For important decision making there must be the push and pull of circumstance. For many of us in Ranil’s UNP the push was becoming as important as the pull. I referred earlier to the treatment meted out to Wijepala Mendis, one of the “grandees” of the party who had even been considered for the post of Prime Minister by Wijetunge. Another “victim” was Nanda Mathew who was a senior in the party having entered Parliament in 1965 from Kolonne electorate. He was sidelined because he too was suspected of helping Gamini.

In fact Nanda was not a great fan of Gamini’s. But in the atmosphere of cliquism and intrigue in the UNP he was sidelined and Nanda was getting ready to take a radical decision. Susil Moonesinghe was any way not very comfortable with Ranil. He had been a member of JRJ’s inner circle. With his knowledge of business acquired under his uncle Justin Siriwardene, he was a valuable advisor to JRJ when he opened up the economy in 1977.

Susil who was at one time a Bandaranaike loyalist and a camp follower of Mrs. Bandaranaike had been appointed the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation in 1970. There he had a romantic involvement with Sumi who was an engineer in the SLBC as described in her autobiography which was published recently. The first Mrs. Moonesinghe took her woes to Mrs. B who always tended to take the side of the offended wife, as also in the case of her cousin Anuruddha Ratwatte and his wife Carmen.

She sacked Susil and notwithstanding his long standing links with the SLFP which at one stage was bankrolled by Justin Siriwardene. He joined JRJ and even successfully contested the Western Provincial Council as a UNPer and was appointed Chief Minister. He then contested the Homagama seat on behalf of the UNP and entered Parliament. After his dismissal from the post of Chairman of SLBC Susil and Sumi went to Singapore where they got to know several Singaporean and Malaysian

businessmen. When they returned to Sri Lanka they were able to employ these connections to become local agents for the import of sugar.

Sumi describes how almost by accident she heard of the difficulties of the Sirimavo regime in importing sugar on time-another of the bureaucratic foul ups of her cash strapped leftist regime. The enterprising Sumi managed to get a Malaysian ship carrying sugar diverted to Colombo and win a contract to bulk supply sugar to the Food Commissioner. This was the beginning of the rise in their fortunes and soon the Moonesinghes joined the magic circle of the super rich in Colombo and become trusted friends of JRJ.

JRJ was looking for “robber barons” to fast track foreign investments to Sri Lanka. With considerable funds behind him Susil burnished his family credentials as a grand nephew of Anagarika Dharmapala. As a result monks were pressing him to run for the Presidency on a UNP-Sinhala Buddhist ticket much to the annoyance of Ranil and Gamini Athukorale.

Party member

While these internal misunderstandings were simmering I was determined to play my role as a member of the UNP which had a proud record of politics under Dudley, JRJ, Wijetunga and Gamini with whom I had associated very closely – a record no other UNPer had at that time. Due to my association with the media, journalists were apt to call me on party issues and I would respond perhaps to the embarrassment of the party bureaucrats.

The Lakbima paper then edited by Bandula Padmakumara invited me to contribute a weekly column on men and matters which became so popular that leftists in the paper wanted it balanced with a contribution from the opposite side. They prevailed on Wickremabahu Karunaratne of the NLSSP to the enter the fray and he made a very erudite contribution which probably earned more supporters for him than through his small breakaway group from the LSSP. He was influenced by the resurgence ofTrotskyism in the UK at that time particularly under the Healyites and a Sri Lankan born left intellectual Micheal Banda [Vander Poorten].

As a new MP of the UNP I was given a difficult task in coordinating our effort to win the Wayamba Provincial Council elections by campaigning in Kurunegala district. Winning Mawathagama electorate, which adjoined my Galagedera seat, became my responsibility. I was assisted by Tilak Karunaratne who visited Mawathagama a few times during the campaign. Since there were a large number of Muslims in this area Imtiaz Bakeer Markar was asked to address meetings in their strongholds.

To put in my best effort I rented a house in the centre of the electorate and moved in there with some supporters from my electorate. Since the Mawathagama bazaar was dominated by traders from the south, MP Jinadasa from Matale, who himself was a trader from Weligama, was also asked to come over in the weekends. Our party organizer was Johnston Fernando who was my comrade from the DUNF days. He was an activist and was determined to win the seat by hook or by crook.

Since he was very much in demand in the district Johnny did not spend much time in Mawathagama. He had been brought into politics by GM Premachandra of the DUNF who had been killed in the Thotalanga bomb blast together with Gamini Dissanayake. I had an advantage in this campaign as the SLFP organizer for this electorate was DP Wickremasinghe – my old teacher from Trinity College and now a Minister in the CBK cabinet. This friendship became crucial for me because the SLFP launched a murderous attack on the opposition to “steal” this election.

Led by Anuruddha Ratwatte and Mangala Samaraweera, goons unleashed such violence during the campaign that the election became a farce. UNPers were mercilessly assaulted and some were even killed on election day. It certainly stripped the ruling party of any claims to democratic governance and embarrassed CBK and Lakshman Kadirgamar on the international stage. Thanks to my friendship with DP Wickremasinghe his goons spared me from any physical violence. But poor Jinadasa, our MP for Matale who was canvassing in the city, was roughed up while the police, then under orders of Ratwatte, looked on helplessly.

