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| Sunday, 12 June 2005 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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UNP internal feuds come to the fore Political Round up by Spectator
Prior to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's visit to India the Opposition was speculating that India would object to the creation of the proposed Post Tsunami Operational Management Structure (PTOMS). However, their speculations and expectations came to naught. The President was able to solicit support for the proposed move and the Indian government expressed its understanding and extended its support. Further, it reiterated its commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. On her return she earnestly began consultations to explain the PTOMS process. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse who was attending the inauguration of the Menik Ganga Project organised by Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake was summoned by the President immediately to discuss important matters of state. The PM who participated in the foundation stone laying ceremony at Lunugamwehera in the morning and a public meeting at Lunugamwehera subsequently was having lunch at the house of Siripala Edirisinghe, a local businessman along with Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Deputy Ministers Bimal Ratnayake, Chamal Rajapakse, Mahinda Amaraweera, Nihal Galappaththi and Sajith Premadasa MP when he received the President's message. Premier Rajapakse realised the importance of the message as the President had just returned from India. He delegated the rest of his work of the meeting to Chamal and others and rushed to Colombo. The two leaders deliberated for long on the President's successful visit to India, the current political situation, the protest campaigns by the JHU and the JVP and the means of carrying forwards the government program in setting up the PTOMS. Ranil's dream of Presidency Meanwhile Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe with his retinue has organised a two-pronged presidential campaign to make his dream come true. It included a "Round the country" program and a ' village to village' campaign. At the beginning of last week, Ranil led the 'village to village' program in Mihintale, East A'pura, North A'pura and A'pura city. While addressing his supporters, Ranil spuriously criticised the JM and the Government in an attempt to regain his lost vote base. Posters to welcome future Prime Minister in Galle Meanwhile, Parliamentarian Hemakumara Nanayakkara organised a highly publicised special meeting at Akmeemana previous Saturday. 'Warm welcome to the future Prime Minister' said posters pasted throughout the Galle district. The grand scale meeting with all fanfare looked like a ceremony meant for a state leader. Hemakumara received UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya on his arrival at the venue at Ganegoda Ayurveda Viharaya. An expensive vehicle and bicycle procession was arranged to conduct the Deputy Leader from Light House Hotel. A notable absentee in the motorcade accompanying Karu Jayasuriya was UNP Galle District Leader Vajira Abeywardana. He directly came to the meeting at Ayurveda Viharaya and was deliberately late to arrive. A conspicuous incident at the meeting was the way in which Hemakumara prevented UNP Provincial Council member Manusha Nanayakkara from reaching the stage. "Seats on the stage are meant only for my invitees. I have not invited you. Where are you going?" Hemakumara enquired. Manusha looked dumb founded, and said: The Leader wanted me to make a speech to educate party supporters on 'Janabala Meheyuma'. "Who is the Leader? Thondaman or Ranil? Hemakumara asked. He went on to say publicly that he was not informed about the speech and he could manage his meeting without him and asked Manusha to mind his own business. Party supporter is attacked in front of Karu By this time, Karu and Vajira had observed the altercation between Hemakumara and Manusha. Vajira called Manusha to the stage and Karu intervened to settle the dispute later. According to Hemakura's agenda, all speakers, before they started speeches, saluted Karu , the future Prime Minister. However, Vajira did not follow suit. Meanwhile, Hemakumara went forward to stop another man who was trying to hand over a letter to Karu. The intruder was a loyal UNP supporter, former coordinating secretary to Hemakumara and Pradeshiya Sabha contestant Vijaya Alwis. Hemakumara threatened Vijaya to leave the venue immediately. Suddenly a gang of Hemakumara supporters attacked Vijaya. Despite continuous requests by Karu and Vajira, the gang tested their fisticuffs on