Sri Lanka at crossroads

By Frederica Jansz

The question all Sri Lankans should be asking themselves today is this: How safe are....

More....

> Rainbow coalitions and multiple problems

> Strategic thoughts to boost CBK's image (....Serendipity)

> The disunited United Nations (....World Affairs)

> Boys will be boys (....Thelma)

Sri Lanka at crossroads

Ranil - Determined to bring peace to this country
Mahinda - How will his deals with extremist elements affect us?

By Frederica Jansz

The question all Sri Lankans should be asking themselves today is this: How safe are we?

As a presidential campaign takes off the ground with one nominee, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse reneging on policies his own party holds sacred, we should all seriously be considering not just the future of this country but how Mahinda Rajapakse's recent deals with extremist elements will directly affect us all.

Rajapakse's pledges with the JVP and JHU are not mere political piffle. There is a chance that Mahinda Rajapakse if he is not removed as presidential nominee by his boss before nominations are finalised will win the forthcoming election.

If he does, he has promised to abrogate the P-TOMS agreement, renegotiate the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) and begin talks with the LTTE. A contradictory position if ever there was one.

Given the Tigers' present stance that they are not willing to renegotiate the CFA and will take serious umbrage if and when the P-TOMS agreement is abolished, what Rajapakse intends to discuss with the LTTE is something he has refrained from publicising.

We can only surmise given the Premier's links now with the JVP and the JHU that he not only agrees but intends to hold their view.

And this is their view.

No option but war

Treasurer, JHU, H. M. G. B. Kotakadeniya has no doubts about what should be done in the event the LTTE refuses to renegotiate the CFA, which according to Kotakadeniya, "has remained a dead document these last few years, lending instead huge advantages to the LTTE to continue kidnappings, killings and recruiting child soldiers."

"If the LTTE is not willing to talk there is no option left but to go back to war," Kotakadeniya asserted. He insists as has the Premier, that if the Tigers do agree to talks they must do so after laying down arms and discarding military style uniforms.

Kotakadeniya's statements coupled with those made by Rajapakse too only brings about a deep sense of d‚j… vu. Remember the Premadasa era in the early '90s and the laying down of arms then?

Now Rajapakse in a desperate bid to cully votes is treading down the same path - one that has already been tried, tested and failed.

So how does it feel? This is what we have to ask ourselves as we consider Mahinda Rajapakse as a presidential candidate.

Forget the fact that you and your forefathers have been blue or green these last so many generations. There is too much at stake for you and me to allow the colour of a party to dominate our decision when casting our vote.

We have ourselves to consider, and a return to war is a situation not one of us can shoulder.

When a man like Mahinda Rajapakse who has never served in the military and has never seen young men die in battle, as some of us have, but yet send our young people off to war, do you think they know how to conduct a war? Do they know what it means to have your legs blown off?

Perhaps if Rajapakse would only picture, god forbid, one of his own three sons with a mutilated arm or leg or worse, lying still in a coffin, he would not be so brash and stupid as to accede to the demands of the JVP and JHU, agreeing blindly to conditions that can only harm people like you, me and himself.

When he signed those pieces of paper did he not for one moment consider you and me? Does it not bother him that we, Sri Lankans, are held in ridicule by the rest of the world - considered as a nation both moronic and arrogant to boot? A damning combination if ever there was one.

Vulnerable

Our vulnerability is not just about dealing with terrorists or natural disasters. We are vulnerable and unsafe because we allow thousands of Sri Lankans to live in horrible poverty. We accept an education system where most never graduate and most of those who do can't string a coherent sentence together and as a result while away their time carrying placards opposite the Fort Railway Station.

The middle class can't pay their mortgage or hospital bills while more than a three quarter of our 19 million population has no health coverage whatsoever.

So, are we safe?

We have consistently given this country to individuals who weren't up for the job, who in turn have hired people who also aren't up for the job. We need to fix this situation irrespective of whether we are deciding to vote for either Mahinda Rajapakse or Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The issue is this though. While Wickremesinghe remains steadfast in his determination to implement a political solution that he hopes will bring peace to this country, the agreements between Mahinda Rajapakse, the JVP and JHU has implicitly justified division of Sri Lanka.

If Rajapakse believes that these agreements will help safeguard the territorial integrity of this island, that is simply beyond belief.

