by T. Sabaratnam; originally published January 5, 2004
Weekly Review
4 -1-2004
Sri Lanka Scene
Last week I highlighted the return of Buddhist extremism to the centre of the Southern Sri Lankan political stage and indicated the ensuing danger. As I said, the government bent backwards to please the Buddhist monks. Buddha Sasana Minister W. J. M. Lokkubandara walked to the fasting monks with lunch parcels before noon on Wednesday, the second day of the fast, and sought their permission to sit beside them.
“May I sit beside you, Venerable Sirs,” he asked Ven. Sobitha Thera, who had joined the fast that morning.
The monk who looked amused replied, “You may, Mr. Minister. But why waste your time here. Spend your time drafting the legislation to ban unethical religious conversions.”
“I will certainly present the legislation before the Cabinet. That will not be a problem. Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapakse had expressed his support for the legislation.”
Ven. Ellawela Medhananda, president of the National Buddhist Monk’s Front, who started the fast the previous day, was not content with the promise. He said he would continue the fast until the legislation was presented in parliament.
Lokubandara visited the fasting monks following a decision arrived at a meeting Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had with the top Buddhist priests to worked out a formula to help end the fast. Wickremesinghe assured the priests that the government was ready to enact the anti- conversion legislation and warned that the JVP and the extremist Sinhala organizations were trying to cash in the situation.
“The country is in deep trouble due to the ethnic problem. The situation will worsen if there is a religious conflict,” Wickremesinghe warned.
Lokubandara and Power and Energy Minister Karu Jayasuriya negotiated with a delegation of the National Buddhist Monks’ Front after Ven. Medhananda turned down the minister’s verbal promise. A compromise, which required the minister to appoint a Buddhist Affairs Committee within 14 days and to table in parliament a legislation to ban unethical religious conversion within 60 days, was worked out. Lokubandara gave a written assurance that he would honour the compromise. The monks then ended the fast.
The minister agreed to implement the recommendations of the Buddhist Affairs Committee on matters relating to the day-to-day matters concerning Buddhism. The new committee will consist of five members of the National Buddhist Monks’ Front and representatives of each Buddhist sect and chapter.
Wickremesinghe appointed a ministerial sub-committee to draft the necessary legislation. The committee headed by Lokubandara comprises the Minister of Christian Affairs John Amaratunga, Minister of Hindu Affairs T. Maheswaran, Minister of Muslim Affairs Rauff Hakeem and Minister of Education Karunasena Kodituwakku.
The anti-conversion law, most probably, will be approved by the Supreme Court because it held in another fundamental rights petition in August last year that the religious freedom guaranteed by the constitution is limited to practicing one’s religion and does not extend to propagating or spreading one’s religion to others. It definitely did not include the right to convert others to one’s religion.
“The fast and the attempt the government made to satisfy the priests has given room to extremist Buddhist monks to interfere in political matters. This is not a comfortable development,” an analyst said.
While analysts bemoan the results of the Buddhist monks’ fast as a bad development, efforts are being made to drag the Maha Sangha into the political field. Prelates who met Wickremesinghe on Tuesday took up the Chandrika- Ranil conflict and wanted the prime minister to explain the problem to them. Wickremesinghe gave them a detailed explanation and said he should have the ministries connected with the peace talks under him if he was to continue the peace process.
The priests told him that they were convinced of his arguments, but that Chandrika had told them a different story. Then one of the influential priests, Bellanwilla Wimalaratna Thera, said: “It would be better if we can get Chandrika and you to come before us and state your cases. We can then work out a compromise.”
Ranil dismissed it by turning into a joke. “If we are brought together sparks will fly,” he said.
With that, the suggestion for the monks to mediate was shelved. But the Daily Mirror on Saturday took up the matter and urged the Buddhist monks to follow up their offer with action.
The paper, in its editorial, said: “In our view, it should be more than an offer…. We submit that it is indeed their duty, at a time of danger to the country such as the present, to advise the political leaders, playing their traditional role, to agree to a common approach to the intricate problems confronting the nation.”
The editorial suggests to the Maha Sangha to appoint a committee of competent monks to study the controversy that has arisen between the president and the prime minister and prepare a compromise formula which should be accepted by both leaders.