Their main target was Johnston who was seen traveling in his jeep gun in hand. Any confrontation would have led to a murder. I quickly put him into my jeep and drove to his home in Kurunegala all the while pacifying Johnny who was threatening to use his shot gun to fire at the mob. We managed to deposit him safely in his home because I had two policemen assigned to me as a MP who rode “shot gun” from the front seat of my jeep. His house was by then was full of party candidates and supporters who had been assaulted by SLFP goons.

While servile government officials declared a win in the Kurunegala district for the SLFP, we tried, without much success, to mobilize local and global opinion against this flagrant violation of democratic rights. I used my weekly column in Lakbima to highlight the brutality unleashed in Kurunegala as an eyewitness and used photos to illustrate the fact. My account was quoted in many despatches of foreign correspondents who covered the election. The Wayamba election as later acknowledged by CBK was a blot on the reputation of the party and was used by the UNP to wreak vengeance on its perpetrators after Ranil established a government in December 2001.

Though facing obstacles from my own party I was determined to speak in Parliament as much as possible since I as a bureaucrat had studied many of the issues debated in the House. For instance when the Minister of Justice Batty Weerakoon brought some amendments to the laws governing Kandyan marriage and inheritance, I consulted Savitri Goonesekera, one of the distinguished Ellepola sisters, who was my contemporary at Peradeniya and was now Professor of Law in the Colombo University. My contribution was commended by Minister Batty Weerakoon who promised to incorporate some of my suggestions in future legislation.

Unfortunately today the mouthing of sentences from instruction sheets provided by the party or dealing with parochial matters has become a habit in Parliament. In fairness to Ranil I must state that he wanted me to cover the vital Ministry of Power and Energy for the Opposition. This may have been because Gamini held this post earlier when he successfully linked the increased hydro based energy generated through the Mahaweli scheme to the national grid. It increased our use of hydro power which is much cheaper than the use of fossil fuels.

He may have also wanted me to keep a tab on my school mate Anuruddha Ratwatte who was the Energy Minister in CBK’s Cabinet. Sirikotha sent me all the information that was fed to it by our supporters and Trade Unions in the Petroleum Corporation which had become a nest of corruption under Ratwatte’s dispensation. He had appointed a stooge from Kandy named Herath who had no difficulty in going along with his Ministers demands.

They were not only corrupt but also reckless in packing the CPC with supporters from Kandy district who had helped Ratwatte at the general election. He had a bad history of losing elections in Kandy before 1994. But with these mass appointments he ensured electoral victories for himself and his progeny. One of his chief supporters from Galagedera electorate was an ex jail guard who was rewarded with a senior position in the security service of the CPC. When the LTTE attacked the Kolonnawa depot this officer ran away and was later found to be hiding in Galagedera.

Speech in Parliament

I decided to look into all the technical aspects of our power generation plan which had been presented to the Minister and Chairman of the Electricity Board. These big shots overrode many of the recommendations in the plan including the need to establish a coal power plant which would bring down the cost of production of electricity to a much lower level when compared to the use of other fossil fuels. My speeches were well received and frequently reproduced in the Ceylon Daily News which was edited by my friend Manik de Silva. Let me quote an extract from one of my speeches which was reproduced in the CDN in order to give the reader a flavour of my interventions:

“Now during the course of this week we will be discussing the Votes of Ministries which have a strong technical component. For example Power and Energy and Telecommunications and later Ports and Shipping. I have found very often that the relevant Minister’s time is wasted on trivialities. Instead we should expect them to take vital strategic decisions and I am frank enough to say that we have not been able to spare those Ministers and give them time to make vital decisions which mean so much for the future of our country.

“You are called upon to make critical decisions on the basis of a lot of technical information that is submitted to you. I went through some of the material pertaining to the Electricity Board and I find that they have an excellent planning branch. You are getting a lot of first class recommendations coming up from them. So we must encourage Ministers to spend their time to make strategic decisions because there are so many variables involved when it comes to decision making in ministries like Power and Energy, Telecommunications and Ports and Shipping.

“Earlier in the day we listened to Mr. Galappaththi [JVP MP]. I have never heard of such nonsense in my life. Any Government has to keep the power supply going. It has to meet increasing demand. You cannot find some little difficulty with each and every project and say that we must abandon our plans for increasing power supply. We expect MPs to undertake some analysis and thinking before they speak. I think as members of this House we have to keep at heart the vital interests of the country. We cannot remain silent when Hon. MPs like Galappaththi present misinformation in order to mislead the country.

“Let us look at some of the problems of strategic choice. All of us like to promote village electricity schemes. That is very popular. But what about the demand mix?. Today unlike in the past when people asked for schools and roads, people ask for electrification. But the Minister has to pay heed to the demands of all sectors of the country’s economy. Please look at the report which is called “Long Term Generation Expansion Studies 1995 to 2009”. What do they say? They say that electricity consumption in the commercial sector has increased from 12.9 percent to 19.6 percent. But consumption of electricity in the domestic sector has increased from 8.9 percent to 24.6 percent, largely due to rural electrification schemes.