Lack of comprehension

Rajapakse's lack of comprehension with regard to negotiating with a terrorist outfit or how to implement conflict resolution methods has only given the LTTE a steadier platform to demand for a separate state.

It is no small wonder that TNA MPs Joseph Pararajasingham and R. Sambandan continue to reiterate to us that even at the Oslo meeting in 2002, the LTTE only agreed to study a possible solution incorporating internal self-determination and it did not agree to give up the armed struggle. The Tigers however have at several instances elaborated the reasons for its refusal.

According to the TNA the latest turn of events in the south now has justified the reasons given by the LTTE.

Ever since the CFA in 2002, both the governments of Chandrika Kumaratunga and Ranil Wickremesinghe conceded a Tamil and Sinhala state coming together to form a joined central government.

Kumaratunga, while initially criticising the UNP's method of power sharing, nevertheless is today hailing those measures. The UNP government even considered an arrangement of internal self-determination.

The President herself has always remained committed towards a political settlement with the LTTE, insisting peace would be possible only through a method of power sharing.

After all this, what is happening today? What has Mahinda Rajapakse gone and done? He has gone and turned everything upside down.

Double speak

Not only has Rajapakse ruled out any chances of power sharing, he has aptly proved that southern politicians can if need be revert to being oppressors - at great cost to Sri Lankans.

Yet Rajapakse engages in double speak. He says contrary to his positions on paper, that he is a father and wants all children to be safe and happy. That he won't dance to anyone's tune (a laughable one that). The UNP will have a role to play in the development of the country. That minority rights will be safeguarded.  And the Sinhala community must be brought together.

What on earth does he mean?

He has even said the Muslim community has been wronged and must be given their rightful place. Where? How? When?

Who is he fooling? Who is he deceiving? You and me.

Rajapakse talks about talking with the Tigers. How? From a position of strength?

If only Rajapakse bothered himself with reading up on other situations of conflict he would learn that communication is central to a negotiation process - A process which he has already severed.

Integrative negotiation

Integrative negotiation is possible when the parties share concern for each other's positive outcome. The presence of shared goals, trust, and clear communication between the parties will facilitate effective, integrative negotiation.

Going by the Premier's recent actions he has not given a thought to even focus on possible commonalties between the negotiators and engage in a free flow of information. They must understand each other's interests and needs, and must seek solutions which satisfy both sides. All vital aspects to peace talks, Rajapakse appears not to have a clue.

After all it is not he who is the terrorist here. So one would naturally expect him to be considering these positions with a sense of political maturity.

So, in which direction is our nation going to go?

We must ask ourselves, do we need to substantially change the course of our nation? Are we going to stand our ground, considering all that we have had to deal with these last miserable two decades?

What is Rajapakse promising us?  That we will be safer from terrorists by going on the offensive?

This is no time for political tactics. This is no time to have a leader who does not lead with conviction and Sri Lanka's safety, but instead leads with extremists' opinions. This is no time to have a leader who does not have a vision for the future. This is no time to have a leader who wants to pretend the 1980s / '90s are still here, when they clearly are not.

In a recent address to the business community Prime Minister Rajapakse said, "All sections of our society are sick and tired of theories and verbose statements, sick of visionary statements of our leaders, which have been largely confined to words, words. Like you, the captains of business, I too want action first, action second and action all the way." Rajapakse could not have made a truer statement. We hope that he is right about his attitude.

There is a proverb in Tamil, which states, "The vein-less tongue can be twisted in any way to say anything."

Proverbs apart one aspect is crystal clear, and that is both Rajapakse and his boss are on two very different wavelengths. Their approach to the peace process differs greatly, so much so one can only wonder if the party is already over for Mahinda Rajapakse - even before it properly began.

President means business

For Chandrika Kumaratunga means business. She is not about to let her dreams be vanquished all in the name of an electoral win for an individual.

In a speech to the Asia Society in New York last week, President Kumaratunga said she believed the main challenges for the peace process in Sri Lanka were a transformation of the state and of the LTTE.

"We need to transform the state so it is more inclusive - equally reflecting the concerns of all communities," she said, adding, "My view and the view of overwhelming sections of Sri Lankan society is that this will involve transforming the state from a unitary one to one that is plural and federal in nature."

And vociferously agreeing and backing his sister is Foreign Minister Anura Bandaranaike who also has lashed out at Rajapakse and his recent "deals" with "extremist forces."

