By

Rasika Jayakody

All stakeholders of the ‘rainbow revolution’, which ousted former President Mahinda Rajapaksa from power in January, have joined hands again to block the former President’s desperate comeback bid. The notable absentee in this whole process is none other than President Maithripala Sirisena, the protagonist of the “January 08 story”.

When President Maithripala Sirisena dissolved Parliament in June, the SLFP stalwarts supporting Rajapaksa calculated that the UNP would be isolated at the Parliamentary election. They thought Patali Champika Ranawaka and Ven Athuraliye Rathana Thera, two outspoken MPs of the JHU, would remain in the UPFA along with others who defected from the party with President Maithripala Sirisena before the Presidential election.

It was against this backdrop that they designed the political comeback of the former President and covertly supported “Bring Back Mahinda” rallies organized by some constituent parties of the UPFA. Their plan was to isolate and crush the UNP at the Parliamentary election by bringing the former President back into the UPFA coalition. By having President Maithripala Sirisena and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa side by side on their electorate platform, the UPFA seniors thought they would be in a position to enjoy the best of both worlds and secure a comfortable victory when it came to the electoral race.

However, former President Rajapaksa did not walk into the UPFA, alone. He was accompanied by a number of politicians who faced various bribery, corruption and criminal charges. There were ex-MPs who were frequent visitors of the Police Financial Crimes Investigations Department, the Bribery Commission and the Criminal Investigations Department. They were core members of the ‘Abhayaramaya cabal” which strongly pushed for the former President’s political comeback over the past few months.

Although President Sirisena was not inclined to accommodate them in the UPFA, Rajapaksa threatened to field a separate group if the party decided to reject nominations for members of his ‘core group’. As a result of this eleventh hour threat, Rajapaksa managed to secure nominations for his close associates including Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, Lakshman Wasantha Perera and Premalal Jayasekera.

Much to the surprise of Rajapaksa supporters, the inclusion of Rajapaksa and his allies in the UPFA list drove away a group of prominent ex-Parliament to the UNP camp. Among them were JHU General Secretary Patali Champika Ranawaka, Athuraliye Rathana Thera, Rajitha Senaratne, Arjuna Ranatunga and M.K.D.S. Gunawardena who joined hands with the UNP after signing a MOU to form the United National Front for Good Governance.

The Sri Lanka Muslim Comgress, All Ceylon Muslim Congress, Democratic People’s Front and several other civil organizations also signed the MOU to become stakeholders of the new coalition. The UNP nomination lists were amended to accommodate new coalition partners and some prominent UNP politicians at the provincial level had to be left out at the last moment. Party sources said popular actor Kamal Addaraarachchi too had to step down from the electoral race at the last moment to make room for new entrants.

UPFA’s eleventh hour nominations issues

The UPFA too had to face serious “nominations issues” at the eleventh hour. After extensive discussions, nominations committee of the party agreed to desist from giving nominations to four MPs namely Sarana Gunawardena, Duminda Silva, Mervyn Silva and Sajin De Vass Gunawardena. However, there were moves until the last moment to get nominations to some of the ‘rejected’ candidates, including Duminda Silva. Former President Rajapaksa too had some concerns about the party’s decision to not giving nominations to some of his key supporters.

On Sunday night, a major development took place at former Minister Felix Perera’s house at Keppetipola Mawatha, Colombo, over some UPFA politicians whose applications for nominations were turned down by the party. Perera was the district leader for Gampaha and a senior politician who served as a minister under the Rajapaksa administration.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had visited Perera’s house on Sunday night where a meeting was scheduled to take place between Rajapaksa and some members of the nominations committee, including UPFA General Secretary Susil Premajayantha. Former Parliamentarian Sudarshini Fernandopulle and several other provincial level politicians of the UPFA had also been present at Perera’s house by the time the former President had arrived.

