UNP candidates shield Sajith from Kularatna

The internal clashes in the UNP once again came to light at a meeting of senior party officials in Tissamaharama last week.

While its former deputy leader and Hambantota District MP Sajith Premadasa was engaged in his party’s campaign work in the district, a telephone call from Sirikotha stated that the UNP Leadership Council chairman Karu Jayasuriya and a few party seniors wanted to meet Sajith and the UNP candidates contesting the Southern Provincial Council from the Hambantota district.

Accordingly, Sajith instructed the 17 UNP candidates in the district for the meeting held at a hotel near Tissa reservoir. In addition to the leadership council chairman Karu, party general secretary Tissa Attanayake and new UNP chairman Kabir Hashim too were present at the event along with Sajith and his district rival Ananda Kularatna, a former UNP parliamentarian.

At the very outset of the meeting, Kularatna dropped a bombshell, questioning why party rebels Maithri Gunaratne and Shiral Laktilllake, who had taken part in a protest march against UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, were being allowed to campaign with Sajith.

“The duo do not just campaign in Hambantota but go on tarnishing the image of our leader. They criticise the leader in the guise of campaigning for the party. Why do you allow this?” he queried from the leadership council.

But Sajith was strategic enough to make use of the 17 UNP candidates and get away with it.

“I am not prepared to work by the way various people suggest. Ask these candidates whether they need Maithri and Shiral in their campaign work or not. If they don’t like them, then we could discuss and take a decision,” replied Sajith.

But the candidates unanimously demanded the presence of Maithri and Shiral in their election campaigns and Kularatna did not confront thereafter as he did not get the support of even the three UNP seniors.

Muza-Ravi battle continues

It seems that the battle between Colombo Mayor A.J.M. Muzammil and Colombo District UNP parliamentarian Ravi Karunanayake is still not over, posing a big headache to Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.

It all began after Muzammil’s wife Feroza, a working committee member of the UNP, was denied of candidacy for the Western Provincial Council elections due to objections raised by Ravi.

Muzammil last week claimed that the ruling UPFA wanted to field his wife Feroza Muzammil as one of its Colombo District candidates for the Western Provincial Council or to stop her from contesting from the UNP.

Muzammil made this disclosure at a ceremony organised by the A. H. M. Muzammil foundation and Kantha Saviya to distribute spectacles to the needy in Colombo. He said the UNPers who prevented her from contesting the election by forcing the UNP leadership not to give her the ticket actually worked according to the UPFA agenda.

The Colombo Mayor alleged that Ravi and two party candidates contesting the Western provincial Council forced the party leadership and the nomination board to refrain from giving nomination to his wife.

The Colombo Mayor who dismissed allegations that he was working with the government, questioned whether he would have allowed his wife to seek nominations from the UNP to contest the provincial council election, if it was so.

Muzammil said he would remain with the UNP and chase away those UNP members who are trying to destroy the party.

In reply, Ravi claimed that none of the 17 UNP organisers in Colombo wanted Feroza Muzammil to contest the Provincial Council election on the UNP ticket. He said the Mayor should concentrate on working for the welfare of rate payers in the city instead of talking about his wife’s nomination.

Ravi said party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe could also field his wife Maithree as a candidate if Muzammil’s argument was acceptable.

Gammanpila says begging is better than robbing

Former Western Provincial Council minister and JHU stalwart Udaya Gammanpila has been embarked on a slow but steady election campaign that has been an example to all. Though the opposition parties have accused Gammanpila of begging for funds for the election campaign, he said begging for funds was always better than robbing funds unlike some candidates.

“Even Lord Buddha has gone looking for meals door to door. So what’s wrong with asking for something that I don’t have? It’s not a robbery unlike some candidates do. Even one of the UNP candidates was allegedly involved in a robbery to find funds for his election campaign,” Gammanpila said.

Deviating from the traditional way of election campaign with hoardings, posters and polythine decorations, Gammampila is conducting his campaign in an exemplary manner. Without obtaining big time donations from business tycoons, he asked the public to contribute Rs. 100 each to fund his ‘clean’ campaign which has received nearly Rs. three million as funds.

