Rajapaksa bombshell: More Unpers will cross over, but Jayasekera mystery continues
President Mahinda Rajapaksa dropped a political bombshell at last Thursday's meeting of the National Executive Committee of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
He said a group of Opposition politicians, enamoured by the strides the Government was making in the field of development would join their ranks soon. He did not give details.
However, SLFP insiders say the larger number would be those prominent in different local coun- cils in the districts of Kegalle, Ratnapura, Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura. That they are crossing over just weeks ahead of elections to the three Provincial Councils -- the North Central, Sabaragamuwa and Eastern Provinces -- has not been good news for the main opposition United National Party (UNP).
Making matters worse is speculation that Kurunegala District Parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekera had met President Rajapaksa on Saturday (July 21) to discuss a crossover move.
"I never met President Rajapaksa on Saturday," Jayasekera told the Sunday Times. According to him, the story about his crossover has been the result of a casual meeting between former UNP chairman Malik Samarawickrema and Rajapaksa. The onetime private sector magnate met the President at a rugger match. He had asked whether he met Dayasiri recently and wanted to induct him into Government ranks. The President replied that he had not met him and nor had he asked for an appointment.
" Malik dannwane mage prathipaththiya. Mama yana kenekuta yannath ena kenekuta ennath dora erala thiyenne. (Malik you know my policy. I have kept the door open for anyone to come and anyone to go)," Rajapaksa had replied. He had quickly added that that he would take him as long as the UNP did not sack him.
Whether he joins the UPFA or not appears to be still in the balance. However, Jayasekera is miffed after the UNP's Working Committee, at its last meeting decided to amend the party's Constitution to allow a leader to remain in office for six years. In other words, current UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe could continue till 2018 unchallenged.
Jaysekera met Samarawickrema and Sagala Ratnayake, former Matara District MP and UNP's International Affairs Advisor, at the residence of Kabir Hashim, the Kegalle district MP. The subject of discussion was constitutional changes in the party.
Samarawickrema was trouble shooting after Jayasekera said he was writing a lengthy letter to Wickremesinghe. Among other matters, he wants to urge him to call off the move to amend the UNP Constitution and halt disciplinary inquiries against senior party members. Samarawickrema urged Jayasekera not to write the letter until he speaks to Wickremesinghe and comes up with a response. So the letter is on hold.
Yet, Jayasekera is agitated. "I am not an MR, GR, or BR man. I am a PR man and I am with the UNPers at the grassroots level," Jayasekera, recovering from a nasty bout of dengue fever, told the Sunday Times this week.
Asked to elaborate what that meant, he said "party leader Wickremesinghe was in regular contact with MR (Mahinda Rajapaksa), Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa with GR (Gotabaya Rajapaksa) and National Organiser Ravi Karunanayake with BR (Basil Rajapaksa)." He was only a PR (public relations) man, he said. Perhaps Jayasekera did not realise that MR (Mahinda Rajapaksa) was a galaxy away when it came to PR.
PR or not, SLFP insiders believe Jayasekera may after all throw in the hat with the UPFA. That is if Wickremesinghe does not heed his demands, which has as good a chance as a snowball in hell. If he does join the UPFA, he may not be a minister but is assured of a good deputy minister position, said a senior SLFPer. Not shocking at all. Perhaps Sri Lanka is one of the rare countries where there are more chiefs than injuns or more ministers and deputies than MPs.
Jayasekera did say that if the party leadership was paying pooja (obeisance) to the Rajapaksas, then he too would have no alternative but fall at the feet of MR. But, he insisted, that was not his first option.