By
Rasika Jayakody
“Power is given only to him who dares to stoop and take it … one must have the courage to dare.”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky –“Crime and Punishment”
Sri Lanka Freedom Party, headed by President Maithripala Sirisena, is now running into a fresh issue with the pro-Rajapaksa group deciding to hold a separate May Day rally, distancing themselves from the May Day event organised by the party.
Non-SLFP partners of the UPFA coalition, including the National Freedom Front, Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and Pivithuru Hela Urumaya, are the main organisers of the Rajapaksa group’s May Day rally. In addition, a group of MPs representing the SLFP rebel camp are likely to attend the event. The ‘demographics’ of the participants are not so difficult to figure out as it is the same group who supported Rajapaksa after the Parliamentary election in August, last year.
The SLFP rebels said in no uncertain terms that they would attend the May Day rally organised by the pro-Rajapaksa group, irrespective of any decision by the party Central Committee. They also said former President Mahinda Rajapaksa too would attend the May Day rally, without fearing any disciplinary action by the party.
It is quite evident that the SLFP’s decision-making bodies are now suffering from the ‘cry wolf’ syndrome. When a group of party MPs defied the Central Committee order and attended an anti-ETCA rally organized by the ‘joint opposition’ last month, the party failed to take any disciplinary action, despite numerous threats by party seniors during press conferences held before the rally. Now, pro-Rajapaksa rebels consider the Central Committee’s claims as mere ‘empty threats’. It has plunged the party into a situation where it cannot control the actions of the rebel group anymore.
When a section of party MPs defied the Central Committee decision, some prominent members of the party, including former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, pushed for immediate action against them. During the internal meetings of the party, they repeatedly stressed the need for tough action against those who breached party discipline. However, some members supporting President Sirisena including Minister S B Dissanayake, said jumping into action in haste would further jeopardise the party’s strength. This ongoing debate, however, prevented the party from adopting quick measures to instill discipline among party members.
Several senior spokespersons of the SLFP, including new UPFA General Secretary Mahinda Amaraweera said stern action would be taken against those who attend May Day rallies organised by other parties. To get Rajapaksa supporters involved in the SLFP May Day rally, the SLFP appointed three rebel MPs – namely Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Pavithra Wanniarachchi and Kumara Welgama – as organising committee members of the party’s May Day event. However, highly placed party sources told the Daily News that the three MPs would help the rebel group’s rally, despite the new appointment.
“No threat can stop us. We heard similar threats in the past and nothing could stop our journey. We are against the UNP and we cannot endorse the party’s association with the UNP-led government. Therefore, we will attend the May Day rally organized by the joint opposition. If our opposition to the UNP-led alliance is a problem for the party, let them take disciplinary action. We are not worried about it anymore,” an SLFP stalwart in the pro-Rajapaksa camp told the Daily News on Tuesday. His statement indicated that they had no qualms about challenging the Central Committee’s opinion.
On Sunday, a group of UPFA rebels, led by Parliamentarian Dinesh Gunawardena, visited the former President’s residence in Tangalle to officially invite him for the group’s May Day rally scheduled to be held at Kirulapona. The former President promptly accepted their invitation, assuring that he would be present at the rebel group’s rally.
Speaking to the team led by Gunawardena, Rajapaksa said he did not receive any invitation to attend the SLFP’s May Day rally in Galle. “They cannot ask us to attend May Day rallies through intimidation. There has to be a proper invitation. I haven’t received any invitation so far,” Rajapaksa told his supporters.
This claim, however, was openly contradicted by UPFA General Secretary Mahinda Amaraweera who said invitations had been sent to the former President for the party’s ‘official’ May Day rally. It can be safely assumed that the former President is finding reasons to dodge the SLFP’s main May Day rally and attend the event organised by the group supporting him.
A source close to the Rajapaksa camp said SLFP MPs who attended the anti-ETCA rally at Hyde Park would be present at the Kirulapona rally as well.
Prasanna lays foundation
To lay the foundation for the rebel group’s May Day rally, UPFA MP and former Western Province Chief Minister Prasanna Ranatunga has organised a commemorative event under the auspices of Rajapaksa. The event will mark the 79th birth anniversary of his father, Reggie Ranatunga, former Minister under the Chandrika Kumaratunga administration. He was later appointed as the Sabaragamuwa Province Governor by the Rajapaksa administration.