Clearly these next few days for Mahinda Rajapakse will be significant. He maintains he would advocate devolution of power within a unitary state. But we all know the JVP and JHU are dead set against federalism. Unless Rajapakse intends to tear up his agreements with both these parties if he wins the presidential poll. That, we don't know.

What we do know is this. Irrespective of the dynamics involved in this political quagmire, we have only one question to keep asking ourselves. And that is, in the current context, how safe are we all?

Rainbow coalitions and multiple problems

Mahinda Rajapakse, Joseph Pararajasingham, Tilvin Silva and Ven. Medhananda Thero

By Dilrukshi Handunnetti

A humorous prediction made by a reputed political columnist last week was that while there are many political marriages taking place at present, there also would be many political divorces once the presidential election is over.

It is an easy prediction to make given the coalitions the SLFP presidential candidate Mahinda Rajapakse had so far formed.  And he appears to be governed by 12-point agreements with two different political parties that back his candidature. But having formed two alliances with a Marxist party and a Buddhist clergy outfit, his choices are somewhat limited. In the process, Rajapakse had alienated the SLFP's previous alliance partners, the LSSP and CP due to the hard-line politics he had opted for.

The journey ahead therefore, for Rajapakse is going to be a difficult one. While undoubtedly the most contentious issue he would have to deal with, if elected, would be to seek a solution to the ethnic issue, it is this that he is least equipped to deal with. Then there is the issue of the economic thrust a government under him would take and his vocal opposition to the free market economy which he has pledged to drastically alter.

Rajapakse's sudden shift of positions had been so swift and a clear departure from the SLFP's publicly acknowledged positions, that an angry Party Leader, President Chandrika Kumaratunga fired a letter of censure 10 days ago alleging he had backtracked, on a government commitment through the signing of the P-TOMS agreement in contravention of the party's central committee decision.

 So much so that before consolidating his position as party candidate, he has to now deal with an inordinate amount of criticism with regard to his change of heart, particularly with regard to the P-TOMS, an agreement presented to parliament by him as Prime Minister. With this, he has lost considerable support of the leftist parties that have traditionally supported the SLFP.

The first stumbling block before Rajapakse is the unit of devolution.

"These concerns have to be discussed. The meeting today (18) amongst SLFP leaders is crucial," says PA General Secretary, D. M. Jayaratne who admittedly intends smoothing President Kumaratunga's ruffled feathers before the meeting takes place.

Ill feeling

And Jayaratne admits to the existence of some ill feeling between the President and the party's presidential candidate over the stances adopted by the latter with regard to important national issues as well as policies.

Given his penchant to shift positions and form alliances that cannot even agree to disagree, the two parties that have formed alliances with the Premier advocate a unitary character. It is a position completely rejected by SLFP President, Chandrika Kumaratunga herself.

In her strongly worded letter to the Premier just prior to her departure to the US to attend the UN General Assembly, she emphasised that previous political leaders who allowed themselves to be confined to the unitary character of the Sri Lankan state could not go beyond that position to resolve the conflict.

The 1972 Republican Constitution recognised the unitary character and the1978 Constitution fortified this position. It was none other than President J. R. Jayewardene who was restricted by the character of the unitary state when he signed the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord to eschew out the separatist cause. Suddenly, the government realised the constraints created for a significant power devolution exercise.

The country naturally failed to progress in the path towards peace with the only two steps so far taken in this regard being, the signing of the CFA and P-TOMS, whatever their drawbacks may be.

Not just to D. M. Jayaratne but to many others, not only the future of the ad hoc alliance but the chances of a future Mahinda Rajapakse led government to settle the dispute appear remote.

Prior to sealing the pact, the JVP was perturbed by the fact that the JHU was insisting on the unitary character of the state. Though originally silent on the issue, the hard-line JVP threatened that the Marxists also will have to insist on a unitary state if the Premier accepts the JHU proposal.

With the same ease with which he sealed off a pact with the JVP, Rajapakse signed an agreement with the JHU at the Sacred Temple of the Tooth in truly Buddhist fashion last week. More electoral pacts are expected to follow bringing in a diversity of positions that would be near impossible to reconcile as days advance.

According to Assistant Secretary, UNP, Tissa Attanayake, the survival rate of these ad hoc alliances is low.  The UPFA government did not survive the first alliance with the JVP and the second time would be worse.

