Pressure group in the making

Today’s journalists carry more than a notebook and a pencil as their predecessors did. Thus we’ve had no “I was misquoted/misreported” or “I was reported out of context” claim from Industries Minister Wimal Weerawansa who set a cat among the canaries in the country’s political firmament the other day.

The minister who leads the National Freedom Front did not deny his controversial statement for obvious reasons. His entire interview with the Sunday Lankadeepa was recorded and he could not take the well-worn route of blaming the media. He therefore chose to clarify that what he intended to say was not that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa should replace Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa as SLPP leader, but that a “suitable position” in the party should be created for him.

Observers of the political scene well know that Weerawansa is not disloyal to either the president or the prime minister. He owes them a lot for being where he is. They believe that he was targeting another Rajapaksa – who he thinks brought in Rear Admiral (Retd.) Sarath Weerasekera to run from the Colombo district at the last election rather than from Ampara he previously represented. That cost the onetime JVPer his coveted position of the top preference vote-getter in the district. It is unlikely that the prime minister took umbrage at Weerawansa’s unsolicited proposal, or if he did preferred to keep quiet about his feelings. Although opponents of the government would wish to see aiya – malli differences within the ruling coalition, there is no credible evidence that such is the case. But that did not stop SLPP General Secretary, National List MP Sagara Kariyawasa, from clearly rebuking Weerawansa. There was no angry denunciation, but the message was clear. It was totally unacceptable that the leader of another party, even though a member of the ruling alliance, should make proposals on who should lead the SLPP.

The president and prime minister have refrained from making any comment on this flutter. Doing so would have further muddied the waters. The always sharply dressed and immaculately groomed minister, whose eloquence in the official language must be acknowledged even by the ranks of Tuscany, has reined his tongue for once. He is not obliging the media chasing him with any sound bytes or quotable quotes to get himself into more trouble. His supporters predictably accuse his detractors of fishing in troubled waters and assure them that they will not bite. It wasn’t long ago that Weerawansa hosted a group of leaders from the smaller parties of the ruling coalition at his official residence to resist the government’s proposal on the East Container Terminal (ECT) of the Colombo port. The government wanted to run it on a 51-49 percent arrangement with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority holding the controlling stake and Indian, Japanese and other investors taking the balance.

That meeting was summoned when a great deal of dust was being kicked up by those who strongly supported the election campaigns of both President Gotabaya Rajapaksa as well as the SLPP-led government of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa that followed. The protesters included a formidable section of the Buddhist clergy that nationalist sections of the polity would not want to offend as well as port unions that hinted at strike action. It is doubtful that even old warhorses like Vasudeva Nanayakkara or newcomers like Udaya Gammanpila who has demonstrated rapid upward mobility in the political picture would have been able to get elected outside the SLPP umbrella and they well know it. Prof. Tissa Vitarana of the once-proud LSSP and Mr. Gevindu Kumaratunga of the Yuthukama Organization had to content themselves with SLPP National List seats. The Communist Party did not get even that and Mr. Dew Gunasekera is in retirement. While the SLFP is not down to zero like the UNP from which Mr. Bandaranaike broke away, it may have suffered a similar or near-similar fate but for its alliance with the SLPP. Even giant-killer Maithripala Sirisena, while retaining the leadership of the blue party, had to succumb to realpolitik and ally with the lotus bud to make sure he was returned to parliament from his Polonnaruwa stronghold.

After winning the ECT battle by trimming their sails to the direction in which the wind was blowing, the minor partners of the ruling alliance, sometimes called “name board parties,” appear to be in the process of setting up some kind of ginger group within the ruling party in the style of backbenchers in Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake’s UNP government of the middle sixties. But in this instance many of the movers and shakers are frontbenchers and not backbenchers. Gammanipila is on record saying that they planned to meet periodically obviously to take a collective stand on issues within the government. The leadership would normally be wary of the development of a pressure group signaling possible trouble down the road. But right now there does not appear to be any major differences within the ruling coalition.

To get to another subject, few will buy the feeble attempt to pretend that the Prime Minister did not last week say that the burial of Muslim Covid-19 victims would be permitted. Since he made this statement in Parliament, winning the accolades of deeply distressed Muslims both inside and outside the legislature, there have been attempts to change gear with Dr. (Mrs.) Sudarshini Fernandopulle, State Minister of Primary Health Services, Pandemics and Covid Prevention saying that a scientific committee is looking into the matter which was not one for an individual decision. Another woman government MP, Kokila Gunawardena, said that what the PM said was that burial will be permitted but did not say of Covid victims. Who is fooling whom?