While the Daily Mirror is trying to give to the Maha Sangha the power and space to mediate between the president and the prime minister the dispute is becoming heated and complicated. The dispute started when Chandrika took over the important ministries of defence, interior and media on 4 November. The Prime Minister has demanded the return of the three ministries to enable him to continue the peace talks he initiated with the LTTE. The President, who was willing to hand over the ministries of Interior and Media, has refused to hand over the ministry of Defence.
She is now arguing that the constitution requires that the portfolio of defence be held by the president. She has obtained a ruling to that effect from the Supreme Court to strengthen her hands. The government and constitutional experts are challenging the Supreme Court’s ruling. They say that the president, by asking for a clarification of the constitutional position regarding the defence ministry, misused the Supreme Court for her benefit.
Besides strengthening her constitutional hold on the defence ministry, Chandrika also brought under the defence ministry some of the subjects that were earlier under the interior ministry. Prison was one of those subjects and jurist Desmond Fernando argues that was a subject relevant to the continuance of the peace process. He argues that the armed forces and the police should be under Ranil if he is to continue peace talks. He says control over the army, navy, police and prisons are material for the implementation of the various sections under the ceasefire agreement.
In a radio talk show last week, Chandrika made an attempt to put the blame on Ranil for the delay in the peace talks. She said the constitutional crisis Ranil was talking about was “imaginary.” She said she had offered to gazette the powers necessary to take forward the peace process, but Ranil was adamant in asking for the return of the entire ministry, She also said peace talks had failed when the LTTE temporarily suspended its participation and that Ranil was trying to put the blame on her.
Ranil was angry about these accusations. He called a meeting of his close advisors and told them: “Chandrika is trying to consolidate her power and trying to put the blame for the delay of the peace process on me. We cannot allow her to fool everyone any more. We must go on the offensive.”
He launched the offensive internationally and locally. In the international sphere, his plan was to get the international community to pressurize her. He sent Minister Milinda Moragoda to Washington, Oslo and Brussels. In Washington Moragoda met Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and handed him a message from Ranil. Armitage acted swiftly. He stressed the need to take forward the peace process, stated that the current political crisis would have a negative impact on the peace process, urged that a clarification of the powers of the prime minister is essential to enable him to continue the peace process and added any inordinate delay would compel the US, a co-chairman of the Sri Lanka AID group, to consult with the other co-chairpersons to ‘define’ a way forward.
The US did not stop with that. Secretary of State Colin Powell wrote to Chandrika and Ranil two separate letters calling for an early resumption of the peace process and settlement of the political impasse. The letter to Chandrika, informed sources say, amounted to criticism of her takeover of the ministries.
Presidential secretariat sources say Chandrika was dissatisfied with the US stand. The JVP, which hopes to sign a memorandum of understanding with Chandrika later this month, issued a statement saying that Ranil had brought in the US into an internal dispute. It accused Ranil as being an agent of the US.
While embroiled in the dispute with Ranil, the president created another political crisis by a careful leak of the story of her second swearing in as president in December 2000. Chandrika was elected president in December 1994, so her first term of office of six years should end in December 2000. She decided to hold the presidential election in December 1999. She took her oaths as president soon after the election, and thus her second term of office should end in December 2005.
Two weeks ago, a news leak said Chandrika took oaths secretly in December 2000 before Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva. The Chief Justice has confirmed the secret second oath taking. Agriculture Minister S. B. Dissanayake, who was the general secretary of the SLFP in December 2000, says he would have known if such a second secret oath taking had taken place. He says the secret oath taking was a lie spread with the intention to extend Chandrika’s term of office by a year until December 2006. The government has announced that, as far as it is concerned, Chandrika’s second term ends in December 2005 and it would not permit her to continue in office even a day longer.
Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said as far as he was concerned the presidential election was held in December 1999 and the president’s term of office will end in December 2005. “I will hold the election after that,” he said.
Chandrika has said she would clarify the secret oath taking controversy after she returns from the Islamabad SAARC summit. The government has decided to wait until her clarification for any action on that matter.
Next few weeks seem to be interesting. What will Chandrika do? Will she work out a compromise with Ranil?