History will repeat

" People expected a lot from the JVP when they formed part of a ruling alliance. With their popularity having suffered significantly due to non-performance, the second alliance with the reds would not survive even 14 months. The JVP will abandon the ship once more when the government is compelled to deal with contentious issues as they did this time," Attanayake insists.

According to General Secretary, LSSP, Batty Weerakoon, both the JHU and the JVP had suffered a major setback to their popularity in the past year, a view Attanayake supports. Attanayake feels that both the JVP and the JHU did not wish to bare their inability to garner public support by fielding a candidate each that would have resulted in humiliating defeats that would adversely impact party cadres.

" When the time is opportune, they will abandon the ship. But at present, they have to save face by forming some coalition or the other," Attanayake adds.

"They are working at different agendas and they would obviously clash when the time is right for decision making. It is sad that there is retrograde political action," says Batty Weerakoon, expressing unhappiness over the treatment meted out to the previous SLFP coalition partners who shared significant political ideals.

" We shared a commitment to extensive power devolution, but where do these two parties take the SLFP?" he queried.

In this entire backdrop, the CWC that had decided to support the Rajapakse led rainbow coalition is having a rethink. They fear that P. Chandrasekeran would score better with the Tamil estate population if the CWC supports a coalition that is now being identified as a pro Sinhala hard-line outfit.

Disastrous move

According to Convenor, NLF, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, it was disastrous to reverse positions so soon, particularly with regard to the island's most contentious issue.

" We can't work with parties that do not accept extensive power devolution as the basis for resolving the ethnic question," he says.

Expressing his fears, Senior Vice President, CWC, and Estate Infrastructure Minister, Muthu Sivalingam said that the basis for any alliance should be a deep commitment to pursue peace without which there could be no growth. JHU and the JVP may well stand in the way.

The above sentiment is more vociferously expressed by TNA's Joseph Pararajasingham.

" We would support the candidate who demonstrates the biggest commitment to the negotiated peace," Pararajasingham said.

Perturbed TNA members last week rushed to the Wanni to discuss with the LTTE the stance they should adopt when the poll is finally announced.

" Our choice would be the candidate who is most likely to continue with the peace process," insisted Pararajasingham.

It is learned that the LTTE would reassess the position it should adopt in the event of a victory for Mahinda Rajapakse.

But it is not just the possibilities of peace that is being questioned today. With Rajapakse all set to form more deals with various other political parties, UNP Parliamentarian Bandula Gunawardena observes that the new alliances would prove "disastrously inimical" on two counts - the ethnic issue and the economic thrust.

" The Premier is now trying to take us 30 years back. He had made a commitment that the market economy would be scrapped. He pledges to create a 'balanced economy' and nowhere in the world could one find that economic model," he added.

Gunawardena notes that by outright rejection of a free market economy, something Rajapakse had vociferously campaigned against during President Jayewardene's rule in the late '70s, the negative work would be completed this time around, if elected.

"He is a man still stuck in the past and now he would put his party on reverse gear with regard to two significant changes President Kumaratunga introduced. She accepted an open economic policy and extensive power devolution based on a federal structure - two positions the new coalitions led by Rajapakse have rejected.

Bandula Gunawardena also points out that the business community had recently called for commitments from both candidates to long term economic policies and strategies that would hold, and the creation of a conducive atmosphere for the nation's growth through augmenting inventor confidence.

"Queues, lack of investment, prohibitions on imports and heavy taxes on imported goods are what we should except from a government headed by Rajapakse," Gunawardena predicted.

Privatisation

Furthermore, there is the nagging issue of a Rajapakse led coalition government's approach to privatisation. The programme introduced by the UNP was continued by the PA and then the UPFA and now there is a departure once more from the previous commitment.

It is one of the significant points contained in the JVP-Rajapakse agreement - that restructuring of state would come to a grinding halt.

As President Chandrika Kumaratunga meets her party bigwigs today (18) to have the draft SLFP policy statement ratified by the party's decision making body, many SLFPers feel that the presidential candidate should not compromise the party position.

" It would be tragic to make a departure from the party position. We are committed to a federal solution and stand by the P-TOMS agreement. It should be continued," says D. M. Jayaratne.

The policy statement is the last ditch attempt by a President who has less than two months as head of state, and that is something she is determined to keep Rajapakse bound by - if only to prevent a serious compromise on SLFP party policies and ideals.