The event will be held at Prasanna Ranatunga’s personal residence at Udugampola, Gampaha on April 22. Rajapaksa and a group of MPs representing the rebel group have confirmed their participation at the event. Interestingly, two other sons of Reggie Ranatunga who are actively involved in politics – namely Minister Arjuna Ranatunga and Ruwan Ranatunga – may not attend the commemorative event.
However, there is a strong outcry from a section of SLFP Parliamentarians that the ‘divisive’ elements in the party should be severely dealt with. They are of the view that the matter grew out of proportion as the party failed to take action against dissidents at the appropriate time. This group’s sentiments were expressed at a press conference at the Government Information Department on Monday morning. It was two SLFP stalwarts who accepted ministerial portfolios under the national unity government – Ministers Lakshman Seneviratne and Mahinda Samarasinghe.
This group believes that the separate May Day rally held by the UPFA dissidents will be the tipping point where the blue camp’s power struggle is concerned.
“The party should not worry about divisions. It is clear that a split is in the offing and the rebel group has already decided to form a new party. The party should now focus on initiating reforms, as it would be essential to rebuild the party. The government has already told that the Local Government election cannot be held this year due to delays in the delimitation process. It will give the SLFP enough time to restructure and rebuild the party. Consuming more time and allowing the rebel group to infringe on party discipline will not help the SLFP in any manner,” a senior spokesperson of the party, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Daily News on Monday. He represented the line of thinking shared by ardent supporters of President Sirisena.
Pujith wins IGP race
Ending months of speculation over the top post in the country’s Police service, the Constitutional Council on Monday decided to nominate Senior DIG Pujith Jayasundera as the new IGP. He will succeed N K Illangakoon who retired from service on April 12, after holding the position for five years.
Although the President appointed Senior DIG S M Wickremasinghe as the Acting IGP, he forwarded three names to the Constitutional Council appointed under the provisions of the 19th Amendment. His nominees were Senior DIGs S M Wickremasinghe, Pujith Jayasundera and C Wickremaratne.
The Constitutional Council, however, initially expected President to nominate only one candidate. The President’s move entrusted the Constitutional Council with the task of selecting a suitable candidate for the position. Therefore, the 10-member council informed all three candidates to be present before the body on Monday.
Out of the three members, the most serious contenders were Senior DIGs Wickremasinghe and Jayasundera. Wickremasinghe, who hails from Polonnaruwa, functioned as the security chief of the President. Some assumed it earned him the support of the country’s political authority. The President, however, acted in a very impartial manner and handed over the task to the highly powered body, which had representation of the country’s legislature as well as the civil society.
According to many political critiques, Wickremasinghe’s main disadvantage was his earlier association with former President Rajapaksa. He was the security chief of the former President and as a result he had to take a lot of bullets from some sections of the media. Certain members of the former President’s security wing are already under investigations and some good-governance activists assumed that Wickremasinghe’s appointment as the IGP would pose a threat to those investigations. One such high-profile investigation was the CID inquiry into former Rugby player Wasim Thajudeen’s death which has become a hot topic for media. Despite these odds, Wickremasinghe was slightly ahead of Jayasundera in terms of seniority in the Police service.
Meanwhile, Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka, a prominent member of the Constitutional Council, had to face an unexpected issue with some critiques stating that he should distance himself from the process of selecting the IGP as the Minister was facing a Police investigation. The Minister had to face a Police inquiry over an accident where a 25-year-old was critically injured. They said the minister’s involvement in the process would amount to “conflict of interest.”
It was against this backdrop that the three candidates faced interviews before the Constitutional Council members on Monday. Senior DIG Wickremaratne was the most junior officer out of the three and he did not pose a serious competition to the main contenders. But, many recognised Wickramaratne as a ‘clean officer’ with an unblemished track record.
According to highly placed political sources, seven out of 10 Constitutional Council members were present when they interviewed the three candidates. CC members Shibly Aziz and Radhika Coomaraswamy were absent on Monday. Their conspicuous absence disappointed many civil activists who supported the formation of the Constitutional Council. After the interviews, the Council decided to take a vote and Jayasundera received five votes in his favour. Wickremasinghe managed to secure only one vote and another vote got rejected.
Following this outcome, the Constitutional Council decided to nominate Pujith Jayasundera as the new IGP. Jayasundera made history as the first Police Chief appointed by the Constitutional Council.
