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| Sunday, 23 May 2004 |
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Ranil has his way From the Kraal Mahout UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe did a few reforms to the party structure on Monday to ease tension that brewed after the defeat at the April General Election. As the first step, the party working committee agreed to accept the resignation of General Secretary, Senarath Kapukotuwa who was at the centre of being blamed for the UNP defeat. The resignation of Kapukotuwa came as a relief to many at the Working Committee as tension eased with Wickremesinghe accepting the letter. The next was the controversial subject of having a National Organiser for the party as demanded by S.B. Dissanayake. Wickremesinghe pointed out that the party constitution had no provision for such appointment. Dissanayake was not present at the meeting. The UNP leader used his tactics to appoint a Grass Roots Level Committee to accommodate Dissanayake as the Secretary for organisational activities. Working Committee Though reforms were tabled by the M.H. Mohamed Committee and some other seniors, the UNP leader like his uncle, J.R. Jayewardene, known as the old fox in the UNP, arrived at the Working Committee having made his decisions. Similar to the pattern of J.R. Jayewardene, the UNP leader left room for his party men to have their say as he had already decided to have his way. Finally, it was like the Frank Sinatra song, "I did it my way". The exit of Kapukotuwa brought in former Treasurer of the party Milroy Perera into that position. But, the appointment was made on an acting basis for two months with the creation of a deputy secretary general post. Wickremesinghe's confidante from Kandy, Tissa Attanayake was asked to fill the newly created post of deputy secretary general. It is learnt that in two months time, an active member of the party who was recently named as Deputy Speaker nominee would be made the secretary general. He is Mano Wijeratne from Kegalle, son of former Minister, Dr. Nissanka Wijeratne. When the UNP decided on Mano as deputy speaker there was pressure mounting from Kurunegala District MP, Rohitha Bogollagama. Party sources said that Bogollagama had also expressed his desire to be the Deputy Speaker. Finally, Wickremesinghe decided to drop both and give up the contest with the government to let the government have the Deputy Speaker uncontested. Furthermore, with the government smoothly moving with the peace process, the UNP leader was not confident of mustering the TNA votes for the contest. The UNP leader is a man well-known to put the ball in others courts to buy time. At the Working Committee he decided to appoint many of his young men who mounted pressure for reorganisation into important committees. Sajith Premadasa was offered the toughest committee to alleviate poverty. For Sajith it will be a tough task. Poverty alleviation His father, the late President Premadasa went in for poverty alleviation programmes like Janasaviya with power in hand. The old Premadasa had State resources for the task. Young Sajith can only plan but execution would be difficult as an opposition MP. Hemakumara Nanayakkara was given the agriculture committee. Gayantha Karunatilleke, the soft spoken man was given youth affairs. He is fortunate as he would have party resources to organise the youth of the party in an effective manner. Veteran Gamini Jayawickreme Perera, a former Chief Minister took control of Local Government and Provincial Councils. He has experience in such organising activity. Party men are amused as to why party senior P. Dayaratne, a man from the East was asked to lookafter up country development. The past and present governments have a Ministry for Central Region Development. Dayaratne, a new comer to the hill country faces no easy task as a stranger to follow the up country map. Ravi Karunanayake was asked to head the committee to deal with the people. Will Ravi have to deal with all the people in the country is the question. The learned Professor, G.L. Peries was offered the committee on media. Peiris is a man who loves to enjoy the portfolio of Industries as a minister that covers the Textile Quota Board. He enjoyed that privilege in both the PA and UNF governments in the past. Wickremesinghe offered the Media Committee knowing well that the Professor liked publicity very much. When Peiris was a minister, he would have been the only minister to hold the record of issuing the most number of press releases, photographs of his functions and holding press conferences. These would have certainly been added qualifications for the Professor to have been offered this committee. As cabinet spokesman of the previous PA and UNF governments, Prof. Peiris had the good fortune of appearing on all television news programmes at least once a week. Gamini Lokuge and Dr. Rajitha Senaratne were asked to spearhead trade union activities. The duo is a good combination to organise