“What conclusions do they draw? I quote “The above suggests that in the past decade consumption of electricity has shifted from productive sectors to non productive sectors”. You have plans for drawing in investment in your budget. In many countries the manufacturing sector is subsidized by way of cheap electricity to promote industrialization. On the contrary what are we doing?. We are penalizing industry and giving priority to rural electrification.

“The Minister must take strategic decisions. At present we are giving rural electricity almost solely to light up homes. We have no plans to use that electricity for any type of rural industry. When the Leader of the Opposition asked me to be the party spokesman I was very happy because Power and Energy is the platform for industrial development. If you do not have sufficient electricity you can forget about industrialization. Hon. Minister Batty Weerakoon will correct me if I am wrong, it was Lenin who said that “Communism equals big banks and electricity”.

“When an economy is spinning out of control the first clear indication is that we cannot provide power; we cannot generate electricity. I want to give the Minister some information. I am told that when investors go to the BOI they are told by BOI officials that they are not sure of the power situation. They are told “if you want to start a factory please bring your own generators”. Is that a way of confidence building on your Budget proposals?

“This is what your own officials in their power generation plans say about power cuts- “Severe supply shortages may occur in 1995 and 1996 and implementation of supply side and demand side management is proposed. Earlier the report highlighted that the expected energy shortages under weighted average conditions are 215 Gwh in 1995 and 331 in 1996 implying that the capability of the generating system to meet demand is very low. If drought conditions prevail there will be power cuts.

“The second problem is regarding the means of generating electricity. According to this document in 1993, as much as 95 percent of power generation was from hydro power while only five per cent came from thermal energy. Here I want to pay tribute to the late Gamini Dissanayake because according to this information, before the Mahaweli scheme we depended on the exploitation of the upper reaches of the Kelaniya and Mahaweli rivers – Moussakele and Castlereagh – which gave us only 335 Megawatts. After the accelerated Mahaweli scheme with its six hydro, electric projects, we were able to add 660 Megawatts to the national grid. That is a considerable improvement on our power capacity.

“We have to accept that today we can talk of foreign investment and industrialisation because of the extra megawatts added to the national grid. However according to your projections we are going to move away from hydro power to thermal substitution. According to your figures by the year 2004 of our total energy needs only 50 percent will come from hydro and the balance 50 percent will come from other sources and by 2010, some 65 percent of our energy needs will be met by thermal and other sources.

“I agree with your strategy of first trying to fully exploit our hydro capacity from Kukule, the upper Kotmale project, Uma Oya and Gin ganga. Local hydro generation is the most cost effective source of energy. But the point is that all this is simply going to be insufficient. We are still going to have an energy gap. You are right about the Sapugaskanda extension. Though I speak from the Opposition benches it is sad that our party and our own Power Minister could not make a decision on the Sapugaskanda project. It is a crime that due to various pressures our man could not do that.

“We had a shameful situation when a German Minister had to come to this country and tell the government “You are doing something wrong.” Even with all that we will still be short of power for our future requirements. So we have to look into the question of your future plans and I am sure the Minister also will not mind if I examine all our options. As far as the CEB is concerned they are supporting the proposed Trinco coal plant. I am not talking of who will do it but the need for that project as seen in your power generation plan.

“The plan shows that the Trinco coal plant can be ready for operation from 2001 onward. It is economically feasible. At that time it was to cost in the region of US dollars 500 million. But now it is obviously going to cost more. Now there are alternative proposals – Puttalam and Mavarella – but the first BOT project came for Trinco. There is now an alternative suggestion to bring a barge mounted power plant. This is a ridiculous situation. I can understand somebody saying that this is a temporary measure. Maybe you could negotiate a temporary supply. But to buy second hand barges from other countries is a desperate measure not a solution. One must have in mind the long range interests of the country. “

Looking back now I see that the country has lost millions of dollars by not only rejecting the BOT project but also relocating it in Puttalam [Norochcholai] which was only the second best site. Even the Norochcholai project was inordinately delayed by the CBK administration because it was afraid of threats by the Catholic church. The UNP administration which followed was scared of offending its Catholic MPs who are led by John Amaratunga. Finally family bandysm prevailed and the PA administration launched this project which was promoted by someone with Chinese connections. The delay caused by both administrations in proceeding with the coal power plant has caused immense losses to the Electricity Board as well as the Treasury.

I am proud that I was able to put on record in the Hansard the state of negligence and corruption that bedeviled both PA and I INP administrations. My speeches drew good responses from professionals, particularly engineers, who were unhappy about the activities of corrupt politicians managing the power sector. I highlighted their grievances and took the trouble to research issues before I spoke in Parliament. This was not always welcomed by both our side and the opposition.

Government seniors like Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, and GL Peiris spoke about my contributions with respect. This rapport with the PA leaders may have portended coming events. I was happy to have complimentary responses from veterans like Bernard Soysa, Anil Moonesinghe, Batty Weerakoon and Dharmasiri Senanayake. Even Mrs. Bandaranaike had a good word about me which I appreciated greatly.

Excerpted from vol. 3 of the Sarath Amunugama autbiography)