Vijaya until Karu's security men intervened. Vijaya ran away with bleeding injuries. Brawl between Vajira and Hemakumara budges forward Hemakumara and Vajira dispute took a new turn when UNP Executive Committee met at Sirikotha to discuss party reorganization last Monday evening. Ranil had already identified the electorates with weak organisers. During his long speech, first he explained what he would be doing with those organisers who failed to achieve the given targets during the coming fortnight. Secondly, he explained the current political situation in the country, the challenges in front of the UPFA and its targets. He elaborated how he plans to take advantage of the differences between the President and the JVP. He also spoke about the Janabala Meheyuma. Later, a party disciplinary inquiry report was presented to the Committee. This referred to certain newspaper reports that had allegations against Galle MC member Premalal Gunasekera who had violated party discipline at a ploughing ceremony. On a complaint made by Hemakumara, MP Gamini Lokuge had conducted an inquiry and gave recommendation to cancel Premalal's party membership. This report was presented to the Executive Committee. "Please reconsider this decision. Premalal is a very old party member and it is unfair to annul his membership", Vajira said. Hemakumara responded violently. "This is in respect of my electorate and no one need to bother. We should maintain discipline. The wrongdoers should be punished", Hemakumara said. "They need forgiveness too. He is very loyal so much so that once he hurled burnt oil on Richard Pathirana", Vajira retorted. "You have no business here, leave me alone", Hemakumara yelled. "Why not? I have the right to interfere because I am the district leader", he replied. " Don't talk about your rights. You are a bloody crook. You are Richard's pupil. You try to betray the party and join Mahinda to play games. You are a trickster", Hemakumara said.. "Everybody knows who tries to play games. His open game at Akmeemana on Saturday would have been bared to the Leader. Separate inquiry should be conducted on how he undercut the Leader to prop up the Deputy Leader at this meeting". The argument between Hemakumara and Vajira was so heated and violent and was on the point of exchanging blows. Both called names and hurled filthy epithets at each other until the Opposition leader adjourned the meeting with a note of displeasure over the circumstances. Every district has row over leadership Similar to the row between Hemakumara and Vajira over district leadership in Galle, disputes had been brewing among party members in almost all districts. Some of the clashes are between Mahinda and Rajitha in Matara, Sajith and Kularatne in Hambantota, Lokubandara and Lakshman Seneviratne in Badulla, and the leadership finds it difficult to solve these internal party problems. Besides these, Ranil has now got new headaches in respect of the newly appointed electoral organisers. Lokuge on National List "A lot of party responsibilities have been put on your shoulder and you would hardly find time to campaign for an election. What's your comment about coming on the National List?" UNP President Malik Samarawickrema asked Lokuge just before the Monday Executive Committee meeting at Sirikotha. Hearing this Lokuge got possessed, forgot Malik's party position and jumped on him. "I can well understand what you all are planning. All of you want to throw me to the National List and replace me with a fair cricketer boy. I would never let it happen and I never want to sit in parliament sans winning an election. Otherwise, expect consequences", Lokuge growled. For Lokuge to get wild, there were several other reasons. Foremost among them was his removal from party union activities and replacing him with Rajitha. Another eyesore was Sudath trying to put his finger in organising 'Round the Country' meetings, which were put under the purview of Lokuge. Bandula's A/L lesson The Opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe convened a meeting of MPs to apprise them on the prevailing political situation of the country. Ranil said that MPs should be aware of the political climate of the country, particularly, of burning issues and should analyze those issues before the public. Bandula Gunawardena, who spoke next, cited Central Bank Reports, statistics and spoke on the rising oil prices, which sounded like a typical A/L lesson. The meeting concluded with this boring presentation. Ranil's propaganda mania Ranil thought of inspecting the UNP electronic propaganda campaign. Knowing well the effect that advertising and posters could make on the public mind, he visited the Magal Holdings in Kollupitiya that handles the UNP