The UNP parliamentary group and working committee will meet this week, the group on Monday and the working committee on Wednesday to finalize the agenda for the party’s annual conference on November 19. These meetings are crucial as no resolutions that are not cleared by the working committee may be placed before the conference. As a result, Ranil Wickremesinghe and his supporters as well as those opposed to the party leader are busy drumming up support for their respective points of view.
Both sides are intent on not triggering a split of the party and compromises are likely to be worked out. “We need to reach a consensus instead of going into a head on confrontation,’’ a party senior said. “That is what we are working towards.’’
While Karu Jayasuriya’s press statement last week set the cat among the pigeons with the anti-Ranil camp jubilant that Jayasuriya who had long avoided confrontation had emerged from his shell, it is clear from an interview with him that we carry today that the last thing the UNP’s deputy leader wishes is a split in the party. “We will not allow it,’’ he declared. Ever the gentleman, he was not willing to criticize his party leader on or off the record. But he was firmly of the view that the party needed democratization and there should be the opportunity for even a pradeshiya sabha member to rise to the presidency of the country through the ranks of the UNP.
The anti-Ranil forces insist that the crisis is deep and that intensive canvassing is going on. Both sides calculate that they have a slight edge in terms of numbers at the working committee. “But whoever wins or loses, if there’s a vote on issues like this at the working committee, that means that the party is split,’’ a leading member of the group opposed to Wickremesinghe said.
National Organizer S.B. Dissanayake, unhappy that not enough has been done to fight for the restoration of his civic rights which cost him his Nuwara Eliya District seat parliament, has some “power sharing’’ resolutions to be placed before the conference. Whether these would be watered down and accepted or rejected by the working committee which is the authority for vetting conference resolutions remains to be seen. Insiders said it was likely that the parliamentary group will get the power to increase the number of its nominees on the working committee at the expense of the party leader. While the leader’s monopoly on such appointments will be diluted, he is expected to continue to command the right to nominate the majority.
“Modifying any resolution of which due notice has been given in terms of the party constitution is not possible at this stage,’’ one MP opposed to Wickremesinghe said. Asked how a compromise could be worked out, he said that one way would be to agree to change the party constitution on issues relating to the powers of the leader, the composition of the working committee and the executive committee etc. with a group assigned to consider the changes. “This will have to mean that the convention (fixed for Nov. 19) will have to be postponed,’’ he said.
Many in the UNP agree that Wickremesinghe has a clear view of the big picture in national affairs and has the ability to efficiently address the challenges facing the nation. He had meetings last week with editors of newspapers of different publishing houses and straightforwardly answered all questions put to him in off-the-record encounters. Those he met were impressed with his grasp of essentials. However, election defeats had predictably hurt his standing in the party with the cracks becoming increasingly visible in recent weeks. Jayasuriya had long resisted attempts to push him into a headlong confrontation with Wickremesinghe but he is now believed to be willing to “go thus far and no further.’’
Wickremesinghe also had a one-to-one meeting with Jayasuriya at his Cambridge Terrace office to discuss party discipline when Jayasuriya seized the opportunity of pushing his viewpoint on internal party democracy at the UNP. Analysts observed that the party has been unable to enforce disciplinary measures against parliamentarians elected on the UNP ticket who have defected to the government for consideration of office. UNP sources said that several inquiries regarding such defections are continuing and the party had not abandoned these cases.
A senior UNPer dismissed the popular perception, given much currency by statements of various ministers that President Rajapakse had rejected the UNP demand that no more defectors be accepted within the ranks of the government. “Mahinda has never said that,’’ he said pointing to a clause in the MOU reading, “Both parties will observe the accepted political and democratic norms applicable to governing good relations.’’ He believed that this covered defections. Whether that will hold true or not we’ll have to wait and see. Also the judicial interpretation of some ongoing defection-related court actions and others that might follow remains to be seen.
CBK back on fleeting visit
Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga breezed in and out of Sri Lanka last week, ostensibly to attend a supreme court hearing challenging the Battaramulla land grant made to her by the UDA in terms of a cabinet decision. This controversial grant was challenged in the courts but CBK, for reasons she had not spelled out herself, returned the land estimated to be worth much more than a packet. Nevertheless the court action was not ended. In the event, her presence in court was proved unnecessary as the court did not sit on that day.
There were varying news reports of what appeared to have been a lukewarm reception the former president had received at Katunayake. The latest version of this was carried in Sarath Amunugama’s Business Standard (yes, he’s back on board and his distinctive style was visible in the front page Colombo Confidential column) of the paper. We reproduce here a story headlined “Bad time’’ on what caused the apparent government disinterest in according the former president the usual courtesies when she returned to the country after a long absence.
“The President was angry and hurt that the media gave the impression that CBK was given a rough time at the airport. The fact was that nobody in the security services were informed of her arrival. Only the head of her security detail knew of CBK’s travel plans and the police were not alerted in time. When Nihal Karunaratne and a DIG reached Katunayake Airport CBK had already disembarked and was trying to come through regular immigration and customs counters. After much inquiry the cause of the foul up became clear.
“With the winter season beginning all clocks in Europe were advanced and so were flight schedules. CBK’s flight (EK) which usually arrives in Colombo around ten in the morning actually arrived that day at 8 am. This caught everybody flatfooted and as usual the media saw some sinister moves in it.
“Now CBK, with justification can say that it does not pay to keep to time.’’
The LTTE "kittens"
The Geneva boys (delegates, support staff and press) are back and stories about what happened in the Swiss city where the temperature was pleasant although nothing was achieved with the LTTE sticking doggedly to the position that there will be no talks till the A-9 is re-opened.
After the first day’s meeting with the duly publicized opening statements, the Tigers held a press conference where they made their position clear indicating a deadlock. But Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, the leader of the government delegation put a totally different spin on it saying that the Tigers “were like kittens’’ – very flexible and very easy to deal with. Sajin Vas Gunawardene even ventured the view that Thamilchelvan was so reasonable and had he and not Balasingham called the shots, the whole business would have been resolved 30 years ago.
He seemed to have forgotten that the Tiger’s political wing chief would have been all of six-years old or thereabouts 30 years ago and perhaps could have been persuaded with a seeni bola if not a Swiss chocolate!
There was also a tidbit about an electronic media man who could get the president on his phone and brief him on the state of play. Rajapakse, apparently, had asked the journalist to give the phone to Nimal Siripala. This was done and if facial expressions said anything, the president was not biting the version of how things were going as presented to him. -The Sunday Island
