Meeting Trinitians in Melbourne, Karu J led crossover from UNP and a new ministry for me

Melbourne is full of old Trinitians. I was told that the biggest concentration of old Trinitians next to Kandy and Colombo was in Melbourne. As a schoolboy in Trinity in the fifties I remembered the exodus of teachers and friends who left for greener pastures at that time. Among them were teachers like Philip Buultjens and Oswin Wright and their families. Among my classmates the Frank brothers- David and Rodney – too migrated together with the Shockmans, Frewins and Wadsworths. They were all domiciled in Melbourne because it was a growing port city with plenty of job opportunities. Later our much admired teacher Hillary Abeyratne and his family also migrated to Melbourne though he would return to Sri Lanka from time to time.

I was much moved when the old Trinitians association of Melbourne gave me a celebratory dinner which was well attended. It was a thrill to meet my classmates after about half a century. They were all in different stages of physical disintegration but we had a good time full of reminiscence and strong liquor. Recently I found that Melbourne now is even more populated with Sri Lankans of all communities. After the obligatory visit to the Melbourne cricket stadium with statues of all those great players of our time like Bradman, Miller, Harvey and Benaud I left for Sydney and home after a most enjoyable visit to Aussieland.

Mavil Aru

It must be said here that MR who had won the Presidential election because the LTTE had enforced a boycott on voting in the North and parts of Eastern province, was keen on a negotiated settlement of the ethnic issue in the early days of his presidency. A large sum of money was allocated, as promised by his negotiators with the LTTE, ostensibly for relief and rehabilitation in the Tamil majority areas. The LTTE used the money and the respite to buy arms and re-supply their fighters. They also re-established their supply routes for arms and ammunition.

But MR was under pressure from the JVP and the nationalist parties that supported him, to intervene forcefully to stop the rot. The Sri Lankan army now under Sarath Fonseka – a fighting general ably backstopped by Gotabaya and MR, was revamped with the induction of greater numbers of fighting troops with good training. That the LTTE was now beginning to realize that they made a fatal error by calling for a boycott that helped MR was seen in their attempt to kill Gotabaya and Sarath Fonseka, whom they identified as the principal architects of their misfortune.

The elaborate plans to kill these two strategic decision makers in the heart of Colombo at great risk was a good indication of the desperation of the LTTE and their fear that the initiative was being wrested away from them. Unlike in the past when Presidents and senior politicians interfered in clumsy fashion in military matters, MR, with his implicit faith in his younger sibling, supported the military leaders and gave them the necessary confidence and perhaps equally importantly, financial backing.

At an investors forum in Japan

I was privy to the fact that funding requirements of the armed services was negotiated directly between Gotabaya and PB Jayasundara with the President being kept informed later. This was not possible with previous Presidents and their cronies who were second guessing the Army Commander, particularly when it came to lucrative contracts and orders for military equipment.

While an uneasy peace resulted after the Presidential election both sides geared themselves for battle because the expectations of the LTTE were not bearing fruit even though MR was in two minds about going to war. A defeatist mentality was created by the media and the international Tamil diaspora. The LTTE, true to form, began a series of armed encounters which embarrassed even the international peacekeepers. Pressure was mounting on the new President to act from many of his coalition partners. It was at this stage that the LTTE made a move which has been called “a fatal error” by most correspondents. They chose an active resumption of war when they deliberately attacked a small irrigation scheme called Mavil Aru on the borders of the North Central Province.

Chandraprema in his book “Gota’s War” describes the Mavil Aru attack thus; “It was in July 2006 that the LTTE finally overstepped their mark. The final war with the LTTE would not have broken out if not for an incident that occurred on the border of Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee districts. On July 21, 2006 villagers reported an unusual reduction of water flow to the Irrigation engineer at Kallar. When he went to investigate he was stopped by the LTTE. The villagers began to stage protests and tried to march on the anicut to open it themselves. Because of the unfolding situation the Government was forced to ask the army to mount a limited operation to open the Mavilaru sluice gates.”