Rajapaksa had told Perera that he needed a serene place for the meeting. The first floor of the former minister’s house was arranged for the meeting and Rajapaksa held a closed door meeting with the UPFA General Secretary and nomination committee members over candidates’ lists in Colombo and Gampaha. Duminda Silva’s name was removed from the Colombo District list and Gunawardena’s name was not included in the Gampaha district list

Informed UPFA sources said former President Rajapaksa had insisted that former Parliamentarian Duminda Silva should be allowed to contest under the UPFA ticket. Last week, Duminda Silva carried out a poster campaign in Colombo extending his support to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his “comeback bid.” Addressing several pocket meetings in Colombo over the past few days, Silva openly promoted Rajapaksa’s Prime Ministerial candidacy attempt.

Rejection of Sarana Gunawardena’s nomination had also been raised at the meeting. However, Sarana Gunawardena’s wife has been accommodated in the UPFA list for the Gampaha district, in place of her husband. This has drawn severe criticism from civil society groups promoting good governance as they say exclusion of Sarana Gunawardena’s name from the UPFA list is a mere eyewash. As his wife’s name is included in the list, Gunawardena is expected to play a significant role in the UPFA election campaign.

The meeting at the former Minister’s house went on with various arguments and counter-arguments over candidates who had been left out of the UPFA nominations list.

Towards the end of the meeting, Premajayantha had walked out of the meeting room holding his head in pain, complaining he was feeling faintish. Those who were present at Perera’s house had assumed that he was feeling faintish due to fatigue and low blood sugar. Perera later told the Daily News that Premajayantha had a hectic schedule over the last few days due to the UPFA nominations. A few minutes later, the UPFA General Secretary was taken away from Perera’s house as he needed some rest.

After the meeting ended abruptly, Rajapaksa had left for a meeting in Piliyandala where he was informed by former Minister Dinesh Gunawardena that the UPFA General Secretary had been admitted to Nawaloka Hospital, Colombo. Rajapaksa had suddenly left the meeting to check on the condition of Premajayantha and to ensure the “safety” of nomination papers, UPFA sources said. However, Premajayantha was discharged from hospital Monday morning and he was present at the Colombo District Secretariat to hand over the party’s nomination papers.

UPFA sources told the Daily News that when Premajayantha was admitted to the hospital, he also took the UPFA nomination papers with him. He had done some last minute changes to the UPFA list while in hospital.

Rajapaksa facing several key challenges

From Rajapaksa’s point of view, the election battle has come back to square one. He has to run his election campaign with those who were responsible for his defeat in January, including his brother former Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa. Sources from the UPFA told the Daily News last week that Basil Rajapaksa would be the chief strategist and the manager of the former President’s campaign. As President Sirisena’s supporters have decided to contest under the UNP ticket, Rajapaksa will now be the ‘de facto’ head of the UPFA campaign.

The UPFA has failed to field new and popular candidates who can attract those who voted against Rajapaksa at the Presidential election. There is no ‘breath of fresh air’ for the UPFA voters as the candidates’ lists contain same old names that represented Parliament and Provincial Councils over the past five years. A sizable proportion of candidates faced charges over their conduct when Rajapaksa was the President. This is likely to affect the ‘band-image’ of the UPFA campaign when it comes to the election.

The Parliamentary election poses another great challenge to the former President. In his 45 year-long political career, Rajapaksa has never led an election campaign without state power and state resources. Although the UPFA came to power in 2004 with Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister, he was not in a position to lead the UPFA election campaign. It was a joint effort by the JVP and some close associates of former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. After the election, Rajapaksa was appointed as the Prime Minister by former President Kumaratunga at the insistence of Maithripala Sirisena who was then the SLFP General Secretary.

In 2005, Rajapaksa led his campaign as the Prime Minister of the UPFA government. Although he did not have the full support of party leader Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, he was still the ‘second citizen’ of the country and his opponent Ranil Wickremesinghe was out of power during the time of the Presidential election. Throughout the campaign, Wickremesinghe looked like the clear favourite and opinion polls conducted prior to the election confirmed Wickremesinghe’s possible victory. However, at the last moment, Rajapaksa managed to pull off a miraculous victory as the LTTE ordered people to boycott the election in areas controlled by them. This disenfranchised nearly 300000 voters who were expected to vote in favour of Wickremesinghe who had embarked on peace negotiations with the LTTE.

