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| Sunday, 6 February 2005 |
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UNP in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde role Weekend Politics by Suraj & Viraj The United National Party seems to be playing a double game. Particularly its leader Ranil Wickremesinghe while openly declaring readiness to cooperate with the government in rebuilding the nation after the tsunami disaster has been trying his best through informal meetings with the Norwegians and other foreign diplomats to stem the flow of tsunami aid to the country by requesting them to lay down a condition that such aid would depend on the willingness of the government to resume the stalled peace process.
Actually the Norwegians seemed to have taken this advice seriously for at the Brussels Meeting of the Donors during the last week of January they tried hard to tie tsunami aid to a resumption of the peace negotiations on the basis if the ISGA. It was the strong intervention of the USA, India, China, Japan and other donors that made the Norwegians and their partners in the EU to make a retreat. The donors finally agreed that laying political conditions at this juncture would amount to abandoning Sri Lanka to its fate. The treacherous role played by the UNP leader in this regard cannot be condoned. On the contrary it should be condemned contemptuously. What is more disturbing is the role of the Norwegians who have been invited by the President of the country to facilitate the peace process. While there has been criticism of the Norwegian role from many quarters in society the government has always maintained a safe distance from any irresponsible criticism. Even when it found the conduct of the Norwegians undiplomatic it kept quiet in the interests of the peace process. There have been many instances when it surpassed its role as facilitators and even played an interventionist role. Confrontation Take for example its unilateral decision to suspend their activities and return to Copenhagen before the elections for no apparent reason. Perhaps they would have hoped for a UNP return to power at the Elections. One could well recall how they said that they could even call negotiations in a day provided the confrontation between the President and the Prime Minister following the former's taking over of three ministries was solved. Little did they realise at that time the negotiations were stalled not due to any differences between the President and the PM but due to the LTTE pulling out due to their loss of faith in the UNP government and its activities, particularly the act of leaving them out of the Washington Donor Conference, failure to set up a regional mechanism for humanitarian work etc. One could also recall their arrogant stand in sidelining the Constitutional Head of the Country in signing the Ceasefire Agreement and keeping her in the dark as regard to the negotiations that were conducted during the UNF regime. UNP's double game is apparently connected to its impatience to return to power party before country! A decision was taken at a high level UNP meeting recently to use the grievances of tsunami victims in two months to launch the UNP presidential election campaign. In addition, UNP leader Wickremesinghe decided to bring international pressure on the Government to hold the Presidential election end of this year. Internal UNP sources revealed that was one of the main reasons for Wickremesinghe's visit to Norway and European Union countries last week. During all his discussions with Norwegians and other EU members he had emphasised the need to hold elections in Sri Lanka on time. Amnesty Earlier, UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe tried his best to awake sleeping elephants in the UNP by organising demonstrations around the country capitalising the issue of jailed MP S.B. Dissanayake. But Wickremesinghe never made any appeal to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga to grant him a Presidential amnesty. Only his colleague former Minister Mahinda Wijesekara made an appeal in the House. However, tsunami submerged the SB issue and UNP plan to mobilise people against the Government was foiled. It is well understood that many seniors who are eying for the next leadership in the UNP like the jailing of SB as he could be a danger for their future. Many seniors at the last week political meeting was not supported though Dentist Rajitha Senaratne tried his best to relaunch the "SB Free" protest islandwide. Rajitha sacked When Wickremesinghe is abroad, party seniors have charged against each other for district leadership. Mahinda Samarasinghe was reappointed the leader of the Kalutara District but Dr. Rajitha Senaratne had expressed his dissatisfaction openly against the decision. Senaratne topped the UNP polling list at the last General Election in Kalutara district. Targeting the Presidential election end of the year, UNP launched a massive Sramadana campaign to repair houses in UNP control Provincial and local bodies on the independence day. But UNPers were disappointed as people had not welcome them to clean their houses as most of the houses have been already clean by people and organisations. People had questioned them what is their sudden mercy on people. Meanwhile, former Minister Vajira Abeywardane had to face a hostile situation last week. When he had visited China Koratuwa in Galle people had shouted and chased him away asking whether he came to see their dead bodies. When people were highly agitated, security guards of Abeywardane had taken him out of the area. UNP also last week expressed outrage over the Justice Ministry's decision to limit VIP visitors to jailed MP. Ministry had given instructions to the Prison authorities that any Parliament member wishing to visit prisons should get prior approval of the Ministry. However, the UNP blamed the Secretary of the Justice Ministry can not impinge the privileges of MPs and UNP MPs plan to take this issue at the next Parliament sitting day. JVP meets LTTE Meanwhile, JVP MP of Ampara District Jayantha Piyatissa clashed with the LTTE Political leader in East Koushalyan at a meeting in the Thirukkovil Divisional Secretariat last Monday. Divisional Secretary had called a meeting with LTTE, Police, Army to work out a strategy to help Tsunami victims. JVP MP had also arrived at the meeting. LTTE leader had protested against his presence at the meeting but JVP MP had argued that he has a right to participate in any meeting because he is a direct representative of people. Koushalyan had said that he does not want to participate in any meeting with people who are opposing the peace process and gone out. The meeting was lasted only about 10 minutes. Though many are pressurising Public Security Minister Ratnasiri Wickremenayake to abandon the Special Crime Unit formed to crack down the under world, he vowed last week to go ahead with plan operations at a ceremony of home guards. |
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