Opinion

EDITORIAL : CBK BREAKS SILENCE WITH A BANG

05 Feb 2015 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who is reported to have played a major role in paving the way for the common opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena to come forward and topple the Rajapaksa regime, made some bombshell disclosures this week about what happened in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) during the past 35 years.

In a 75-minute television interview, Ms. Kumaratunga said she could not and dared not disclose what she was revealing now because both the interviewer and she might have faced death after a notorious white van abduction.

One of the main disclosures was that in early 2005 when the SLFP Central Committee met to decide on a candidate for the presidential election, as many as 57 of the 61 members had opposed the nomination of Mahinda Rajapaksa. However, since there was no suitable alternative at that time, she decided to nominate Mr. Rajapaksa though even at that time she saw some leadership potential in minister and SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena and told him to build up those leadership qualities.

After a campaign during which there were major disputes between Ms. Kumaratunga and Mr. Rajapaksa, he eventually won the election on November 18. Ms. Kumaratunga claimed that when she called the new President to congratulate him on November 19 he screamed at her in bad language for 19 minutes. She said she just listened to what he was saying but timed it and said only one word in response, though she did not mention what the word was. Ms. Kumaratunga said that in 1981 when the then President J. R. Jayewardene stripped her mother Sirimavo Bandaranaike of her civic rights, a rebel group in the party sought her removal from the post of party president also. This rebel group included Maithripala Senanayake, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Anura Bandaranaike. Ms. Kumaratunga said she and her husband Vijeya Kumaratunga along with other party stalwarts fought back to keep Sirimavo Bandaranaike in the party and she contested the 1989 presidential election.

Another conspiracy not widely disclosed before, came after Ranil Wickremesinghe became the Prime Minister in December 2001 while Ms. Kumaratunga was the President. She charged that Mr. Rajapaksa had secretly negotiated with Mr. Wickremesinghe to get about 30 SLFP MPs to support an impeachment motion against Ms. Kumaratunga. She said she was aware of what was happening and found that only five SLFP MPs were ready to support the impeachment. The move was dropped at that point. Disclosing the secret details of what happened during the past few years, Ms. Kumaratunga said rumblings among senior SLFP members started after 2010 when the Rajapaksa family took control of the government and the party. Many SLFP seniors had negotiated with her secretly and urged her to lead a rebel group but she did not wish to enter politics directly because of the breakdown of the rule of law, the politicisation of the judiciary and the police and the mega corruption deals amounting to millions of dollars.

The scenario changed early last year when the Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Nayake Thera, as leader of the National Movement for Social Justice, came forward to initiate a common opposition front to topple the Rajapaksa regime. Ms. Kumaratunga said it was at this point that she approached Maithripala Sirisena to come forward as the common opposition candidate. At first he was reluctant or afraid because as Mr. Sirisena later said he was taking a big risk that could mean death for him and the family if he failed. However the Rajapaksa domination was getting so unbearably bad that on November 6, Mr. Sirisena agreed to quit the government and cross over. From that point super-secret talks were held with the then UNP Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and other opposition party leaders. Thus when Mr. Sirisena eventually announced on November 21 that he was crossing over with a few other ministers, it took the Rajapaksa regime by complete surprise and even the State Intelligence Services’ chief was removed for not being aware of what happened.

Eventually Mr. Sirisena went on to win the election and change the history of Sri Lanka with an all-party National Unity Government which is being widely seen as a model or miracle of Asia.

Opinion

EDITORIAL : CBK BREAKS SILENCE WITH A BANG

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