Events subsequent to the attempt on CBK’s life

President Chandrika Kumaratunga spent several weeks in the United Kingdom receiving treatment following the assassination attempt on her by the LTTE. On her return to the island, she immediately dissolved the parliament and called for a parliamentary election as Karu had expected.

According to Karu, facing this upcoming parliamentary election was to be no easy task due to the threats and harassment meted out by opponents in several electoral seats in Gampaha. Kumaratunga’s younger brother Anura Bandaranaike was to contest from the Gampaha district under the United National Party (UNP) ticket. Anura and Karu would set out together every morning to canvas the area and meet their supporters.

“Even though we set out together every morning, around early afternoon Anura would claim he was too tired to go on and turn back…” Karu recalls. According to him, UNP candidates had to face threats and acts of intimidation in many areas of the Ja-Ela, Minuwangoda, and Gampaha electorates.

“We were attacked while campaigning in these areas. At times we were even shot at by ruffians sanctioned by our opponents. Each time I escaped unscathed but several UNP supporters were injured in these incidents…” Karu recalls.

According to Karu, despite repeated complaints by him, not only did the police seem disinterested in putting a stop to these acts of election violence, but they also failed to apprehend any suspects involved. Refusing to back down Karu lodged a complaint with the election monitoring office. Based on his complaint the office assured Karu that additional election monitors will be assigned to the Gampaha district.

But the threats and harassment Karu had to face did not come from his political opponents alone. Karu says these incidents stemmed from the preferential vote feuds among the candidates of the UNP itself. While it was impossible to avoid competitiveness between party colleagues under the preferential voting system, Karu says he often did his best to stay clear of such conflicts.

“I avoided asking people to cast a preference vote for me. Instead, I asked the people to first vote for the UNP and vote for three UNP candidates of their preference…” he says. Karu believes by doing this he was largely able to avoid conflict with other UNP candidates and carry out a successful election campaign.

Though a large number of election monitors had been deployed for the parliamentary elections of 2000, Karu says it had little effect on preventing election violations and frauds from being committed in some rural polling centres. Voters presumed to be UNP supporters were threatened and driven away by armed thugs on election day, preventing them from casting their votes. The thugs carrying out these acts had been brought from other areas of the country.

Karu says the UNP lost out on a large number of votes from the Gampaha district due to these acts of intimidation of voters. He says election monitors were unable to prevent these acts as the groups of thugs would make their getaway before the monitors could visit the scene. In this situation, the only step the monitors could take was to obtain statements from witnesses and enter them into their observation reports.

At the election, the ruling People’s Alliance (PA) managed to secure a majority of the seats in the Gampaha district while the UNP was merely able to score victories in the Wattala and Negombo electorates. Though the UNP had suffered a setback, the election was a personal triumph for Karu. To his surprise, he had won the preferential vote race by becoming the UNP candidate from the Gampaha district with the most number of preferential votes, a staggering 237,387.

While UNP stalwarts Anura Bandaranaike, Dr Jayalath Jayawardena, John Amaratunga, Joseph Micheal Perera, Edward Gunasekara and Suranimala Rajapaksha were also elected to parliament from the district, they had all received less than 100,000 preferential votes. I was humbly pleased about receiving such a large number of votes at the very first parliamentary election I contested …” Karu says.

Not only did Karu surpass his party colleagues, but he was also able to receive more votes than Susil Premajayantha, the PA district leader and the former Chief Minister of the Western province. The 165,905 preference votes he received paled in comparison to Karu’s 237,387. Nevertheless, the PA was able to once again emerge victorious in the parliamentary elections held that year. The ruling party secured 107 seats in parliament while the UNP only laid claim to 89. In a surprising turn of events, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) which held only one seat in parliament till 2000, was able to increase it to 10.

But the PA’s win was to be bittersweet. “It was tragic news…” Karu says recalling the incident. The country went into mourning after it was announced that Sri Lanka’s former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike had died at age 84 after suffering a heart attack on October 10, 2000, the very day of the country’s parliamentary elections.

Bandaranaike, the mother of President Chandrika Kumaratunga and UNP politician Anura Bandaranaike had been returning home after casting her vote at the Sri Sanghabodhi Vidyalaya polling station in Nittambuwa when the incident occurred. A formidable stateswoman, Bandaranaike was the world’s first non-hereditary female head of government in modern history after she was elected as Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister on July 20, 1960.

“Those of us in the UNP were also truly shocked and saddened by her demise. After being elected as both the world and country’s first woman Prime Minister she served three terms. Even though she as the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) had held a different ideology to that of the UNP, Madam Bandaranaike had cast her vote for me – at the local government elections for Colombo…” Karu says. According to Karu, he came to know this after Bandaranaike had personally told him of the fact. Hearing of her death, Karu had visited her residence.”Tintagel’ in Rosmead Place that night to pay his last respects.

Based on their performance in the parliamentary elections of 2000 the PA was able to once again form a government. However, the party was pressed to maintain a majority in parliament. The only political solution was to appoint more members to the cabinet than previously. At the time private media institutions dubbed this new cabinet a `Mega Cabinet.’ Karu says it was ironic that Kumaratunga who had lampooned the large cabinets under Presidents Ranasinghe Premadasa and D.B Wijetunga was herself forced to appoint a similar cabinet at the very beginning of her second term as President.