As a result, Rajapaksa was able to win the Presidential election with a thin majority of 150000 votes becoming the fifth Executive President in the country. Multiple reports stated after the election that former Parliamentarian Tiran Alles, a close associate of Rajapaka, played a major role in arriving at the ‘last minute agreement’ with the LTTE. At the dawn of November 18, 2005, when victorious Rajapaksa met Alles near the staircase on the ground floor of Temple Trees, he joyously hugged the controversial businessman saying, “You made it happen”!

After coming to power, Rajapaksa led all UPFA election campaign with the full backing of state apparatus. State resources were used lavishly for election campaigns and state media turned into mere propaganda tools for the election with little or no respect for election laws and constitutional provisions. State resources were used to pamper voters with ‘dansel’ and other similar activities, earning him and his party a huge support-base at the grassroots level. Law enforcement bodies were emasculated and no official was in a position to challenge his raw abuse of power. Misuse of state power and state resources had a hand in almost all election victories of the UPFA over the past 10 years when the Rajapaksas were in power.

This reached new heights at the last Presidential election where Rajapaksa’s candidacy was challenged by the General Secretary of his own party. Abuse of state power reached unprecedented heights during the election and it sparked a natural resentment among the public over the conduct of the former President and his allies. A sizable proportion of urban middle class voters expressed their disappointment and anger over gross abuse of power when they voted against former President Rajapaksa and his regime in January.

Therefore, this is the first election campaign he has to lead without unconditional support of state apparatus including state media. Although the former President’s campaign will have enough funding and financial support, he will not be in a position to display his ‘spending power’ blatantly as he is already under microscopes of law enforcement and anti-corruption bodies. Due to absence of ‘dansel’ and other similar measures, he will have difficulties in reaching out to the masses when it comes to the overall election campaign. However, Rajapaksa has selected a district where he has a strong voter base. But, apart from focusing on his individual result, Rajapaksa should also concentrate on the UPFA’s overall campaign as his political fate will totally depend on the coalition’s final result.

On the other hand, the UNP’s election machinery is in full swing after a successful election campaign in January. After 10 years, the UNP supporters have got a fresh opportunity to vote for their party under favourable conditions for the party. As the party remained in power only for six months, it has still not made monumental blunders that can cripple the party’s election campaign in a decisive way. However, one has every reason to believe that the treasury bond issue, which made headlines over the past few months, will make a negative impact on the party’s campaign – at least to some extent. However, there are two main factors that will work in the UNP’s favour where the treasury bond issue is concerned. On one hand, complicated financial details with regard to the Treasury bond issue are beyond the reach of ordinary masses who are not conversant with the Central Bank’s transactions. On the other hand, the most vociferous critique of the Treasury Bonds issue, Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka, is now contesting the election under the UNP ticket.

Another important factor in the election is the role played by the Tamil National Alliance. It can be assumed that the TNA will be able to obtain at least 15 seats from the North and East as the election will be a one-horse race in the party. The TNA won the Northern Provincial Council election with a resounding majority and the party does not have a formidable political opponent in the areas where it operates. Therefore, the political camp drawing the support of the TNA will be in an advantageous position to form a government after the election, especially in the absence of a clear majority in Parliament. It is impossible to believe that the TNA will agree to work with the Rajapaksa camp which has already taken an ultra-nationalist path.

National lists give important indications

With the closing of nomination, all major political parties announced their national list. It was quite clear that the JVP had decided to present a national list comprised of professionals, intellectuals and civil society members. The UNP, in its national list, has given more space to minority representatives and key political activists of the party. The UPFA, on the other hand, had used its national list to accommodate some of its political allies and to make way for several strange “bedfellows” to enter Parliament.