What Rajapakse needs to remember while forging alliances of different types is that his candidature should anyway reflect party positions, even if Kumaratunga did not attempt to force them down his reluctant throat. Though the most powerful Bandaranaike is about to relinquish the highest political office, there is no dispute about the power Bandaranaikes wield over the SLFP, its decision making process and their marketability to the masses.

Rajapakse this week would be compelled to accept a statement that is more in tune with the liberal acceptance of a negotiated political solution to the ethnic conflict as espoused by Kumaratunga and a commitment to an economic programme that might rankle against his wishes, as well as his decapacitated alliance partners, the JVP and the JHU.

It would be a good strategy for him to reassess the situation and position before his hotchpotch of alliances cost him his political future.  

Boys will be boys

Darling Satty,  

There's never telling what you'll do next darling. Always something up your ruddy sleeve, eh? And no I'm not talking about yesterday's under arm stubble you forgot to wax. I'm talking about this uncanny knack you have of giving an unsuspecting chappie a red carpet welcome and then pulling the bally carpet from under him.

Mallo must have been seated cross legged on the ground by your feet at the Ritz Carlton. No, no that's not a picture I'd like to imagine dear. So let's say he was in the vicinity chattering away 'bout the old days and how he would be playing with your Barbie dolls, while you hung on the phone chatting to your latest crush, when you might have stumbled upon the subject of your ole friend Mahinder. I mean to say New York will do just as well as any other for a heart to heart with your little Mallo.

Meanwhile Mallo has been acting rather like a scrappy little chi hwa hwa whose bone has been stolen darling. Rather peeved he seems to be. I don't care about this bally election he told the rags. The policies of the blues are not being followed. In fact, the chap sulked, my Akki and I will come along after this UN thingummie and like Samson with the Philistines seize the jawbone of an ass and smite the offending fellows who entered into these agreements, some on the hip and some on the thigh.

Well we all know what happened to that long-haired bloke dear. His final act brought down the house if you know your Jewish history. Come to think of it, it would do Mahinder well to brush up on his Israeli history. For if he did he would know that like Samson with Delilah once a woman gets into a man's hair he's pretty bally helpless.

Any way dear you've decided to cut down your UN visit by five days and wing it back to paradise in an indecent hurry. And it can't be that you are missing the string hopper biryani or the pol sambol. I know dear, those bally UN sessions can be a tearing bore darling don't you know. Washed down reforms couched in pretty language, that's all it ever is.

But sadly you will have to sacrifice seeing a good off broadway play or a tacky broadway musical or even just jostling about at Times Square. I say darling it may be rather nifty if you could etch upon a stone at the UN building the words 'Satty woz 'ere' or something.

Anyway it would seem that you've been acting with a lot of vim, vigour and vitality dear and keeping your ear to the ground and all that. Mahinder giving you a headache dearie? Tch Tch. And has he been a naughty boy or what. Playing with fellows you specifically told him not to play with. Ah dear. You know how it is? Boys will be boys.

I wonder if you had anything to do with Mahinder's 'Helping Hambantota' scam case being filed in courts. M' dear I don't know how that chap ever helped Hambantota when Hambantota is the poorest bally district in all of paradise next to Moneragala which of course, surprise surprise, is next to it. What pray have these Mahinder pattiyas been doing for 60 years? Certainly not helping their old town.

Be that as it may darling, not since the fall of Rome have I seen anything so pathetic as a man who may be so badly teetering on the edge. Are you planning dearie to dissolve the bally house like a disprin? Or are we to have the presidential?If so will you officially nominate Mahinder as the blue candidate? After all it was you who advised him to go as an independent just the other day. Ouch. That's going to hurt eh!

I mean to say the chap is going to look pretty silly having pasted all those posters with him smiling in the foreground on a blue background. So would he have to quickly tear down posters of you and Anura flanking him like a Roman triumvirate.

