (Chandrasinghe) and directed him to pack his bags for a week-long holiday in Nuwara Eliya. On our way there we stopped at the residence of MPs, Lakshman Kiriella and Jagath Balasuriya. They tried to pacify him. We shared many bottles of liquor before returning to Colombo."

Merrick said that Bandaranaike loved visiting Los Angeles. He had been a frequent traveler with at least one or two visits there annually. "He loved good food, dressed well and enjoyed the company of his friends," he said adding that he had a large DVD collection and a sizeable collection of valuable books. His DVD collection was undoubtedly one of the best in the country, he believed.

Bandaranaike watched movies seated on a special ‘massage’ chair brought from Japan especially for him. Now that he’s gone, this chair valued at about Rs. 700,000 had been taken away along with many other items including an expensive collection of wrist watches. One of his favourites was a Cartier watch gifted by the then Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohammed.

His possessions included a small stock of Cuban cigars. He had bought many books from ‘Borders’ in Singapore. His love and interest of Hollywood and Bollywood made him keep a scrapbook in which he had catalogued movies he had watched. According to Merrick Gooneratne, Bandaranaike had reserved a whole block of ODC seats at Colombo cinemas to watch movies although he owned a state-of-the art home video system. His last visit to see a movie was to Liberty cinema to watch Amitabh’s Bachchan ``Pahali’’ over a year before his death.

He hated computers and mobile phones and never wanted to replace his old type writer with a computer.

"A Woman in charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton’’ by Carl Bernstein was one of his favourite books. From his death bed, he had sent Merrick to buy the book "Senator Clinton’’ from Vijitha Yapa. Bandaranaike had believed that Hillary would comfortably secure the Democratic nomination beating Barrack Obama. He had asserted that Clinton had the opportunity to win the primaries and make a bid for the US presidency.

When it came to making a speech, particularly in Parliament, he went to extraordinary lengths to prepare himself. One of Sri Lanka’s best orators, Bandaranaike had the ability to swiftly relate Shakespeare to almost any current situation. He was equally well versed in the Bible.

A Sai Baba devotee, he had invited Vijaya Corea to preach to him shortly before his death.

The Rajapaksas had been close to Bandaranaike. Gunaratne said that Mahinda Rajapaksa used to tell Bandaranaike that he (Anura) was number one. Bandaranaike was given the leading role in almost all the activities launched by the opposition although he never engaged in planning protest campaigns, he said.

Gamini Gunaratne was convinced that Bandaranaike had the required background to lead the country but never understood the ground reality or local politics. Had he understood the logic expressed in Barbara W. Tuchman’s book, "The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam,’’ Bandaranaike would have been wiser. But unfortunately that wasn’t the case. Tuchman defined folly as "pursuit of policy contrary to self-interest" and that was exactly what Bandaranaike did, he said. Avid reader Bandaranaike hadn’t grasped Tuchman’s message.

They said that Bandaranaike loved playing practical jokes on his friends whoever they were. He’d invite people to parties without the knowledge of the host creating hilarious situations. There had been instances when he had sent beggars to a posh house where there was a `do’.