He said he could have easily found millions of rupees from his friends and well-wishers for the campaign but decided not to. “I could have easily collected funds for the campaign from my friends. But I wanted to create a new political tradition where there aren’t any politicians controlled by businessmen. This is why I decided to ask for fewer funds from a large amount of people instead of asking for large amounts of funds from a fewer people,” he said.

Gammanpila has gone one step further by using modern technology, using social networks for campaigning on the web and making use of Dialog’s ‘easy cash’ and Mobitel’s ‘mCash’ to strengthen his hundred-rupee fund. “Social network sites like Facebook and Twitter are one of the best methods of campaigning at present. This is also an example of using social network sites in a good way. Users of these networks should be responsible for using them wisely,” he added.

Indo-Lanka leaders to meet in Myanmar

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold talks with President Mahinda Rajapaksa next week in Myanmar.

Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh said last week that the Indian Prime Minister will meet President Rajapaksa on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit on Tuesday (4) in Myanmar. “The Prime Minister will be meeting the President of Sri Lanka,” she confirmed.

The Foreign Secretary was replying to a question on whether Singh will be meeting President Rajapaksa as Sri Lanka has rejected a call by the UN for an independent international probe into allegations of war crimes.

Asked whether India will support the resolution against Sri Lanka, the Foreign Secretary refused to give a direct reply saying they had to see the text of the resolution and examine other issues. However, India had supported the two previous US-led resolutions to the UNHRC against Sri Lanka.

The Indian leader was forced to skip last November’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo after Tamil Nadu political parties and Congress leaders from the state opposed the visit.

Opposition attempts to discredit country

President Rajapaksa charged that opposition political parties were attempting to jeopardize the cordial relations between Sri Lanka and its friendly countries by spreading disinformation about Sri Lanka.

“Opposition parties are attempting to do this because they are unable to find any other fault with regard to the development projects undertaken by the Government,” the President observed after opening the Palavi- Kalpitiya Road last Sunday.

The President accused the opposition political parties of criticising and undermining the untiring steps taken by the government for the welfare and benefit of the people.

“But the opposition has not succeeded in its attempts because of the faith people have in the Government. People trust the government as it has done so much for them. But they should be vigilant enough to thwart these attempts by the opposition,” he said.

No ban on facebook

Over the past few weeks, the Opposition made a disgraceful attempt to tap youth votes and those who vote for the first time at the forthcoming Provincial Council elections, spreading rumour that the Government was planning to ban the facebook. UNP parliamentarian Harin Fernando was in the forefront, making wild predictions of a facebook ban.

This was a well-planned move by the UNP to woo the sympathy of the youth vote on the lead up to the Provincial Council elections. But President Rajapaksa made it clear that the Government would not ban social media websites and would provide more opportunities for the rural youth to have excess to modern information technology.

Banning of social media network Facebook, is impracticable as modern technology needs to be used, the President said at an event held at Keragala Pathmawathie Pirivena last Monday.

“Facebook is used even at Pirivenas today. New technological tools should be used. They cannot be banned. Enforcing laws against them would be futile attempt,” he said.

“It’s left for parents to pay attention to the conduct of their children and ensure their protection. I believe that the recent tragic incidents related to Facebook happened due to the young victims’ lack of understanding about social media. Not only school children but also young Buddhist monks at Pirivenas should also be careful in using social media,” he observed.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) too has thought that it could make a few votes by voicing strongly for the facebook users. The JVP-affiliated Socialist Youth Union (SYU) said Facebook should not be banned or restricted as it could not be blamed for the recent suicides.

SYU national organiser and former JVP parliamentarian Bimal Ratnayake told a news conference last week that several government officials including ministers had in various statements hinted of plans to ban Facebook.

“Boys and girls are known to have committed suicide as a result of illicit love affairs long before Facebook came into existence,” Bimal said and added that suicide had become a major social problem in Sri Lanka with the country having the second largest suicide rate when it came to young women.

He said 80,000 youth are reported to have attempted suicide in Sri Lanka annually while 400,000 think of it as an option according to the World Organization for Preventing Suicides.

The JVP stalwart said there should be organisations with trained people to deal with social issues while Facebook itself could be used to overcome these issues. “Facebook will not be a problem if it is used in a proper manner for good purposes,” he add. Though he talked about a possible ban of the facebook, he did not utter a word on what President had stated on the matter.