Who is Pujith?
Born in March 1960, at Bogamuwa in the Kurunegala district, Jayasundera is a past pupil of Dharmaraja College, Kandy.
He received his Management B.Com (Special Degree) at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Later, joining the Sri Lankan Police, he began his career as an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in the Crimes and Operations Unit in Anuradhapura in 1986.
One important highlight of his career was his mission to build safe communities and to enhance trust between people and the Sri Lanka Police Forces. Jayasundera received wide recognition and commendation for his contribution in this regard.
From 1987 to 1988, he served as the ASP of Batticaloa District, based in Eravur, in charge of three police stations in the area.
His main tasks included overseeing operations and logistics work of the department. Serving in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province during a time of conflict, the then ASP had several narrow escapes in the face of terrorist attacks. Such experiences turned him into a battle-hardened officer in the country’s Police service.
His first appointment as Superintendent of Police (SP) moved him to Ratnapura in 1991, where his work extended beyond ordinary affairs of the Police service. He commenced community police activities in Balangoda, Opanayake, Kahawatte and Kuruwita working with youth clubs, grama sevaka divisions and the Civil Defence Committees, organising shramadana campaigns. He saw immense value in such activities in bridging the gap between the communities and the police, in an effort to build greater trust between them and fight social issues such as corruption and crime.
The community work he initiated covered six main areas including health, education, culture, sports, shramadhana and religious activities.
He also initiated the ‘police star’ programme, an event to empower and engage youth; the torchbearers of tomorrow. Such events were also supported through donations from people and businesses, with the community’s civil defence committees functioning in charge of finances. As part of the same project, temporary mobile police stations were established to enable people to speak to police officers and work with them towards common tasks. While these mobile police stations were withdrawn following the community events, they left a lasting impact on the minds of people regarding activities of the Police force.
In his engagements with the public as a senior Police officer, Jayasundera was never reluctant to share his personal mobile number with ordinary citizens. Jayasundera repeatedly encouraged people to deal with him on a personal basis, if relevant Police stations did not attend to their matter effectively. This earned him a reputation as a people-friendly Police officer.
Social Media support
It was in the grapevine among Police circles that Jayasundera was sidelined under the Rajapaksa administration for some reason. This ‘sidelining’, in a way, was advantageous to him in the long run as his name was not linked with any serious allegation under the Rajapaksa rule. As a result, when he vied for the IGP’s post, he could project himself as an officer with a clean track-record.
As the new Government came to power, Jayasundera was given important responsibilities on the crime front. He was entrusted with the task of curbing the ‘crime wave’ in Colombo and suburban areas. Under his leadership, the Police arrested 36 members of organised crime groups in a special operation.
Among the 36 arrested were 18 most wanted criminals such as Kalu Sagara, Nadun Chinthaka, Dineth Milan alias Uru Juwal, D. Manju and Joseph Kumara alias Josa. Apart from the suspects, Police also seized a variety of weapons used by these groups including four T56 rifles with two magazines and 32 bullets, four pistols along with two magazines and 31 bullets. Jayasundera, needless to say, had friendly relations with media, which stood him in good stead in his run-up to the IGP’s position. He received a huge support from the media mainly because of his friendly relations with journalists.
However, it was evident over the past few weeks that there was a large scale social media campaign to position Jayasundera as the most suitable candidate for the IGP’s post. Probably, this social media campaign was launched without the senior Police officer’s knowledge.
Be that as it may, one should also understand that Jayasundera is one of the Police officers who have a strong social media presence and he has a significant following on social media platforms.
So, inevitably there can be a wave of support for him in the social media space when he vies for the top post in the Police service.
However, this campaign was mainly carried out by past pupils of Dharmaraja College, Kandy, who vociferously supported Jayasundera’s IGP bid. It was the first time Sri Lankan social media users actively campaigned for a candidate vying for the IGP’s position. It is quite evident that Jayasundera has numerous challenges ahead of him – one being the unfinished investigations into allegations of bribery and corruption. At the same, the recent battle he initiated against criminal activities has to be completed. On the other hand, he needs to formulate a comprehensive plan to build the ‘image’ of the Police service, which has been damaged due to various reasons over the past few years.
Therefore, Jayasundera has to embark on a tough mission to live up to the expectations of the people who supported his IGP bid, silently and vociferously.
Courtesy:Daily News