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| Sunday, 17 October 2004 |
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India moves to pressure for peace Weekend Politics by Suraj & Viraj As the peace process moved to the Indian soil with UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe visiting New Delhi this week to hold discussions with leaders there, lightning struck the national political party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) of the monks.
While New Delhi stressed the urgency to see the resumption of the peace talks to Wickremesinghe, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and her government was busy formulating counter proposals to the LTTE's Interim self Governing Authority (ISGA) to be sent to the Tigers this week. The cracks seen in the JHU predict that its future in politics looks bleak and what happened to the Democratic United National Front of the late Lalith Athulathmudali may happen to the JHU in the future to fight hard to gain even a solitary seat in parliament. The mastermind of the JHU Tilak Karunaratne who once left the SLFP and the UNP to save the nation of a reported division by proposals by those parties to resolve the ethnic crisis dropped a bombshell when he resigned from the nationalist party to return to the UNP last week. Earlier, the unity within the nine member monk MP JHU looked split from day one as two of them sat with the government to support the UPFA administration. Thereafter differences of opinion between the six in the opposition widened. The monks who pledged commitment to create a just administration and Buddhist Rajya now face allegations of corruption within the rank and file. In April this year they pledged to rid the nation of bribery and corruption. Cracks in JHU The exit of Tilak Karunaratne from this nationalist party has put his colleagues Udaya Gamampila and Champika Ranawaka at cross roads. Gamampila condemns the move by Tilak to join the UNP as UNP proposals to resolve the ethnic issue were earlier described as a path to separatism by Tilak himself. As the monks look uninterested about Udaya and Champika, both these nationalists wonder where to go to continue their struggle for the national cause. Come what may, Tilak will now have to walk along with the UNP accepting federalism as the answer to the Tamil problem. In the coming days there is a possibility of the JHU cracking further with some of the monk MPs deciding to support the UPFa in parliament giving President Kumaratunga a very clear majority in the House to see her maiden budget through next month. While the UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe is busy with his Indian hosts in New Delhi, moves are now underway to grab monks of the JHU towards the UNP. The architect of this move is a former UNP minister who has a residence down Dharmapala Mawatha in Colombo. It was revealed that a few monks of the JHU has had a meeting with this former minister at this private residence before the latter emplaned to a neighbouring country this week. UNP sources said the move was being solely handled by the former minister on his own initiative to score marks. Meanwhile, another group of UNPers too are in contact with JHU MPs. As it happened few years ago, the market values of MPs seem to rise in the attempt to grab power once again. Ambitions even of the monks seem to be important than the cause for which they established the JHU. One of them who eyed the position of the Speaker is now getting ready to be a presidential candidate. The Sihala Urumaya of Tilak Karunaratne closely watched these developments over the past few weeks. As the Sihala Urumaya too could not forge unity in deciding its future with the monks, Tilak took a unilateral decision to abandon both sides and return to the UNP. The entry of Tilak Karunaratne to the UNP is seen by party men in Kalutara as step to strengthen the deteriorating condition of the party in that district. Tilak earlier spearheaded the Bandaragama electorate from the SLFP and UNP. However, Tilak's entry to the UNP would not affect the SLFP and JVP vote bank in the district in the future. He will pose a threat to unpopular former ministers of the UNP in that district. At present former minister Rajitha Senaratne leads with the highest preferential votes obtained at the April election. There are also moves to convince former UNP media minister Imtiaz Bakeer Markar back to the UNP political fold at the next election to strengthen the base. Imtiaz withdrew from the April election unhappy over the manner a former UNP minister in the district conducted party activities. However, the party is now keen to bring him back as his father, former Speaker Bakeer Markar left a sound vote bank for his son. Counter proposals Meanwhile, the government is in full swing preparing the ground to resume peace talks with the LTTE. Counter proposals to the ISGA has been framed to be sent to the North early next week. Despite swift action by the government to resume talks, there appears to be a slow response from the LTTE towards this purpose. On the contrary, the LTTE seems to be bent on violating the ceasefire agreement with less respect to resume talks. It was dragging its feet to release the two Home Guards till Friday though ten LTTE suspects were bailed out by Court on Thursday. The LTTE while fighting with the Karuna faction in the East looks worried about Karuna's move to register a political party to challenge the Tigers in the future. With the government keen on resuming talks, it should set a deadline to the LTTE once the counter proposals are sent to the North next week. Tigers have followed that pattern in the past by pressurizing Colombo whenever proposals were sent here. The LTTE had agreed to discuss counter proposals alongside the ISGA. Therefore, the time is opportune for the government to set a deadline to resume talks or ask the Tigers how long they would take to study the counter proposals. Once the counter proposals reach the LTTE, the ball is in their court and the Tigers cannot harp on only to talk on the ISGA. Of late, LTTE killings in Colombo of political opponents seem to have stopped. It could be due to intensified intelligence activity by the state. But, it now appears that the under world has raised its ugly head again in the city. Last week we saw the killing of the UPFA western Provincial Councillor, Namal Gunawardene. Detectives are yet to apprehend the killers and ascertain the motive of the killing. The new IGP Chandra Fernando should speed up investigations to bare this cold blooded murder of a politician who was on his way to his office to resume his political work. If the under world is allowed to continue further killings, it would be to the advantage of the LTTE. The Tigers may use this as a shield to kill Sinhala political opponents in Colombo and put the blame on the under world. The crime rate in the country has rapidly increased over the past six months, statistics from IGP Chandra Fernando's Department disclosed. Therefore, it's time that the new IGP move into action before it's too late. |
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