Vasu says No-faith motion facilitates the West

Languages and National Integration Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara last week said that a no- faith motion moved by the main Opposition UNP against the Government alleging its complicity in the narcotics trade was aimed at facilitating a US intervention here.

Vasu said that the UNP’s project should be examined against the backdrop of the US moving a resolution against Sri Lanka at the forthcoming session of the UNHRC in Geneva.

Responding to a query by a local newspaper in the wake of the UNP urging UPFA constituents, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) and the National Freedom Front (NFF) to support its motion if they genuinely wanted the heroin trade eradicated, Vasu emphasised that the timing of the motion was crucial.

Chief Opposition Whip John Amaratunga recently told a press interview that the UNP was confident that both the JVP and the TNA would support its no faith motion in protest against the government’s failure to curb the increasing trend of the country becoming the hub of international narcotic trade and to secure and promote the welfare of its citizens.

Vasu alleged that the Obama administration was looking for some excuse to justify its intervention here, asserting that Sri Lanka would have to rethink its strategies. “We couldn’t take the US project lightly,” Vasu said.

Arjuna to remain in DNA

Sri Lanka’s World Cup winning cricket captain turned politician Arjuna Ranatunga has maintained low profile in political circles though he has done a tremendous work to support cricketers and sports clubs in Kalutara District.

Many have questioned his political future at a time his brother Prasanna Ranatunga is contesting the Western Provincial Council elections under the UPFA ticket. Last week’s media reports said that a UPFA stalwart had confirmed that Prasanna would be retained as Chief Minister after a UPFA victory. But his brother Arjuna is still undecided on his political future.

But the ‘Captain Cool’ had declared last week that he had never given any thought if crossing over, either to the UPFA government ranks, or the UNP.

The party from which Arjuna entered the parliament from the Colombo district – Democratic National Alliance (DNA) is now almost defunct. Sarath Fonseka who was instrumental in forming the DNA later formed a separate party called the Democratic Party (DP).

Technically, Fonseka is still the leader of DNA, though he was not involved in the affairs of the Alliance. Arjuna now plans to re-organise the DNA after the Provincial Council elections later this month with DNA’s national list MP Tiran Alles. He also plans to get the support of JVP, which had been a constituent party of the DNA and a couple of other smaller political parties. They had yet not decided on a leader, Ranatunga said.

Arjuna and Trian broke away from Fonseka in November 2012 after the latter was released from Prison on a special presidential pardon.

President meets foreign correspondents

President Rajapaksa met Colombo-based foreign correspondents and international media organisation heads at Temple Trees on Friday.

The president looked relaxed as he answered to a wide range of questions posed by anxious foreign correspondents.

He denounced the US plan to move a UNHRC resolution against Sri Lanka, comparing the American move over alleged war crimes to a professional boxer taking on a schoolboy.

“There should not have been a resolution at all. If they have evidence they should have given it to us,” the President said in his first news conference with the foreign media in Colombo.

President Rajapaksa said he was at a loss to understand why the US was pressing for an inquiry. “God knows why.

This is like Cassius Clay playing against a schoolboy,” he said, referring to the former world boxing champion better known as Muhammad Ali.

The President said Sri Lanka Colombo has done its best to move ahead with a post-terrorism reconciliation, sometimes spending more money on infrastructure in the North than the south.

He said the support of the UK and Canada for the US-led resolution was the result of domestic pressure from Tamil diaspora in those countries.

However, he added that Sri Lanka could count on support from China and Russia at the UN, and “possibly India” too.

Gamini Jayawickrema's daydreams

Kurunegala District Parliamentarian and former UNP Chairman, Gamini Jayawickreme Perera is optimistic that the UNP together with the JVP and Democratic Party (DP) of Fonseka would upset all predications.

Jayawickreme Perera also said that allegations that he had criticised the UNP Leadership Council at last week’s working committee meeting were baseless.

“But all members of the Leadership Council should work together as a team,” he said.

One wonders whether it is an indication that there are serious differences among the members of the Leadership Council of the UNP.

He had also failed to describe how the UNP would form an alliance with the JVP and Fonseka’s party, even if the Opposition parties command a majority. JVP has serious differences with the UNP while Fonseka has vowed that his party would not form alliances.