By Vishvanath
The SLPP dissidents are hardening their position on the controversial agreement between the government and the US energy firm, New Fortress, despite an earful they got from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa at a meeting of the leaders of eleven constituents of the ruling coalition, on Thursday. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was also present.
The proponents of the controversial energy deal seem to think attack is the best form of defence. They sought to put their opponents on the defensive, at Thursday’s meeting, while pretending to be somewhat flexible by offering to consider the dissenters’ views on the public-private partnership in question. They called for suggestions from the SLPP MPs. But the general consensus is that the most important agreement on the LNG deal has already been inked, and it is an exercise in futility for the dissenting MPs to express their opinions at this late stage.
SLPP General Secretary and MP Sagara Kariyawasam has struck a conciliatory tone; he is papering over the cracks. He has told the media that at Thursday’s SLPP party leaders’ meeting, the dissident group did not oppose the sale of 40% of shares of the Yugadanavi power plant to New Fortress, as such, and they only made an issue of the proposed LNG supply facility. It would be possible to reach a consensus on the issue, he said. But the SLPP rebel group including three Cabinet Ministers—Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Udaya Gammanpila and Wimal Weerawansa—gave the lie to his claim, on Friday, when they launched a mass movement called People’s Council, and held a press conference, together with the representatives of other constituents of the SLPP. Reiterating their opposition to the New Fortress deal, they pledged to do everything in their power to prevent it from going through.
There is no love lost between Basil and the Weerawansa-Gammanpila duo. The former has not forgiven the latter for their abortive effort to have the final draft of 20th Amendment to the Constitution changed to prevent dual citizens from entering the parliament so as to foil his (Basil’s) bid to secure a National List slot. The SLPP, especially its General Secretary Kariyawasam, has since turned hostile towards Weerawansa and Gammanpila, and even dared the latter, on several occasions to leave the government if they do not agree with its policies. Weerawansa and Gammanpila have now got hold of something to beat Basil with; they are bound to flog the New Fortress issue hard. They know it is an easy sell with trade unions, the media and civil society groups promoting accountability and transparency, and they can gain a lot of political mileage.
Dispute over Cabinet approval
The protesting SLPP ministers have rubbished the government’s claim that Cabinet approval was duly obtained for the New Fortress agreement. They insist that the Cabinet paper concerned was not properly discussed at any Cabinet meeting, and the deal was struck surreptitiously. This is a very serious allegation, which the Opposition and other critics of the government will make the best use of to discredit the government.
Also present at Friday’s media conference were SLFP General Secretary and State Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera, SLPP MPs Ven. Athuraliye Rathana, former MP and National Congress Leader A. L. M. Athaulla, General Secretary of the LSSP Prof. Tissa Vithrarana, Leader of Uthukama Gevindu Cumaratunga and General Secretary of the Communist Party Dr. G. Weerasinghe. Taken together, they are a force to be reckoned with although the government seems to think it can easily do without them. The Mahinda Rajapaksa government also made the mistake of underestimating the strength and influence of its coalition partners, and fell apart owing to mass defections.
Trade unions on the warpath
The SLPP dissidents are the least of the government’s problems. The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) trade unions have also launched a campaign against the New Fortress deal. They held protests on Friday, and its leaders, taking part in a demonstration in Colombo, threatened a strike to prevent the sale of Yugadanavi shares to New Fortress. This is something the government will have to take seriously if it wants to avoid trouble. The campaign against the controversial energy deal is gathering momentum, and even if the government succeeds in silencing its rebel group, its problems will not be over with the powerful CEB trade unions being on the warpath.
Governments dread power sector strikes, which can cripple the economy and cause untold hardships to the public. There have been attempts by previous governments to crush CEB strikes but without success. Speculation is rife that other trade unions will pledge their solidarity with their CEB counterparts.
The government prides itself on its two-thirds majority, but trade unions have proved that they are capable of bringing it to its knees. It tried to bulldoze its way through when trade unions opposed its bid to lease the Colombo Port West Container Terminal to India and Japan, but had to give in.
Basil goes ballistic
SLPP MP Kumaratunga got Basil’s goat at Thursday’s meeting when he criticised the appointment of Ven. Galagodaatte Gnanasara Thera as the Chairman of the newly set-up Presidential Task Force to implement the President’s One-country-one-law programme. Cumaratunga’s outfit, Yuthukama, provided ideological and intellectual backing to Gotabaya Rajapaksa during the yahapalana government and made a tremendous contribution towards promoting him as the SLPP’s presidential candidate.
Defending his decision, the President rhetorically asked Cumaratunga whether he was supposed to appoint a Mahanayake Thera as the head of the task force. He said there had also been opposition to the appointment of Ali Sabry as the Minister of Justice, but he had disregarded it. Basil cut in to tell Cumaratunga that such queries should not be posed to a President who had received a mandate from 6.9 million people. He went so far as to say that he doubted whether a person who did not respect such a huge mandate was suitable to be an MP in the first place, the implication being that Cumaratunga, who challenged the presidential decisions, was not fit to be in the government as an SLPP National List MP. Thus, the position of those at the helm of the incumbent government is that whatever the President does has to be deemed right because of his mandate.
Dividing the Opposition
The government leaders have resorted to the tactics they used, while in power from 2005 to 2015, to consolidate their power. They are busy trying to weaken the Opposition by causing splits in it in a bid to foreclose challenges to them on the political front. They have already won over several Opposition MPs including SJB National List MP Diana Gamage, who has taken on Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and challenged a move to expel her. They are exploiting some SJB MPs’ disillusionment with their leader Premadasa to compass their ends.
Two more SJB MPs, Hesha Withanage and Chaminda Wijesiri, have fallen out with the party leadership and resigned as organisers. They have declared that they will not take part in any SJB activities hereafter. SJB Secretary General Ranjith Maddumabandara has sought to downplay the intraparty crisis, but dissension within the SJB is on the rise. SJB MP Champika Ranawaka has already distanced himself from Premadasa and is on a mission to promote himself as a national leader. The reason his supporters have given for his growing estrangement from the party leadership is that Premadasa’s wife interferes with the affairs of the party.
The government is widely thought to have had a hand in the SJB’s internal problems. It seems to think that the best way to prevent future electoral shocks is to weaken the SJB. But there is the possibility of other oppositional forces emerging stronger in case of the debilitation of the SJB.
In 2004, the UNP was highly unpopular as the ruling party, having mismanaged the economy and compromised national security, and the SLFP was also not so popular because its leader Chandrika Bandaranaike had been the President for 10 years and made quite a few blunders, and lost power in Parliament in 2001. The JVP presented itself as an alternative to the two main parties at the time; almost all its candidates fielded on the UPFA ticket at the 2004 general election were returned, and it had 39 MPs in the UPFA parliamentary group even after forgoing two of its National List slots for the benefit of the SLFP, some of whose seniors who had lost were desperate to enter the parliament through the backdoor.
In Nov. 2014, the then Mahinda Rajapaksa government had a two-thirds majority in the parliament and many UNP crossovers were within its ranks, but it did not survive the defection of Maithripala Sirisena and other UPFA dissidents. President Rajapaksa failed to secure a third term, and his government was dislodged in 2015. The Chandrika Kumaratunga government also collapsed in 2001 due to an intraparty crisis which spun out of control. This is the danger chronic dissension among ruling MPs is fraught with. But the government is determined to railroad its dissidents into endorsing its decisions; it is inviting trouble. When ensconced in power, politicians forget the lessons they have learnt while in the Opposition.