strikes and also to settle strikes. Lokuge gained much experience in disrupting strikes and demonstrations in the late 1970s and the 1980s during the UNP administrations when the late Cyril Mathew headed the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya. Present Western Province Governor, Alavi Mowlana was a victim of one such SLFP trade union demonstration disruption by the JSS near the Ambal Cafe in Fort. Mowlana who led the demonstration was stabbed by JSS thugs. Dr. Senaratne is a veteran to organise strikes on behalf of workers. Increasing setbacks UNP setbacks looks increasing day by day. Kapukotuwa's exit as general secretary and the UNP move to have him as Chief Minister candidate for the Central Province is met with stiff resistance from party stalwarts in the Kandy District. Among those who oppose him are S.B. Dissanayake's brother Saliya, Keheliya Rambukwella, Tissa Attanayake and Mayor Kesara Senanayake as Saliya and Kesara are contenders for that post. In another setback, the UNP Chairman, Malik Samarawickreme and Ravi Karunanayake who obtained an enjoining order from the Colombo District Court against Rupavahini and ITN on alleged violation of media guidelines by the Elections Commissioner applicable to the last general election withdrew the case on Thursday. They were ordered to pay costs to the defendants.As the government and opposition agreed on the Deputy Speaker and the Deputy Chairman of Committees, a SLMC National List Sinhala MP resigned from Parliament the same day stating the decision was to strengthen the hands of SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem. The sudden decision is viewed with suspicion as Hakeem was caught up in a controversy of breaking a promise of securing a job in the USA for a woman whose father is a UNP politician. Details of this episode was seen on television this week and read in the press. Political sources say that beyond the promise of a USA job, there had been a move to bring this woman to Parliament on the National List. The trouble had sparked off when her name was omitted in the UNP list sent to the Elections Commissioner. Hakeem denies such a move by his party but some SLMC dissidents make this claim. Mahinda's statement UNP Kalutara District MP, Mahinda Samarasinghe referring to our last Sunday's column by this Political Correspondent in a letter states that he was appointed Chief Opposition Whip by the UNP Parliamentary Group on May 10. His name had been proposed by the Leader of the Opposition and seconded by Gamini Lokuge. Samarasinghe in his letter further states that the quote in that column - "Many have become self-proclaimed giants in the party after being in Parliament for less than a decade said by a party stalwart from the Gampaha District who counts a quarter century experience in Parliament has been investigated by him by contacting Messrs John Amaratunga, Joseph Micheal Perera and Sarathchandra Rajakaruna. "I have spoken to them and they have given me full authority to state on their behalf that no such comment was made by either of them and if your paper so desires they would be willing to communicate with you directly", Samarasinghe's letter added. With reference to the paragraph on 'self proclaimed giants in the party ... ',Our Political correspondent maintains that he had not mentioned Samarasinghe's name nor made any reference to him of trying to be a self-proclaimed giant without ten years experience in Parliament. He is at a loss to understand as to why only Samarasinghe took keen interest to investigate that reference when there were many MPs who did not possess ten years experience in Parliament. The attribution to a Gampaha District MP who has 25 years experience in the House was made at the request of that senior MP as he did not wish to be identified. Our Political Correspondent welcomes the "giant step" taken by Samarasinghe to contact three party seniors in Gampaha to obtain their full authority to speak on behalf of them. The three mentioned in the letter are UNP giants. Mr. Amaratunga has held important cabinet portfolios. Mr. Perera is recognised as one of the brilliant Labour Ministers of the UNP after the late capt. C.P.J. Seneviratne and was also as the Hon. Speaker of the last Parliament. Mr. Rajakaruna toppled the SLFP in 1977 in the Dompe electorate on the first past the post system. He was also a respected minister of the UNP. They all are good speakers both in and out of Parliament who never sought others' help to speak on their behalf. The Sunday Observer has no desire as stated by Samarasinghe to ask these three MPs to speak to it directly as there is no necessity. Mr. Samarasinghe whose name was not mentioned in that paragraph had boldly taken that 'giant step' to speak to the three UNP giants in Gampaha directly and we are thankful to Mr. Samarasinghe for going out of his way to find out the self-proclaimed giants below 10 years experience in Parliament in the party. |
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