Among the national list members of the JVP are former Auditor General S.C. Mayadunne, Chrishmal Warnasuriya, Upul Kumarapperuma, Prof. A.J. Ruhunuhewa, Prof. Susiripala Manawadu, Prof. Kapila Perera and Prof. Piyadasa Ranasinghe. Cartoonist Winnie Hettigoda, Charles Dayananda, writer Anthony Jeewa, Sajeewa Chamikara, and film maker Anurudhdha Jayasinghe. The former Auditor General is a heroic figure among anti-corruption activists in the country due to his lone battle against corruption. It is also quite clear that the JVP is keen on giving opportunities for intellectuals to enter Parliament against a backdrop where the country’s legislature is gradually moving towards hooliganism. Over the past few years, drug-peddlers, ethanol smugglers, hooligans and those who faced criminal charges were allowed to contest elections by certain mainstream political parties.

The UNP has given its Chairman Malik Samarawickrema and Karu Jayasuriya national list slots. That is an indication that Samarawickrema will play a major role in the new government if the UNP comes to power. Along with Samarawickrama and Jayasuriya, D.M. Swaminadhan, Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne, Raja Uswetakeiyawa, Thilak Marapona, Krishantha Cooray and Sirinal de Mel and Professor Ashu Marasinghe have also been given places in the party’s national list. For the first time in history, the UNP has also accommodated two Buddhist monks in its national list, namely Athuraliye Rathana Thera and Omalpe Sobhitha Thera. Rathana Thera had to be given a national slot as the party traditions did not allow the nominations committee to field a Buddhist monk as a candidate.

Meanwhile, A.H.M. Fowzie, Tissa Attanayake, Prof. G.L. Peiris, Prof. Tissa Vitrarana, D.E.W. Gunasekera, Tiran Alles, Dilan Perera, Shiral Lakthilake, J. Sri Ranga , Charitha Herath and Reginald Cooray have been given slots in the UPFA national list. It is clear that the leaders of the Sama Samaaja and Communist parties have been given national list slots according to internal agreements within the UPFA. However, the inclusion of Tissa Attanayake and Tiran Alles in the UNP national lists has already raised serious doubts among some sections of the political circles. Alles played a key role in Tissa Ayttanayake’s crossover ahead of the Presidential election in January and both of them are already facing court cases over various charges. Alles is involved in a court case due to alleged financial misappropriations at RADA while Tissa Attanayake is under investigation over accepting a ministerial portfolio during the election and forged signature issue. Despite charges leveled against them, the UPFA has decided to accommodate them in the party’s national. Dilan Perera’s inclusion in the national list also shows that the party has serious doubts over the Badulla district result.

Dragon-nation involved in MR campaign?

It has now been revealed that a certain dragon-nation, which worked very closely with the Sri Lankan government when the Rajapaksas were in power, has invested a monstrous amount of money for the election campaign of their preferred political group. They had already given financial assistance to strategize the campaign which includes conducting comprehensive studies to assess the present political situation of the country.

To conceal the dragon-nation’s outlook in this exercise, it has been revealed that the country had hired retired Indian intelligence experts in this regard. The ‘hiring’ had happened without any involvement or knowledge of the Indian government. Of course, the Indian government had some serious issues with the Rajapaksa administration and any attempt to change the political landscape of Sri Lanka would make a significant impact on the Indian foreign policy. After the new government came to power, it took some important measures to repair Sri Lanka’s ties with India and as a result, an Indian head of state arrived in Sri Lanka for an official visit after a hiatus of 28 years. On the other hand, India has a traditional enmity of some sort with the dragon-nation and that adds another dimension to the whole issue.

The news of dragon-nation hiring retired Indian intelligence experts has now reached the Indian defence establishments, the Daily News learns. It would be interesting to examine how the Indian defence establishment would react to the new situation.


Courtesy:Daily News