.

ULF support for UNP
Srimani disputes Ravi

by Zacki Jabbar
With the North Western Provincial Council election due to be held shortly the dispute over who the United Lalith Front ( ULF) should support has got intense.

While ULF leader Srimani Athulathmudali maintains that no decison has been taken to support the UNP at the NWP election, Ravi Karunanayaka a vice president and National Organiser of the party, insists that a decision to work with the UNP taken by the Political and Working Committee Group on May 8,1998 was reaffirmed on June 12 and at Thursday's joint meeting of the Political Committee, Working Committee and district organisers.

However, Mrs. Athulathmudali said that a meeting of the Political Committee could only be summoned by her in the capacity of leader and in any event no decision has been taken to work with the UNP.

Mrs. Athulathmudali pointed out that discussions were held with the UNP on certian conditions at a time when the rank and file of the ULF felt that the PA was not treating them properly.

"I was authorised by the ULF to enter into an agreement with the UNP provided the identity of the ULF could be maintained.On this basis I discussed the matter with UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe and its Chairman Karu Jayasuuriya. Both of them pointed out that it was unethical for the ULF to enter into an agreement with the UNP while it was a member of the PA.I agreed with this position.Since we were unable to reach an agreement the question of supporting the UNP does not arise.For us to work with the UNP there has to be an agreement that safegauards our identity".

Karunanayaka pointing out that two of their members are already on the UNP list for the NWP elections said "what we have is a gentleman's verbal agreement with the UNP.That is better than the written agreement we entered into with the PA.You can see that this agreement has not been honoured".

He claimed that the majority of the ULF other than a few individuals are opposing their decision to work with the UNP.However, we are already working with the UNP, he added.

Mrs. Athulathmudali said her understanding is that if one were to contest under the UNP symbol that person would have to join the UNP.In which case they cannot claim to be members of the ULF as well.

Asked about certain ULF members being nominated to the UNP list for the postponed Western Provincial Council Election she said "The ULF had decided not to contest that election. Certain members who requested that they be permitted to contest the election were allowed to do so.But they were specifically told that they cannot represent the ULF".

Karunanayaka disagreeing said that one need not join the UNP to work with them."We are confident that the UNP will honour the verbal agreement given to us".

"We have decided to work with those who do not want to see this country in pieces. We totally opppose the proposed devolution package and the alienation of land without cabinet approval," he added.

Clashes escalate as elections draw near

by Franklin R. Satyapalan
Twenty election related incidents including attempted murder, arson, assault, damage to property, intimidation and mischief have been recorded by the police election secretariat between nominations on Dec. 8 up to now, police said.

The latest incident reported was the burning of a PA party office at Mundel in the Puttalam district. The clashes have all been between supporters of the UNP and PA. The other five parties and four independent groups running for the Wayamba PC have had no problems.

PAFFREL, the People's Action for Free and Fair Elections, an umbrella group of NGOs operating under the auspices of the Marga Institute has succeeded in obtaining the support of the UNP, JVP and the New Left Front pledging to co-operate in a free and fair election. PAFFREL was confident that the PA too would be a signatory although Mr. S.B. Navinne had not signed the declaration as we go to press.

This declaration appeals to the people of the NWP to go about their political activities in a peaceful manner and behave lawfully. A PAFFREL delegation is due to meet Messrs. Ranil Wickremesinghe and Dharmasiri Senanayake on Monday and Tuesday.

"Even after the end of the poll, we should accept the verdict of the people peacefully. We appeal to the people to respect democracy and maintain cordial relationships with all their neighbours," the declaration titled "Towards a free and fair election" said.

Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake Thursday met representatives of all parties and independents running at this election and asked for their co-operation to have a free and fair election.

The UNP began their annual convention at Kataragama yesterday ahead of the NWPC elections. The party leadership was at Kataragama for the event.

PAFFREL called on the leadership of the two major parties to agree on a common code of conduct and ensure that the code is collectively observed and party discipline effectively enforced.

"We also urge that there should be explicit and strict instructions to the law enforcing authorities and public officials to perform their duties pertaining to the election with complete impartiality and integrity. Along with such instructions, the government should ensure that officers are fully protected from any political interference and pressure," the statement said.

They also asked that citizens' organizations such as theirs be enabled to perform the task of monitoring the elections effectively.

Island Capers
Believe it or Not!

Has the executive presidency been abolished?

Believe it or not, this is the first question on a 17-page document that has gone out from the president to her ministers in an attempt to assess how well the government has done in implementing its many pre-election promises to the people.

The ministers have been told that the government had been successful in implementing many of its promises and had even accomplished tasks that were not promised. If there were any such achievements, they have been requested to list them out on a separate piece of paper.

As far as promises that have not been kept are concerned, the questionnaire requires the itemizing of progress towards implementation.

The questions, no doubt, will invoke great hilarity among those privileged to read them. Just a sample for the titillation of our readership: Has the price of petrol and diesel been reduced? Has Lake House been divested?

The questionnaire has gone out in late October and since the response has been slow, we are told that a reminder has now been sent.

It looks like somebody had looked at the manifesto and asked the questions very bluntly. He cannot be blamed. The promises were specific enough.

The singer and the song

The PA's Mulberry Group organised a party last week for Dallas Alahapperuma's wife, Pradeepa, who won an award for her singing at the recent Sarasaviya Film Festival. LSSP firebrand Vasudeva Nanayakkara was among the guests and his colleagues tried their best, albeit without success, to make him sing a song at what was largely a musical occasion.