But darling the chap is not a man devoid of the Pee R. Rather charming he has been to the 100,000 guests he has been hosting from time to time at Temple Trees. He was to say to a batch of junior lawyers the other day, "Mama edath Mahinder, adath Mahinder, hetath Mahinder." While needless to say this type of vacuous, populist speech does have its fans and rather a loud applause ensued, one wonders whether he was at one time thinking of having a sex change or something that he has to assure the public he will remain the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Nice thing it would be if Mahinder was voted in as next prez and at the time of taking his oath before the Chief Justice and much to ole Sarath's dismay he came decked in Shiranthi's shiny sari and signed as Uthpala on the dotted line. All sorts of comments it's going to incite I mean to say. Not to mention that the voting public will immediately lose faith in the system of governance with a man who does not know his own sex. Bad enough he does not know his own party and goes from red to yellow to blue like a bally chameleon. Neither can one accuse him of knowing what he stands for. Well except the obvious I mean to say what. Eh, eh.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes the chap knows how to keep you happy too. I wonder whether you watched Ellawela Medhananda Thero's speech after the JHU agreement was signed last week dear. The Thero I hardly like to tell you, castigated you for trying to divide the country darling. All the time while Mahinder was pasted to his side, the Thero lamented that you and Ranil were trying to break paradise into a million little pieces.

Just moments before Mahinder himself who is in serious denial was speechifying haltingly about how he was a man from the blues and how you were committed to peace, etcetera. A little butter hurt no one. So judge of his surprise and consternation when the Thero spilled the beans and putting his foot you know where scolded you properly.

Quick as a thingumagig our Mahinder was to call upon the media not to report that part of the Thero's speech where he's calling you a divider as if you were a geometrical instrument. Hmm. Trying to keep you happy too, eh?

Meanwhile as far as I see Mahinder is in a hot soup. Does one see the iron hand at work beneath the voil glove?

Not long to wait and see.
Tara for now

Strategic thoughts to boost CBK's image

In a darkened room of the creaky old building opposite  Gordon Gardens, the Insecurity Council was in session. This is not to be mistaken for the all powerful Security Council. It is a think tank advising the Sri Lanka government on strategic matters.

Former top bureaucrat, Kapati Pandangratne was in the chair. He was preambling.

President Kumaratunga addressing the UN

"In every endeavour today, be it the opening of thosai boutique to pasting posters, selling newspapers or toffee wrapping papers, strategic planning is an absolute essential. Now we must come up with a strategic plan to boost up our president's visit to the United Nations - to project her image among the world's leaders and of course elections are round the corner. "We have already commenced the first prong of our strategy by sending a high powered delegation with the president to the UN sessions - you can judge how high-powered it is from the delegates: Panther Wanniaratchchi, Arumugam Thondaman, D.E.W. Gunasekera, state media bosses and journalists past and present, Rupavahini TV team with Jayanatha Dhanapala and one or two diplomats. Sadly, Mervyn Silva is missing.

"Now that our crack team is in place, we must have a strategic plan to announce to the world that Our President Chandrika Kumaratunga is at the UN headquarters among other world leaders. Therefore gentlemen, I have been asked to call for strategic proposals of the Insecurity Council.  But before that I urge you to look under the table and look out for those defence correspondent types."

Army top brass: None under the table sir. The moles may be at the table.

See eye eh Silva: (Darling of the Western embassies with a brilliant academic record not entering a Sri Lanka university but having won a badminton scholarship to the University of Buffalo, New York). I've been working on this strategy. You know, the Americans are still obsessed with bin Laden. Four years have passed since 9/11 and that fellow is still taunting the Yanks who are desperate to catch him. So why not leak the story that bin Laden has been hiding in Slave Island and that he had been seen chewing betel near the Slave Island rail gate and the Muslim Library? Yanks will be terribly excited. Within days the CIA, FBI and all their spy organisations will swoop on Slave Island. Sri Lanka will be the focus of world opinion. Madam can pledge to the US that all the help needed will be given. She will be the instant darling of the international community....

Kapati Pandangratne: But what happens when the Americans come and they can't find bin Laden?

Seeeyeeh: We will say he has gone into hiding. Take pictures of a tall fellow like Alavi Moulana dressed like an Arab with the railway station in the background as proof that bin Laden was there. Say he disappeared in a Hi- Ace van with no number plates and was heard seen giving directions to proceed to Beruwela or some such place such as Uurugasmanhandiya.

Nonaligned Savari: (of the Foreign Ministry) all this will be counter productive. This will complicate our policy with Arab nations who still fund bin Laden. It will cause jitters in India.

Kapati: Quite right. Do we have other strategies?

