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| Sunday, 29 May 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Chandrika's decade : Mix of tranquil and turbulent times by Lalith Edrisinha
Peiris has set down according to his lights, the tortuous course taken by President CBK to ascend the throne as it were, and the perils she has faced to remain there for a decade and now more, exposing herself to much rancour and ridicule culminating in a brush with death at the hands of a suicide bomber. President CBK has sustained herself however with people power, that ultimate repository of a politician's strength and standing in a democratic setup. There can be no doubt that she and her parents before her have sacrificed much in the interest of and to safeguard democracy whenever it was assailed by forces that went to extreme lengths of murder as in the case of her revered father and beloved husband, a coup detat by service personnel and armed insurrection of marginalised segments of society from the South and the North, ably thwarted by her renowned mother and now by her able and determined self. The author has adopted clever devices to sustain the interest of the reader in a work which otherwise may have been a mere collection and compilation of a series of speeches and interviews, no doubt useful resource material for future historians and political commentators but for the present when the subjects and material are clearly etched in the public mind, fresh as they are, the need to go back to them in a book does not arise and may not rouse the interest of the reader of today as they might in the future. So Peiris, perhaps mindful of the limitations of carrying only a collection of speeches and interviews has interwoven a narrative which in itself is revealing and worth reading as more the background to the very events that necessitated a President's pronouncements at given times, the background to which only an insider, Author Peiris being one, would be privy to. For example, the scene setting preface is a captivating account of how forces opposed to President CBK engage foreign propagandists to wreck and ruin the image of the most powerful political personality in the country of recent times and engage in an image building exercise of her main political opponent. Brimming with confidence the hireling recounts how he promoted the cause and case of Russia's Boris Yeltsin when his showing in the public eye was at a low ebb, as little as a single digit. It is against this backdrop of a conspiracy in a five star hotel that the author steps out to record the numerous challenges that President CBK encountered and the valiant attempts she made to establish a just social order during her rule of a decade and more always sustained by an overwhelmed populace charmed by her winsome smile. Against this backdrop of a scheming coterie committed to destroy President CBK, Peiris then introduces at the beginning of Chapter One an old friend from the Left - a media personality who to begin with is very sceptical about the whole exercise of setting down in writing a record of President CBK's achievements and even scoffs and scorns at the idea alluding in his opening remarks that she had achieved nothing! The sceptic is however persuaded to peep into the first chapter of the book then in manuscript form and as the story unfolds the reader and the sceptic are slowly but surely converted to the idea that despite the multiplicity of complex and difficult situations, the President has managed to forge ahead somewhat, with whatever she had set her sights on to achieve, for the reform of a society that had been plagued by the terrorising of political opponents. The book is in three parts. The ten Chapters that deal with events beginning from the time President CBK engages in politics as an undergraduette in those heady days in France in the 1960s and later in the 1970s as a Director of the Land Reforms Commission followed by her meteoric rise to the Presidency and her performance there at the top contain well documented material in a chronological order. Then 15 pages of photographs (a mix of black and white and colour) illumine the verbals that precede them. These visuals are a pictorial record of the main events of the President's life taking off from childhood days to the present day - shots from the family album with parents and siblings moving on to colour frames with husband and children, then her ascendancy to power and her subsequent sojourn in public life recording events here and abroad that take up most of the schedule of a Head of State and Government. The third part of the book is another 247 pages of the President's statements and interviews added on for easy reference and bound for posterity to serve as resource material as time moves on. In the ultimate then one has a 570 page volume covering a decade of President CBK's rule which has seen through many changes including stepping into a new millennium. The thread that binds the collection in Part One is the narrative that precedes President CBK's voice in every Chapter. The full blown sceptic at the beginning of Chapter One has shifted ground a little bit when he accepts the manuscript of Chapter Two admitting that President CBK after all has done something (as opposed to nothing at the beginning)! but has failed to usher in peace. Her bid to win a mandate for peace is the subject of the next chapter, which contains the moving scenes of President CBK's valiant battle to overcome the trauma and injury caused by a suicide bomber as she acknowledges the cheers of a tumultuous crowd and prepares to leave the Town Hall premises after addressing the final public meeting canvassing support for her People's Alliance, that fateful night of December 18, 1999. That horrendous night by some quirk and perhaps with a sense of foreboding, President CBK in haste to keep another appointment, changed course and was heading to board her bullet proof car without walking up to the barricades for that final bow to the roaring tumultuous crowd that saved her from being dismembered by a charging tigress. Her own moving account of how she felt that night while awaiting medical care, lapsing into unconsciousness and then coming back, swaying between