Kumaratunga had appointed a cabinet consisting of forty-four members. But the government was still on shaky ground. A conflict had arisen between President Kumaratunga and Rauff Hakeem, the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) – a party to the government. Hakeem had vehemently disagreed with Kumaratunga’s decision to appoint her mother’s cousin General Anuruddha Ratwatte as the Deputy Minister of Defence. As Hakeem continued to voice his disapproval, Kumaratunga was forced to appoint Ratwatte as the Minister of Power and Energy instead. Ratwatte, a seasoned military man, had responded to the snub by being passive- aggressive.

Reports of yet another rift within the government appeared in the gossip columns of Sri Lanka’s weekend newspapers. They claimed Kumaratunga and S.B Dissananayke, a Minister in her government, had fallen out for reasons unknown. “Though we never found out the truth, we were able to confirm through several government ministers that Dissanayake had stopped attending cabinet meetings during this time…” Karu says laughingly.

It was widely accepted among Karu’s UNP colleagues that rifts within the government had begun to appear. Kumaratunga’s alleged favouritism of SLFP members formerly of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya (SLMP) had also left many senior SLFP politicians disgruntled giving rise to even more conflict within the government.

In 1994 the PA led by Chandrika Kumaratunga had swept into power on the promise of abolishing the curse that was the executive presidency. At the elections, Kumaratunga had also promised a political solution to the national question in Sri Lanka. However, she was not able to fulfil either of these promises during her first term. Kumaratunga failed to abolish the executive presidency as her government did not possess the required two-thirds majority in parliament.

Meanwhile, Kumaratunga also held a discussion with LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in January 1995 in a bid to arrive at a political solution for the decade long national question. These talks were followed by several more discussions. But unfortunately, Kumaratunga was unsuccessful in her efforts.

But in 1999 and 2000 the PA in its election manifestos reiterated these pledges. The party then requested the public to vote them into power and provide them with the necessary two-thirds majority to deliver on those promises.

Though the UNP introduced the executive presidency to Sri Lanka in 1978, by 2000 the party had also begun to realize its many pitfalls. As the Tamil political parties of the North also held similar reservations about the post, the Kumaratunga government decided to look into the possibility of abolishing it with the support of all parties in parliament. As a result, the government organized one-on-one discussions with each political party. It was also decided that following these discussions a multi-party conference will be held on the agreement of all parties.

The UNP had readily accepted the government’s invitation to attend the multi-party conference. On the advice of party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, Karu along with UNP MPs K.N Choksy and Tyronne Fernando attended the discussion. Ratnasiri Wickremanayake and Nimal Siripala de Silva attended on behalf of the SLFP. Members representing several Tamil political parties from the North had also attended the much awaited conference.

“Discussions were held over several months. At the end of it, a proposed draft constitution was formulated by G. L. Peiris. It was proposed that the executive presidency be abolished and be replaced by a ceremonial president instead in addition to the appointment of three vice presidents…” Karu recalls.

According to him, the UNP had initially expressed its agreement to the draft only to backtrack later. “It was proposed the new constitutional amendments would only come into effect at the end of Kumaratunga’s term in 2005. We were not agreeable to this…” he says. “It was, therefore, decided the UNP should withdraw from the conference…” he adds.

Meanwhile, stiff opposition against the draft proposals had also begun to rise among some groups of Bhikkus as well as political and civil society activists. At the time the opposing Bhikkus even held a Maha Sangha Sabha at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall in Colombo to voice their dissent.

It was also rumoured that certain big wigs in the government were also displeased by the proposed draft constitution. “Some claimed Kumaratunga’s own Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake did not agree with the new proposals either. At the time Wickremanayake refrained from commenting publicly on the matter so the truth remains unknown…” Karu says. The government however refused to drop the proposal challenged by the UNP, thereby failing to gain the main opposition party’s support for the new constitutional draft.

This one clause resulted in the overall failure of the proposed draft constitution. Karu says the then government must bear the responsibility for this debacle. The many meetings resulting in the formulation of a new constitutional draft had been all for naught. Had it been successful Karu says it would have possibly led to a much needed sense of fellowship between the members of the government and the opposition. “This was a key reason I was keenly dedicated to the effort…” he adds.

Karu says he received a phone call from President Kumaratunga the very next day after the UNP dropped out of the multi-party discussions. The President, it appeared, was irked by the UNP now opposing the draft formulated with the party’s participation. “A clause we had not agreed to has been included in the final draft. This is the reason…” Karu explained. “Are you referring to the clause on the timing of the abolition of the presidency?” Kumaratunga had asked, adding that the clausehad been added on the insistence of G. L. Peiris, her Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.

“Fine, we will remove that clause. Ask Ranil to support us. This issue can be resolved through discussions…” she assured Karu. Before ending the phone call Karu had agreed to speak to the UNP leader on behalf of the President.

Karu had immediately called Wickremsinghe to relate Kumaratunga’s message. Wickremesinghe had merely said “It is too late for that now,” and moved on to another topic of discussion. Admitting he sadly failed in his efforts, Karu says had Wickremesinghe been more flexible it would have perhaps been possible to introduce a new constitution to Sri Lanka at the time.

(Excerpted from the biography of Karu Jayasuriya by Nihal Jagathchandra)