Tuesday, November 20, 2012

WikiLeaks:The Rajapaksa Position In The Party Is Strengthened At The Bandaranaikes’ Expense

By Colombo Telegraph -November 20, 2012

“Nirupama Rajapakse, a cousin of the PM and former SLFP MP, told poloff that relations between the President and Prime Minister have always been “very bitter,” but are worse than ever now. The President has long regarded the Rajapakse family, which has had SLFP Members in Parliament for as long as the Bandaranaike clan, as the only real rival to her family’s dynastic grip on the party, Rajapakse said. Kumaratunga thus sees the Prime Minister’s candidacy as a lose-lose situation for her, Rajapakse suggested. If he wins, the Rajapakse position in the party is strengthened at the Bandaranaikes’ expense; if he loses, the party (the leadership of which Kumaratunga wants to pass on to her son Vimukthi, now a 27-year-old veterinary student) as a whole is weakened. (Note: Besides three sons of his own for whom he nurses similar ambitions of political ascendancy, the Prime Minister, like the President, has a brother who is an MP.” the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.

Mahinda and Chandrika | Pic by Ishara S. Kodikara

A Leaked “CONFIDENTIAL” US diplomatic cable, dated September 30, 2005, updated the Secretary of State on Sri Lanka’s presidential election 2005. The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The cable was signed by the US Ambassador Jeffrey Lunstead. The cable details a US meeting with Deputy Minister Nirupama Rajapaksa, a cousin of Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The Ambassador wrote “Rajapakse agreed that the election was likely to be extremely close–perhaps separated by just a few hundred thousand votes–and thus the President’s apparent decision so far not to campaign for the SLFP candidate (she is scheduled to leave the country soon once again–this time to Paris) is likely to hurt the PM. ‘It is also strange of the brother (Foreign Minister Anura Bandaranaike, who is still overseas) to stay away’ during the campaign, she noted. The pair’s behavior is fueling renewed speculation that the President may scuttle the PM’s chances by dissolving Parliament–perhaps just days before the election. Besides her brother, the President can count on the support of ‘very few SLFP’ers,’ according to Rajapakse–primarily Buddhist Affairs Minister Ratnasiri Wickremenayake, Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama, Deputy Information Minister Dilan Perera and Deputy Power Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage.”

“The local press, meanwhile, has been full of reports of confrontations and flare-ups between the President and the Prime Minister and his camp since her return. According to one unconfirmed report, the Prime Minister threatened to walk out of a September 29 Cabinet meeting in which the President raised the contradictions between the positions espoused by the Prime Minister in the JVP and JHU agreements and SLFP policies. In an apparent back-handed slap at the President’s efforts to rein him in, the PM has appointed outspoken JVP propagandist and Kumaratunga foe Wimal Weerawansa as official co-spokesman (along with pro-JVP Ports Minister Mangala Samaraweera) of his presidential campaign. Another front-page article highlighted the President’s call at a September 29 public ceremony attended by the Prime Minister for the PM not to abandon educational reform efforts–as he his electoral pact with the JVP implicitly threatens to–begun during her administration.” he further wrote.

Placing a Comment the ambassador wrote “We have been hearing the same rumor about the dissolution of Parliament for more than a month, but have no indication that this is something seriously under consideration by the President. That said, Kumaratunga’s displeasure with the PM is obvious. She had hoped to leave a legacy as a pro-peace president, with the controversial tsunami aid agreement (known as the P-TOMS) with the SIPDIS Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as a hallmark of those efforts. That the PM’s agreement with the Kumaratunga-baiting JVP repudiates these policies–and specifically vows to abnegate her cherished P-TOMS–must be especially unbearable to her. The contents of the still-unpublished manifesto should provide a good indication of which SLFP heavyweight prevails in this battle.”