Politics of power and deceit

A secret document from a stolen briefcase of an influential opposition politician outlining a constitutional coup to oust Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has become the latest spanner in the works of Sri Lanka's laboured efforts to make cohabitation government work.

Gulf News learns of a bizarre theft of the briefcase belonging to Mangala Samaraweera, a former media minister and confidante of President Chandrika Kumara-tunga, while he held a press conference recently following his discharge from bribery and corruption charges.

The briefing was held at the official residence of the leader of the opposition, but the theft of the once-powerful minister's briefcase was discovered only after journalists had left.

Samaraweera is hated by a large section of the media for his bullying tactics when he held the job of overlooking them, and has often referred to a 'media mafia' that runs the local press.

Inside the briefcase was a secret document prepared either by Samaraweera or for him, outlining what it called a "revolutionary, but constitutional coup" to get Kumaratunga to sack Wickremesinghe, leader of the United National Front (UNF) coalition and have him replaced by respected former foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar from the Peoples Alliance (PA).

The document was splashed in a pro-government weekend newspaper and local radio and television stations broadcast details throughout Sunday, saying the Prime Minister has summoned the police, the armed forces chiefs and the UNF high command to discuss the opposition plan.

According to this plan, the opposition PA, which currently has 79 seats, is to work with the Marxist-nationalist Peoples Liberation Front (JVP) which has 16 seats in the 225 seat parliament, split the Muslim Congress and rely on disgruntled UNF members of Parliament to obtain an absolute majority of 113 in the legislature.

After that number is obtained, Kadirgamar is to be appointed by President Kumaratunga as a compromise choice as Prime Minister of a national reconciliation cabinet with the JVP in the government.The PA-JVP combine ran a shaky provincial government a year ago for a few months before it collapsed.

The document talks of splitting the plantation workers' union, the Workers' Congress (CWC), and of President Kumaratunga being the catalyst by way of raising probing questions about UNF cabinet ministers and preventing the country's UNF defence minister Tilak Marapana from giving instructions to the military on matters relating to the LTTE guerrillas.

Marapana, a former attorney general has downplayed the significance of the document rejecting the theory that it envisaged a "coup". He seemed to agree that it was a mere political exercise by the opposition, and told reporters that the UNF was prepared to meet any political challenge from the PA.

PA seniors say that they have not seen this document and that it must be one of several research papers from some think-tank which all political parties engage in. They denied it was an official party document.

In any event, they point out that the document only speaks of a political exercise through constitutional methods to topple the government within the law, and argue that all parties do these exercises when in opposition.

Kadirgamar, a former Oxford union president and barrister who has won the support of majority Sinhalese for his international campaign against the LTTE during his seven-year tenure as the country's foreign minister, has denied any knowledge of this document and said that he is not part of this plan to have himself installed as prime minister.

Regarded as a sobering influence on Kumaratunga's often hostile approach towards her political opponents, Kadirgamar met Wickremesinghe on Wednesday to discuss the deteriorating relations in the cohabitation PA-UNF government.

Relations between the PA headed by Kumaratunga and the UNF headed by Wickremesinghe soured recently after Kumarat-unga accused consumer affairs minister Ravi Karunanay-ake of making allegations that she was carrying bombs in her handbag for Cabinet meetings.

Both the prime minister and the minister have denied such a thing was said as police investigations have begun to trace the existence of a handbag used by the president which contained secret recording devices.

Kumaratunga has written to Wickremesinghe saying she wants to sack the minister from the Cabinet, but the premier has stood his ground saying that it is he who decides on the cabinet.

The complication has arisen over the fact that Kumaratunga was elected by the people in a presidential election in 1999 and can hold office until 2005, and Wickremesinghe's UNF was elected also by the people in parliamentary elections defeating Kumaratunga's PA in 2001. He can hold office until 2006.

Legal experts say that Kumaratunga eventually has the constitutional powers to sack any minister, including the Prime Minister, but she cannot call elections till December this year, and in the meantime parliament, where the UNF has a majority, can stop finances to run the presidency.
Prime Minister Wickreme-singhe says that he will still give the French-style cohabitation a go, and that he will try to work out a solution with Kadirgamar and others in the PA.

At least on the 'peace front', Kadirgamar has been able to get Kumaratunga and the PA to support Wickremesinghe's efforts at bringing the separatist LTTE to the negotiating table.
But it is on domestic issues that a hard-line PA, which includes the likes of Samaraweera, are veering towards a confrontation course with the UNF.

A classic example of this exercise was when Kumaratunga first wrote to Wickremesinghe asking whether minister Karunanayake should not be sacked for his conduct, Kadirgamar's advise was sought. Kadirgamar had suggested that the letter merely asks the prime minister for his views.

A second, harsher and irrelevant letter sent by Kumaratunga to Wickremes-inghe saying that Karunanayake should in fact be sacked, was never shown to Kadirgamar.

The stolen document, though it is not an official party document, indicates the frame of mind hardline opposition members are in, triggering an equal response from hardline UNF frontliners such as Karunanayake and a host of others who left Kumaratunga under various circumstances and joined Wickremesinghe.

Hitherto, traditional members from Wickremesinghe's own United National Party (UNP) have tolerated Kumaratunga and opted to accept the ground realities of cohabitation government.

But an ugly and unbecoming display of mimicking of cabinet ministers, including some respected polticians by Kumara-tunga at a political meeting, has made Wickremesinghe's task of working with her even more difficult.

Exasperated, the prime minister has threatened to call for another election - the fourth in four years if held - but whether even that would solve Sri Lanka's chronic internal bleeding is in doubt.

Newspapers are howling at the childish behaviour of local politicians while national issues go through the window. A public cry for common-sense and decency from the leaders appears to be falling on deaf ears.