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| Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga is rumored to be in discussions with the National Congress. Photo Daily Mirror |
The National Congress, created from the tie up between the main opposition United National Party and a splinter from the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party, called the Mahajana Faction, held another regionally rally this week.
The fourth in of a series of protest rallies labeled the ‘Peoples’ Wave’ organised by the new alliance, it was held in Nittambuwa near Horagolla, the ancestral home the Bandaranaikes, on Friday August 25.
The Bandaranaike family had dominated the leadership of the SLFP since its founding. President Kumaratunga was the last with her mother and father (who founded the SLFP) having previously been leaders.
President Rajapakse is thus the first leader of the party not from the family and his ascension has left seething tensions in the party between those loyal to the family and those seeking reform.
According to local media reports several Bandaranaike loyalists teamed up with the SLFP Mahajana Wing (SLFP-M) at the Nittambuwa event. The SLFP-M is led by Mangala Samaraweera, a Kumaratunga loyalist who has split from the SLFP citing differences with Rajapakse.
The location of the rally, chosen to show Samaraweera’s strength in the heart of SLFP, gains significance with the return of former president Kumaratunge to the island’s political scene.
Kumaratunge, who sent a congratulatory note to Samaraweera after the signing of the SLFP-M’s agreement for a common alliance with the UNP, took a swipe at the Rajapakse government on her return.
Speaking to journalists after her meeting with Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC) on Extra Judicial Killings and Abduction convener Mano Ganeshan and its senior member TNA MP Suresh Premachandran she said the government should not act like terrorists.
“A government which is fighting a terrorist organization has to work tactfully and with a clear vision and should not act like a terrorist organization,” she said,
“The government is a government. Terrorists are terrorists and therefore the government cannot behave like terrorists,” she explained.
Speaking at the third rally held in Anuradhapura on August 17, Samaraweera, a former Foreign Minister, told the participants that international community should not punish innocent people with aid cuts instead should punish the Rajapakse brothers for violation of human rights and corruption.
Gotabaya Rajapakse was appointed by the President as Sri Lanka’s Secretary of Defence and is in charge, along with Army commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka of prosecuting the war against the LTTTE.
Basil Rajapakse has emerged as a powerful figure in the Rajapakse administration is accused of overseeing rampant corruption by the family.
"Basil should not be allowed to return to the US and Gotabaya should be taken to task over the killing of innocent civilians. There is no point is cutting aid and making the rest of the country suffer for their misdoings," Samaraweera said.
Addressing the crowd, leader of the opposition UNP, Ranil Wickramasinghe, accused the Rajapakse brothers of pushing the country into debt by taking loans at high interest rates
He also blamed the media for unquestioningly toeing the government line.
"There are three Buddhist editors in three Sinhala newspapers, but they observe pansil every morning now by reciting the names of the three brothers," he said.
The first Peoples’ Wave rally was held in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Thursday July 26 and was attended by an estimated 100,000 people.
The main slogan of that event was "The Great Betrayal of the Great Buddhist", which referred to the alleged secret deal between Rajapajkse and the LTTE in the eve of the presidential elections in 2005.
Speaking at the Nittambuwa event Samaraweera invited the ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP) , Sri Lanka’s third largest party to join hands with him, to bring down the Rajapaksa regime.
The JVP is reported to have rejected the call. The UNP government to President R. Premadasa, of which Wickremesinghe was a member, was responsible for crushing the JVP’s second and last armed inserrupction by mass killings of JVP supporters and innocent villages suspected of supporting the Marxist-nationalist part.
The second National Congress rally was held in Uyanwatte esplanade in Matara, the Smaraweera’s electorate. According to local reports thousands of people attended the event which took place in the southern province on Friday August 10.
The National Congress is organising series of rallies across the Sinhala districts to protest against the increase in cost of living under the Rajapakse administration.
The final rally in the series is scheduled to take place on September 8 in Hambanthota, the home district of the President Rajapaksa.
In addition, the opposition party also announced plans to hold a special national convention in Kandy on September 9, the day after the last Peoples’ Wave protest rally in Hambanthota.
With pressure on the Rajapkase government continues to grow, the ruling alliance almost lost its slender majority in parliament on Thursday August 2 when the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), the largest upcountry Tamil party resigned ministerial posts its members held and announced that it was pulling out of the government.
The ruling alliance which has 119 seats in the 225 seat parliament is dependent on nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party and Buddhist monks led Jaathika Hela Urumaya.
According to the Sunday Leader newspaper the CWC which has five members of Parliament decided to walk out of the ruling alliance after a meeting where Basil Rajapakse, presidential advisor and brother of president Mahinda Rajapakse, insulted CWC parliamentarian and Deputy Minister Muththu Sivalingam as 'Para Demala’.
The word 'para' is a derogatory word in Sinhala. 'Para Demala’ is a much used racial slur against Tamils.
However, on Wednesday August 8, the CWC law makers met Highways and Road Development minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and pledged to continue supporting the government.
Fernandopulle speaking after the meeting stated that the conflict was settled amicably and the portfolios of the resigned Ministers would be retained in the coming weeks.
Affirming its allegiance to the government, the CWC parliamentarians voted with the government on Thursday August 9 when the proposal to extend the emergency regulations by another month was taken up for voting.
CWC and the JVP voted with the government in support of the motion whilst the Tamil National Alliance and the Western People’s Front voted against it. 107 MPs voted in support of the proposal while 15 opposed.
The opposition UNP abstained and stayed out of the chamber during the voting.
