Sri Lanka Perspectives - November 2010

 By Col R Hariharan (Retd.)

POLITICAL

Swearing of the President

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as President for a second term on Nov 19, 2010. In a marked departure from the austere swearing-ins of the past, this time it had all the trappings of a coronation. After the swearing-in, colourful celebrations included a military parade with a fly-past of air force jets, a special display by Navy and a cultural display.  The pompous nationwide celebrations with huge cut outs of Rajapaksa showed that orchestration of  Rajapaksa personality cult is well under way and is likely to gather momentum.

Notable foreign representatives on the occasion included Bhutanese Prime Minister Lyonchhen Jigmi Thinley, Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Sang Giuowei and Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Hu Zhengyue, and Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed. India was represented by Minister of State for External Affairs Ms Parmit Kaur. In a clear departure from past practices, the ceremony started with only Buddhist religious observance instead of multi-faith prayers. The main opposition United National Party boycotted the ceremony.

Jumbo cabinet

President Rajapaksa’s new cabinet has been shaped on the basis of constitutional amendments. DM Jayaratne was made be the Prime Minister setting aside media speculations that President’s brother Basil Rajapaksa would be the choice. Basil will now be handling  planning and development portfolio. For the first time a new category of 'senior ministers' with 11 members has been introduced. They included trusted members of his earlier team. In addition to this 61 cabinet ministers and 31 deputy ministers have also been inducted.

Thus in all 104 members out of 161 members of the President’s United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) have been included in the cabinet! He appears to have accommodated as many members as possible in the cabinet to prevent any defection from the ruling coalition. Apparently, political expedience appears to be the priority rather than efficiency of governance.

In spite of such large number of ministers, the President has retained the vital portfolios of defence, finance and planning, ports and aviation and highways under him. The senior ministers have been given other important portfolios indicating though their attendance at cabinet meetings was optional! The President’s strategy appears to be to keep coalition flock together and allow ministers and deputy ministers to perform only nominally. It indicated Rajapaksa’s lack of faith in retaining of the loyalties of the members of his coalition despite his mass popularity and lack of effective opposition.

Tamil politics

Heroes Day celebration: The deafening silence that greeted November 26, the birthday of Velupillai Prabhakaran, which used to be celebrated by the LTTE and its supporters as Maveerar Naal (Heroes Day) in Tamil areas of Sri Lanka showed the extent of disillusionment with the ideal of a separate Tamil Eelam. A former LTTE leader Athavan, now settled in Vanni, in a poignant statement issued on the occasion castigated the Tamil Diaspora for using the name of Prabhakaran and the Tamil Tigers for selfish reasons unmindful of the plight of former cadres and their families in Sri Lanka.

The Tamil Political Parties Forum (TPPF): All Tamil political parties excluding the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) have formed the TPPF to take up issues affecting Tamils in one voice. A TPPF delegation met President Rajapaksa on Nov 26 and handed over a letter expressing their concerns. The TPPF asked the President to find a political solution to the ethnic question within a united Sri Lanka so that Tamil people can fully participate in the governance in the North and East. “The implementation of the 13th amendment in full will be a positive beginning of the political process in this regard,” the TPPF said. The TNA is also said to be in informal touch with the TPPF so that they can come to a political understanding. Presumably this is in preparation of the Northern Provincial Council elections which are likely to be scheduled in March 2011.

DEFENCE

Joint exercise: Sri Lanka army, navy and air force carried out the first ever joint exercise in the last week of Nov 2010. Around 2500 armed forces personnel participated in the exercise code-named 'Cormorant Strike’ carried out along the coast in area Silawaturai, Mannar in Northern Province. According to defence sources Commando Regiment and Special Forces made amphibious landing during the exercise and participated ground operations. The objective of the exercise was to train leaders at different levels in planning, command and decision making . The selection of the Mannar coast for the regiment-group sized exercise across India’s Rameswaram coast is interesting. Probably the exercise was also to send a warning to LTTE’s international elements trying to revise the Eelam separatist movement among the Diaspora.

LTTE massacre of military prisoners: The army has opened a mass grave in Viswamadu jungle in Mullaitivu district where 26 armed forces personnel who were taken prisoner were shot dead by the LTTE were buried. The prisoners included 18 SLN sailors (including two naval officers) and eight army personnel. The naval prisoners were survivors of a LTTE Sea Tiger attack in 2007 in which Navy lost three Dvora craft. The security forces are in the process of identifying the dead. 

Army de-mining program:  The U.S. has donated US$500,000 worth of items including several vehicles, trucks, ambulances and equipment to Sri Lanka Army providing further assistance of de-mining operations underway in the North. India, Japan, Australia and the U.S. are among the countries assisting de-mining operations. While so far 856,203,415 square meters have been de-mined, parts of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts still remain to be de-mined.   

FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

Hambantota port inauguration 

President Rajapaksa fresh from a visit to China, formally inaugurated the Hambantota Port on November 18. The just completed Phase-I of the Chinese assisted project was launched in January 2008. The $360 million Phase-I includes a bunker terminal. The Chinese government provided 85% of the funding while the remaining 15% was to be met by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority.  The launch of the second phase of the development of the port is said to have commenced on the same day.

Around 29 companies a majority of them Chinese are reported to have expressed interest in investing in various industries in the Hambantota Port. The Chinese companies have shown interest in manufacture and assembling of automobiles. At present Sri Lanka automobile market is dominated by India and the Chinese entry is likely to pose a stiff competition to the Indians. 

India 

Not to be outdone by China, India is also trying to increase its visibility in Sri Lanka. India’s External Affairs Minister S M Krishna paid a three day visit to Sri Lanka from November 25. He attended the 7^th India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission meeting on November 26 with his Sri Lankan counterpart Prof GL Peiris. According to Indian press note Joint Commission discussions covered all areas of bilateral relevance, including trade, services and investment, development cooperation, science and technology, culture and education. 

Krishna in a media briefing on arrival reminded Sri Lanka on the need for a structured dialogue mechanism with a mutual understanding of both parties in finding a political solution to the ethnic issue. He also said India would continue to assist Sri Lanka on various issues such as resettlement, rehabilitation, de-mining and agriculture development.

He alos inaugurated Indian consulates in Jaffna and Hambantota. While the Jaffna consulate would lessen the hardship of Tamil travellers to India, the Hambantota consulate would facilitate greater trade and investment from India likely when the area around the port develops and marine traffic increases.

Krishna also inaugurated the pilot project to construct 1000 houses for internally displaced people in Vanni. This is a part of India-aided project to construct 50,000 houses. He also flagged off the work on the Medawachchiya-Madhu railway line being constructed by Indian engineers with India’s assistance. Work will also begin simultaneously on the Madhu-Talaimannar and Omanthai-Pallai railway lines, which are being revived with Indian assistance. 

Pakistan President Zardari’s visit

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari paid a four-day state visit to Sri Lanka at the invitation of President Rajapaksa from November 26. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar and a business delegation accompanied the Pak President.

Following bilateral talks between the two presidents, four agreements relating to visa abolition of diplomatic and official passports, agricultural cooperation, and assistance in Customs matters and agreement on the fields on arts and creative studies were signed on November 28.

November 30, 2010

Reproduced from South Asia Security Trends Vol 4 No 11

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