life and death, thoughts of her children at one moment and then her concern for the country, law and order in those fleeting moments are all documented here. Can one be faulted for being converted to the idea that President CBK has after all braved it and survived attempts on her life by one of the world's worst terrorist outfits of recent times in her pursuit quite altruistically of a dream to bring prosperity to her beloved country? A graphic account of how the hired propagandist and his cohorts launched a barrage of attacks on a wounded President insinuating that she had lost her mental capacity to govern is alluded to in the preamble to Chapter Three. This chapter ironically deals with President CBK's attempts to arrive at a consensus to bring about a negotiated settlement to the protracted problem that has thwarted the ushering in of peace to the country since the decade of the 1980s. Her vision partially impaired now by the bomb agent of the very outfit she is willing to deal with demonstrates the lengths she would go, to accommodate opponents for the sake of the country. What is most interesting is that at the end of the first 100 pages and the beginning of Chapter 04 the sceptic is now so engrossed in the work and record of events that he even prompts the author about certain events that he feels have been left out in the preceding chapter. There is special reference to the fall of Elephant Pass and the claim and boast of the LTTE that they had reached the gates of Jaffna. The conversation that ensues enlightens the reader on the vast media preparations that had been made by jubilant opposing forces to announce the withdrawal of troops and Prabhakaran's triumphant entry into Jaffna to hoist the Tamil Eelam flag. All this precedes the next Chapter on the General Election of the year 2000. What follows is a period of turmoil. Defections and the MoU with the JVP and the subsequent polarisation of the forces that eventually clash head on at the polls that follow within 18 months of the 2000 election are dealt with here. The defeat at that election and the virulent personal attacks on the highest in the land may have been entertaining theatre to some who revel in taking up adversarial positions and having pot shots at the powers that be but the recipient President CBK had had to bear it all up isolated in the tower as it were. Thirsting to lap up how the President faced these vicissitudes the sceptic is at the door of the author asking for more in what is now apparent to the reader is a character interwoven to heighten interest in the narrative. What follows is an account of a period of isolation when even the LTTE-UNF accord which has come to be known as the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) is signed behind the back of the Head of State and Government and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. But what stands out is the element of sacrifice President CBK makes in not creating hostile conditions to what has been her main plank - bringing about amity among all communities. Chapter 08 as its title suggests is all about the cessation of talks between the LTTE and UNF Government-a stalemate situation which gives rise to concern in the security establishment and the subsequent take over of the Defence and Media ministries by President Kumaratunga. Gradually power begins to return and revolve round the Presidency and the political and social forces that had been subjected to scorn and neglect by the UNF regime come together once again to forge an alliance that seals the fate of the UNF Government. Chapter 9 delves into events that lead to the signing of a common program by the SLFP and JVP to form an umbrella organisation that romps home winners as the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) at the General Election that inevitably followed in April 2004. The prelude to the final chapter is brief but is indicative of how very closely the author has moved with President CBK. He puts off the now avid reader of the manuscript for a few days announcing that he is to be away on a trip to Iran as part of President CBK's entourage. The final chapter takes off from there discussing President CBK's foreign relations and the way forward for the UPFA. As the curtain comes down on the narrative the news is out that one of the prime foul campaigners against President CBK has been jailed for two years for contempt of court as though it was fitting retribution for the betrayal of the one person who pitchforked this nobody into prominence and public life. Constitutional provisions are quoted to show that President CBK can go on to complete her second term until 2006. Quite fittingly there is reference to President CBK's discourse on a 'Secular Imperative for South Asia' which is commended as the way forward for countries with multi-ethnic,multi-religious societies. There is constant reference to the fate that befell Salvador Allende in Chile throughout the narrative as though to draw similarities in parallel conspiratorial activities here and the author warns of possible threats to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga from the same sources that set out to destroy her as mentioned in the Preface. What emerges in the final analysis is a figure that can stand up to vicious attacks and refute them even singly with only the thought that the popular vote that catapulted her to power within a short time remains to be tapped even in the future. A Referendum to clear the way for constitutional reforms will be the ultimate test for President CBK. Janadasa Peiris closes his account urging everyone to act expeditiously as he watches the winner of Tour de Lanka whiz past him. He has performed a difficult task and has come up trumps.
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| Produced by Lake House |
To compile a book on a sitting President, an Executive President at that,
can be a tricky business but Author Janadasa Peiris has ventured out on this
hazardous task and done well to complete in record time 'Chandrika: Memories
of a Decade' which was released to mark the completion of sometimes tranquil
and other times turbulent ten years of the Presidency of Chandrika
Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (CBK). 