Pontificatus Mahadenatilleke ( Leading NGO activist from the Mariyakadde Centre of Social De-stabililisation). Why not spread the story that a Buddhist bomb is being made in the Vidyodaya Science Laboratories by a team spearheaded by Nalin de Silva with those like Gunadasa Amersekera and S.L. Gunasekera giving support? Nalin de Silva, remember is an astrophysicist from the Sussex University. First Class and averaged 98 per cent in the Maths final in the old University of Colombo. We will say he is in league with Buddhist scientists in Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Tibet and outer Mongolia and is spearheading the project of the Buddhist bomb. We can find an ideological basis for this by referring to the Mahavamsa-chosen race and all that. The. ICES can provide enough and more documentation on the subject, dating to pre Vijayan times

We will say radioactive Monazite sands from Beruwela is being converted to Uranium tetraflouride in the Vidyodaya centrifuges and upgraded wih radioactive Ilemenite from Pullmodai to produce fissile plutonium to make a low yielding nuclear bomb as small as a buth packet.

CBK can declare to the world that the conspiracy about the Buddhist bomb has been uncovered and she has taken all steps to arrest the culprits and send them to Guantanamo Bay. This will send her reputation sky high. The nuclear non proliferation lobby will hail her as the saviour of the world.

Bauddhapala Poladisinghe: ( Attanagalla Blue SLFPer) Are you mad? Rake up another anti- Buddhist issue before the election? Already we have the JVP beating the underberas and the JHU the getaberas against us. Do you want us to be drummed out?

 Drohi Hulangoda: (Former insurrectionist and talented abductor of VIPs now leading human rights activist with a mid West American accent.) Now that the Madam is in New York and not being taken notice of very much because of so many Third World performers being present, why don't we drop a peace propaganda bomb. We will declare that she is willing to grant all Pirapaharan's wishes- his demand for a separate state with immediate effect for the sake of peace! This is certain to make the world headlines. Old Bill Clinton will come rushing out from some boudoir saying: Atta girl Chandrika! I told you folks she is the best bet for peace! All Americans will declare she is the next best thing to sliced bread and Nelson Mandela. Nobel Prize will be for the asking!

Kapati:But what can the President tell the howling New York media mob? Tell them she will handover both the north and east to the megalomaniac? What will be the reaction at home?

Drohi:She can flash her famed toothy smile and say she is prepared to discuss her proposal further with Pirapaharan and it is still a proposal. She will recall how she offered Pirapaharan the entire north and that it was turned down. It is on record in a  - Magazine interview of hers. So why not add on the east this time?

Kapati:And if Pirapharan says he will accept the President's offer what is she to do?

Drohi: Disappear for some time to London and a few weeks later say the deal is off. Nevermind the repercussions; she has made headlines and the world will remember her as a true messenger of peace and how far she was willing to go for the sake of peace.

Kapati: But what are the reasons she can give for calling off the deal?

Drohi: Say that Pirapaharan wanted entire Sri Lanka. To him Eelam means entire Lanka. She can say she would willingly grant that too for the sake of peace if not for those cantankerous fellows like S.L. Gunasekera and Nalin De Silva.

Kapati: And what happens when she comes back home? Did she really offer the entire north and east to Pirapharanakaran, the BJB ( Bambalapitiya Junction Balavegaya) will ask.

Drohi: She can say that this is a diabolical plot of the JVP-Mahinda gang in conjunction with  the UNP. They are all trying to discredit her and the Bandaranaikes. She never told the American media that she would give the north and east to Pirapaharan. How could she? Not her family property nor state lands at Madiwela to donate as she wants.

The indignant Chandrika can bellow overstate TV that Milinda Moragoda with the assistance of the American media and the CIA cooked up this plot. The Americans, Ranil and Milinda can deny it till they are blue in the face but do you think our intelligent masses will believe all that? Remember how often she has denied statements she made on TV the very next day without batting an eyelid ? Accept my proposal gentlemen not forgetting that talents such as mine need to be harnessed in the field of diplomacy.

Kapati: This is a strategy that needs further consideration.

The disunited United Nations

International 'talkathons' with world leaders flying  in with their delegations and TV crews, to make known their  lofty intentions and plans for the betterment of the world and  then fly out in a few days, rarely meet the idealistic objectives  declared in the  agendas  of such confabs. 

 Alleviating of poverty and helping poor nations towards reaching their development goals,  taking on pandemics such as AIDS, protection of human rights, combating international terrorism, breaking through trade barriers, spreading democracy and reform of the United Nations itself.

