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My dear Mahinda Aiya,
Ayubowan, Wanakkam, Assalam Alikkum and though it’s Christmas time its seems inappropriate if not absurd to wish the hallowed peace and goodwill of the season because there seems to be little by way of peace and less goodwill.
Even the worst of times since the beginning of the ethnic war , Sri Lankahad at least a temporally ceasefire for this season because Christmas is love and Christmas is peace, a time for hatred and violence to cease. But this year a big battle seems to be brewing in the East with your powerful brother and dealmaker Basil Rajapaksa reportedly saying government troops would first get the Tigers out of the East before agreeing to start further talks with the LTTE. This was reiterated by the hardline Army Commander Sarath Fonseka and the recent confrontations in Vakarai and other areas appear to be part of the strategy.
On the political front, the crises of confusion within confusion, conflicts within conflicts and divisions within division appear to be more complex than ever before, with the achcharu and kaiwaru politics also continuing.
Though the United States the other Co-chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference and India are stressing the need for the government and the main opposition UNP to push ahead with their MOU it seems that you are being pushed or tossed in another direction.
According to reports , top political operator Basil Rajapaksa appears to be having the upper hand and sitting on the main chair now. This is causing concern, and even protest from senior SLFP-PA Cabinet Ministers who fear the country is being run if not ruined by Rajapaksa Holdings Private Limited. Latest reports say UNP operator Milinda Moragoda met you over the weekend and surprisingly he was escorted by kingmaker Maharaja’s boss Killi Mahendran. The discussions reportedly involved the provision of portfolios to some 12 UNP rebel MPs with Mr. Moragoda staking a claim for the Foreign Ministry or the Finance Ministry. It seem you are now swinging to Basil Rajapakse’s side and trying to strengthen your position by splitting the UNP while launching further military operations specially in the East to boost your Sinhala Buddhist vote bank and repair links with the JVP and the JHU.
Some reports say the twelve rebel UNP MPs may not include Karu Jayasuriya and this might create a rival group within a rival group, symbolic of the groups within groups and contradictions within contradictions in today’s kalakanni party politics.
Yet it also seems you are about to get a taste of your own medicine, with a cabinet split erupting last week and Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera coming out openly against some of your policies and the domination by the Rajapaksa brothers. Mr. Samaraweera reportedly kept away from last week’s Cabinet meeting after you used various tactics to publicly reprimand or accuse him of mishandling the Palestinian issue.
According to reports Mr. Samaraweera on representations made by the United States just three days before the Co-chairs meeting in Washington, had told the Sri Lankan delegation at the United Nations to abstain when a pro-Palestinian anti-Israeli resolution was taken up by the General Assembly. The resolution introduced by Qatar got 156 votes for three against with six abstentions including Sri Lanka. The three countries which voted against the resolution were the US, Israel and Australia. All twenty five European Union countries voted for the resolution.
Mr. Samaraweera believed he had done an excellent diplomatic job behind the scenes because the statement issued by the Co-chairs after their Washington meeting was not as tough as expected on alleged human rights violations by the government and the humanitarian catastrophe in the North-East. The first to react to Lanka’s abstention was SLFP front-liner or should we say now sideliner Anura Bandaranaike who is now in deep trouble and is battling openly with you on several matters. Mr. Bandaranaike whose family has traditionally maintained close links with the Palestinians, reportedly wrote a private letter to Mr. Samaraweera asking why Sri Lanka had taken a different stand. Mr. Bandaranaike reportedly acted after Arab diplomats made representation to him.
Media reports say that Mr. Samaraweera and Mr. Bandaranaike now in the same camp on various issues—had a somewhat friendly discussion on the Palestinian issue at a Cabinet meeting earlier this month. You had overheard the conversations and Mr. Samaraweera reportedly told you of why he ordered the tactical abstention to win US support for Sri Lanka. But you were not impressed and rebuked him for taking a different line especially because you had been the President of the Sri Lanka Palestine Friendship Society. Later the society was reportedly orchestrated from the highest level to issue a statement condemning Mr. Samaraweera’s move.
It was against this backdrop that former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga made a strong comeback like a new political tsunami. After attending a highly publicised and highly controversial meeting of the SLFP Balamandalaya in her home base of Attanagalla Ms. Kumaratunga reportedly said astrologers were predicting she would be back at the top after April next year. The line of what she meant or what her plans are is not clear but some reports suggest she might give leadership to an SLFP-PA breakaway faction which would form an alliance with the UNP. Anura Bandaranaike also attended the Horogolla meeting and he now appears to be in open confrontation with you, and your secretary Lalith Weeratunga reportedly sent a letter to him to vacate his Visumpaya or Ackland House resident. Mr. Bandaranaike however ignored the letter and left for a three week Christmas holiday in California saying that the war situation created in resentment was killing the tourism industry. But you have shot back, accusing Mr. Bandaranika of not being able to deliver the goods.
So that’s the extent of the mess and the mud hole as the country goes into the new year with all sorts of new alignments looming but with no body really sure as to where the country is going and where we will end up. Huge debt repayments amounting to billions of dollars have to be made from next month and if we add more billions of rupees a month for the war, economic bankruptcy added to political bankruptcy might plunge the country into the hell hole of a failed or ungovernable state of anarchy. Sad to sound like a prophet of doom but the situation is so grim that even optimists find it difficult to see the dim light of a distance star at this Christmas time.
Yours sincerely,
Koththamalli.
DM
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