propaganda campaign. An executive in a private media Institute has financed the UNP publicity campaign. Mahen Perera of Swarnawahini, Tarin , a former employee of Leo Bernett and Brian Honter coordinated the UNP publicity campaign. The script for all publicity work was written by Chandana Sooriyabandara and directed by Didula Bogahawatte. This was clandestine operation by Ranil's media pundits. Sudath outsmarts Tissa Ranil took a special interest in UNP propaganda campaign, particularly, the "Village to village" and "Round the country" programs. Tissa Attanayaka was in charge of the latter campaign. Tissa employed poster campaigns, banners, cut outs and public addressing systems for the campaign whereas Sudath Chandrsekara did not go for such mass publicity strategies. A group who met Ranil complained that the propaganda strategies used by Sudath for " Village to village" program lacked vitality as he did not use poster, banners and cut outs, public address systems as Tissa used for " Round the country " Program and that the campaign should use the same strategies. " Village to village" was a disgrace to the party. Another group loyal to Sudath counter attacked stating that though Tissa had spent a large sum of money on " Round the country", it lacked vitality. On hearing the complaint on the shortcomings of the programs from the both parties, Ranil summoned his media committee. Saman Ataudahetti, Dayaratne, Sudath, Malik, Neomal, Ranga, Gamini Lokuge and Tissa Attanayaka attended the meeting. In addition UNP Organiser for Maharagama and Managing Director of phoenix, Ervin Weerakkody also participated Ranil asked the group to come out with the shortcomings in the poster campaign. Sudath's group highlighted the shortcomings in the "Round the country" Program. Ranil said " Tissa is busy with a lot of documentary work and he has no time to design posters. Therefore today on, Sudath will take up the organizing all programs. If necessary Sudath could get advice from Ervin ," he said. Rajitha, Mahinda, Ravi boycott S.B's Bodhi Puja Last Tuesday, S.B "celebrated" six months in prison. With this S.B loses every hope of pursuing a political career as an MP. He was charged for criminal offence and has served a term of six months imprisonment. This would automatically disqualify him from his seat in parliament together with his civic rights. He strived hardl to secure a release to overcome this time bar. On June 7, a Bodhi Pooja was organized at Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharaya by wife Tamara and S.B loyalists to invoke blessing on him. Mahinda Wijesekara, Bandula Gunawardena, G.L Peiris, Rajitha Senarathna, Ravi Karunanayaka, Dayasiri Jayasekara, though invited for the ceremony, were absent and even the absence of the closed ally Dayasiri was unbearable for Tamara who began to cry in the temple premises. One who tried to convey this to S.B over the phone was abused by him in rank filth. PM meets Ven. Sobhita Though Parliament was in session last Tuesday, a number of MPs accompanied the President on her Kandy tour. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse having attended the MPs meeting and thereafter participated in a meeting with National Patriotic Front Leaders Gunadasa Amerasekara, Piyal Parakkrama, Cyril Wickremage and others. The Prime Minister had an ad hoc discussion with Ven. Elle Gunawansa Thera on P-Toms and the situation in the country as he had to rush to Kandy for the Ranaviru Pushpopahara ( Floral tribute for war heroes) ceremony in Mailapitiya in Kandy . With his friend Central Province Governor Monty Gopallawa, the Prime Minister participated in the ceremony. The Prime Minister then visited the Dalada Maligawa to meet Ven. Omalpe Sobihta Thera who had launched a fast-unto-death campaign against P-Toms. It was 10,00 pm when the Prime Minister reached there. Though there was a strong military presence, a large number of Buddhist monks were assembled before the temple. Though a section of monks prevented the Prime Minister, Sobihta Thera on seeing this commotion called the Prime Minister in. Ven. Ratana Thera joined in the discussion with the Prime Minister who said that he came not as Prime Minister but as a friend. President Mangala conviviality The President called Minister Mangala Samaraweera for a one to one chat, the first since he resigned his media portfolio. President's House sources revealed that the two long-term political and personal friends had discussed the present political situation till early hours the following morning contrary to the rumors spread by the Opposition that the relationship between the President and Minister Samaraweera was on the verge of collapse. |
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