What started as a limited operation soon developed into a full scale war as the LTTE then started attacking the Trincomalee naval base from their stronghold in Sampur. The army and navy then retaliated and the LTTE units were driven out of Sampur. It was major achievement as the threat to the strategic Trinco harbour was eliminated. The LTTE then moved south to Vakarai taking the Sampur population with them by force. A prolonged pitched battle developed around Vakarai.

As Chandraprema recorded, “Vakarai was a 600 square kilometre area of which about 400 square kilometres was in thick jungle”. This operation began on October 30, 2006 and ended in a decisive victory for the SL forces by the end of January 2007. The fall of Vakarai was a severe blow to the LTTE which also lost a large cache of advanced weaponry. “With the fall of Vakarai the writing seemed to be on the wall for the LTTE” wrote Chandraprema.

Vanni operations begin

The army then moved south to Batticaloa and the LTTE retreated to the Thoppigala jungle. They were attacked even during the monsoon and the whole of Batticaloa was cleared by July 10, 2007 and the LTTE retreated to the Tirukkovil area in Amparai district. Karuna’s defection had also contributed to the weakening of the LTTE in the east. Soon they were driven out of the Eastern province to rue the day they had blocked the water flow at Mavil Aru.

“The fighting then moved to the Vanni while the UN agencies tried their best to derail the thrust of the army with allegations regarding the treatment of Tamil civilians who were actually being evicted from their homes as a ‘human shield’ for the retreating LTTE cadres. The Vanni included parts of the contiguous administrative districts of Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Killinochchi.” Chandraprema said.

He adds: “The A-9 road cuts through the centre of this vast, remote, sparsely populated swathe of land to connect the Jaffna peninsula with the main population centres of the south. With the entire eastern province and the Jaffna peninsula now under government control, the Vanni was the last LTTE stronghold.”

The Vanni operation which lasted nearly two years ended with the total defeat of the LTTE and the death in battle of the top brass of that organization. The details of this encounter will be taken up later in this chapter. We will now pick up the thread read of my narrative to describe the political developments that transpired in the centre after MR survived the mini revolt which led to the sacking of Anura and Mangala. This development also weakened the UNP and put it into defensive mode from which it could not emerge electorally leading eventually to its annihilation at the elections of 2019.

Crossover by UNPers

The exit of Mangala and Anura had reduced the strength of the governing party in Parliament. But several factors worked in MR’s favour at this juncture. The first was that Ranil’s failure to win the 2005 Presidential election had demoralized many ambitious UNPers led by Karu Jayasuriya. Karu would probably have been appointed Prime Minister in a UNP regime. Following their defeat in 2005 many ambitious UNP “Young Turks” were promised important positions by Basil and MR if they crossed-over to the PA.

Another reason was that the northern war was being pursued with spectacular results, thanks to the MR-Gotabaya-Sarath Fonseka combine which for the first time was working without internal bickering. The stated objective of the Karu led cross over was to “strengthen the hands of the Government to fight the war effectively”. There were rumours that Karu had been promised the Premiership replacing Ratnasiri who was no great fan of MR. Basil Rajapaksa oversaw these transactions with his usual panache and the MR regime from then on had no difficulty in mustering a majority in Parliament since the large number of crossovers had led to a spectacular increase of government MPs.

The consequent Cabinet reshuffle saw me moving to the key Ministry of Investment Promotion, probably on the recommendation of PB Jayasundera who was now working closely with President MR and Basil. PBJ was for all intents and purposes the “brain” behind these two leaders who were skilful political manipulators but did not possess any knowledge of economics. The Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs was given to Karu Jayasuriya much to the relief of UNP inclined public servants who populated the Ministry under him later leading to disagreements with MR.

Other UNPers like Mahinda Samarasinghe, Keheliya Rambukwella and Gamini Lokuge also joined the Cabinet adding to the firepower of the government benches. All were united on the need to prosecute the war effectively against the LTTE now that the supporters of the “peace lobby” who flourished under CBK and Ranil were languishing in the Opposition.