By the time the General Assembly met, a group of core nations after 'long and acrimonious debating' had watered down the UN plans particularly on controversial issues. Some observers had pointed out that the highly contentious issues had been reduced to nuances that could be interpreted in the way partisan observers could wish for.

Secretary General Kofi Annan himself in his opening address confessed that the blueprint of the conference fell short of his visions of freedom from hunger and war. "We have yet achieved the sweeping and fundamental reforms I believe is required," he said.

However, reports spoke of positive advances such as plans to reform the much criticised UN organisation itself. There was agreement for  a code of ethics for the UN staff, internal management reform plan and agreement of   ' whistleblower protection'- protection to those employees who squeal on their corrupt bosses- as well as the strengthening of the internal audit system.

These reforms were indeed of urgency because the UN had come in for scathing criticism as a corrupt, inefficient and anachronistic organisation, by the Bush administration itself. There were even lurking doubts whether the United States that finances almost 20 per cent of the UN expenditure will pull the carpet under the feet of the world body with President George Bush appointing a favourite UN baiter, John Bolton as the US ambassador to the United Nations. The American President had even by-passed US congress in making this appointment which has been unprecedented.

The walrus moustachioed Bolton is known for his comments such as "It wouldn't make a bit of a difference if the UN Secretariat in New York were to lose 10 storeys" and that "the Security Council needed only one permanent member because that's the real distribution of power in the world." However President Bush addressing the sessions on the first day and "promoting his blueprint for selling democracy in Iraq and elsewhere,"overhauling the UN and expanding free trade has cleared doubts about the Bush administration being the nemesis of the UN.

Blair hits out

British Prime Minister Tony Blair came out strongly for using the UN as an instrument for fighting international terrorism. With his usual sangfroid shattered by the recent London bombings, he called for a law for all states to outlaw incitement on terrorism. He called for action against international terrorism, and unanimity in enacting laws against it. But even at this session, failed to define terrorism - an abject failure because some of these passionate anti- terrorist calls seem meaningless to some nations.

For example, Tony Blair's calls for united action against terrorism will be meaningless to Sri Lankans when Britian continues to permit Sri Lanka's No. 2 terrorist leader to live  in London. It all boils down to 'one man's terrorist still being entertained by some as the other man's freedom fighter.'

Tony Blair has also proposed that the respect for sovereignty of individual states be overridden by the UN when a government cannot protect its own people from acts such as genocide. He declared: "We in the name of humanity have a common duty to protect the people where their own governments will not."

Earlier the UN convention was that such interference be permitted only when the security of another state was threatened by internal conflicts of a neighbouring state. This proposal, although it has  the consensus of the General Assembly, needs great scrutiny by Third World countries, particularly small poor countries. It will be an instrument of the big powers to intervene in the internal affairs of small nations and dictate the internal and foreign policies to those weak countries.  On the other hand big and powerful countries or even intermediate powers will be able to get away with blue murder with or without UN sanction.

Dangerous provision

For example could the UN or any other power intervene in internal issues involving big countries such as China, India, or Russia? On the other hand what of the United States and Britian itself?

Iraq was invaded by the US and Britian without the sanction of the UN Security Council on a horrendously wrong charge: Possession of weapons of mass destruction. Neither country can deny that. Will the UN that is sanctioning intervention in poor countries when governments are unable to protect their people now ask the US and Britian to clear out of Iraq and the take over the administration from the puppets of Britian and US?

This assembly is likely to approve a Human Rights Council to monitor human rights abuses, replacing the much maligned UN Human Rights Commission. Will it do any better than the previous organisation in defending human rights of the Iraqis?

Nuclear non proliferation

The issue of nuclear non proliferation has been left out in this year's discussion which Kofi Annan has described as the ' biggest failure' while the Millennium Goals  meant to bring about dramatic improvement in the quality of the lives of the poor - particularly in Africa and Asia remain as far as ever.

The UN has not been the darling of the powerful Western nations since it was set up. This is only natural because in the Cold War days it received a severe verbal battering from the Non Aligned Nations as well as those in the Soviet bloc.

UN role for development of the Third World has been unquestionable, particularly in the efforts of these former colonial countries becoming independent nations. The proposals are there before the UN for the transformation of the quality of life of the poor of the world but only the Western powers have the financial clout to implement them.

A UN official was quoted in the first day's session as saying: "The UN can only be strong as governments allow it to be."