Investment promotion

As a former Minister of Finance I knew that investment promotion was key to the country’s economic growth. Prior to my appointment Rohitha Bogollagama and Anura Bandaranaike had held this ministerial position. But by then Anura was quite ill and the Ministry had become a den of corruption and inefficiency. A large number of idlers had been recruited to the BOI and investors told me of horror stories where even simple services could not be obtained without bribing senior officials. Instead of being a facilitator the BOI had become an obstacle to investment.

In fact I was told by many Sri Lankan investors that they had taken their complaints to Basil and had requested him to transfer the incumbent Minister and appoint me instead. To do so, Rohitha B, who was a kinsman of mine, was kicked upstairs as the new Minister of Foreign Affairs. Rohitha told me that he actually preferred his old position. As the new Minister I was delighted when there was a reshuffle in the top management and business tycoon Dhammika Perera was appointed the Chairman of BOI.

We became good friends and I was impressed when he began to sweep out the dead wood in the organization. Naturally there was resistance and some tried to bring political pressures, particularly through the JVP, on us. But in fairness to MR and Basil I must record here that there was no interference by them whatsoever. I realized that the “brains” behind this reshuffle was PB Jayasundera who ensured my appointment while at the same time safeguarding the interests of his “countryman” Bogollagama who also was a native of Nikawaratiya in Kurunegala district.

China

Hardly a week had gone by after the reshuffle when I had to accompany the President on a state visit to China. This was a top level delegation which included Bogollagama, Dinesh Gunawardena, PB Jayasundera and several MPs who are usually taken along for public relations purposes. We were housed in the famous “Dayotai” complex which was reserved for high level state visitors. This building complex was where Nixon and Kissinger and their entourage were housed on their historic visit to Beijing to meet Mao Zedong and Chou En Lai.

It has many conference and dining rooms. The best Chinese chefs were employed there. It was the custom for the staff to line up in the foyer and greet the incoming visitors with deep bows and hand clapping. The best of traditional cuisine was on offer and we trooped in for well organized banquets with MR as the guest of honour. Top Chinese military brass, officials and investors visited us for discussions at the Dayotai.

Among such investors were those companies which later became household names in Sri Lanka in the areas of energy, ports, road building and irrigation. These meetings were a revelation to me because many of the Sri Lankan agents of these companies also turned up in Beijing and were signaling their friendship with MR to position themselves as influential high flyers who could win lucrative contracts.

From Dayotai we were driven in a motorcade to a hall in the midst of the city where an investment forum organized by our embassy and the BOI was in session. MR and I addressed this meeting positioning Sri Lanka as an attractive investment destination. It was the first of many such meetings when we girdled the globe promoting investment. The problem however was not in attracting investment but ensuring that investors were well serviced once they were here. In this the BOI was a bureaucratic, corrupt and inefficient organization which like all state organizations in our country, were a hindrance rather than a facilitator of the objectives of the government.

Shanghai

From Beijing we went to Shanghai which is the real economic capital of the country. Beijing, like Washington, is an administrative capital. It is the home ground of the ruling elite and the state bureaucracy. But even from pre-revolutionary times Shanghai was a hub port and a centre of commerce. In the thickly populated “Bund” there is only standing room during busy hours. In Volume One of my autobiography I described the old Shanghai prior to its phenomenal growth after the Deng reforms.

Deng had sent “Old Marshal” Chen Yi – a veteran from the Long March days to run Shanghai and he had with foreign, particularly US capital, developed it as a business hub. Now across the Yangtse river which bisected Shanghai a new city had been built up in the Pudong area. Pudong boasted of the world’s highest skyscrapers and luxurious new hotels which were full to capacity with tourists and western entrepreneurs – some looking for a main chance in the frontier atmosphere of incipient Chinese capitalism.

From across the river in the old quarter one could see the lighted advertisement boards of all globally recognised brands which were manufactured in China by western companies. Shanghai is also the centre of China’s high speed railway system which lists a journey to Lhasa, Tibet as one of its destinations.

(This book is available at the Vijitha Yapa Bookshop)

(Excerpted from vol. 3 of the Sarath Amunugama autobiography)