But the songsters won the day by a lusty rendering of the leftist anthem, Sadukin pelenawun... and Vasu could not help but join.

India and Sri Lanka decide to sign free trade agreement

From S. Venkat Narayan, our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, December 18 - India and Sri lanka today decided to sign a free trade area agreement to boost commercial relations between the two South Asian neighbours.

This was announced by Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar at a press conference immediately after signing the minutes of the Indo-Sri Lankan Joint Commission meeting here.

Singh declared: "Our commitment to have a free trade area agreement with Sri Lanka is irrevocable and irreversible."

He pointed out that the idea was mooted by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during the tenth summit of the seven-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in Sri Lankan capital Colombo in July this year.

The minister said the agreement will be signed during Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga's state visit here, beginning December 27. She is coming here to lay the foundation stone for a new building of the Sri Lankan Pilgrims Rest.

Earlier, the two foreign ministers co-chaired the joint commission meeting after their hour-long, one-to-one meeting. After their opening remarks, the joint commission was split into sub-commissions dealing with education, civil aviation, commerce, science and technology.

In his opening remarks, Kadirgamar referred to the bilateral trade being in India's favour, and said this must be corrected. Last year, Indian exports to Sri Lanka amounted to US$400 million, but Sri Lankan exports to this country accounted for only $50 million.

A spokesman of the Indian external affairs ministry said the joint commission meeting was aimed at doing the groundwork for the Sri Lankan President's upcoming visit.

It was also announced that India will gift an Ashoka rock edict to Sri Lanka, which will be taken to Colombo from New Delhi.

Meanwhile, the proposed agreement will completely remove cross-border physical trade restrictions and eliminate customs duty on import and export of goods between the two countries. It will thus pave the way for the early establishment of a South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) on the lines of NAFTA (North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement).

An Indian official explained that the idea of putting the free trade bilaterally on a fast track, ahead of the SAFTA time schedule (2000-20001), is to emerge competitive both in price and in quality while exporting to third countries, by using India's raw material advantages and Sri Lanka's value-addition skills, particularly in areas such as textiles and clothing.

Trade analysts said the proposed bilateral trade agreement between India and Sri Lanka will enable the two neighbours to have enough "market space" to take advantage of their complementaries. Once India drastically lowers duties, Sri Lankan exports to this country are expected to pick up substantially.

India already has free trade agreements with Nepal and Bhutan. With borderless trade with Sri Lanka due to begin later this month, New Delhi also wants to put in place similar arrangements with Bangladesh and the Maldives. This means six of the seven SAARC member countries will have free access to the huge Indian market, an Indian official said.

Rally round UNP to oust PA - Ranil

By Franklin R. Satyapalan
UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe yesterday appealed to the masses to rally round the UNP to overthrow the People's Alliance Government democratically and promised to give the masses of the country the relief they were expecting.

Wickremesinghe was speaking at the UNP's 45th Convention at Kataragama yesterday.

Proceedings began with the unveiling of the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa statue in Kataragama.

Six resolutions were adopted. They condemned the PA's string of broken promises. Wickremesinghe said that people of Sri Lanka deserved a decent life but were unfortunately deprived of this by the PA's economic mismanagement.

He said the UNP wanted to create a just society which would provide opportunities for all those who have talent, enterprise and determination. Bill Gates in America was able to become the world's richest man due to the opportunities that were available there.

Wickremesinghe said that Wayamba Chief Minister designate Gamini Jayawickrema Perera had launched a campaign with Asoka Wadigamangawa from Puttalam and former Chief Minister R. M. Nimal Bandara to create the Wayamba or 'trimorthi'. They were in the battlefield of Wayamba province to conduct the elections democratically.

UNP chief spokesman MP Dr. Karunasena Kodituwakku speaking from Kataragama said that after defeat of UNP at 1994 Parliamentary General Elections leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had been able to unite all scattered forces and it was rewarding to see delegates from North, East, Wayamba South and Plantations present at Kataragama convention.

All people irrespective of being Tamil, Sinhala, Muslim or caste, creed or religion or ethnicity were given opportunities to air their views at the convention and its was symbolic as a national event when the proceedings were held in Tamil and Sinhala which proved that UNP leaders Ranil Wickremesinghe had a new vision for Sri Lanka and it could we able for all to enter the new millennium once again for a united Sri Lanka where all would be given equal opportunities.

Indian Tamil Network moves into Thondaman controversy

The Indian Tamil Network (ITN), reacting to the flak following the defeat of a head under Minister S. Thondaman's votes in the recent budget debate has said that "the Indian Tamils are more than livestock herders and plantation workers.''

In a statement issued by Mr. Nirmalan Dhas tilting at both the SLFP and the UNP, the network said that it wished to make clear to the government and the public that Indian Tamil community here are not and never have been limited to livestock farmers and estate workers.

"The needs of the Indian Tamil community therefore requires the services of all government ministries at every level of government and cannot be met by the Ministry of Livestock Development and Estate Infrastructure, or any other ministry alone,'' it said.

Pointing out that many livestock farmers and estate workers are not Indian Tamils, it said that Mr. Thondaman's ministry must serve these non-Indian Tamils as well.

"The Indian Tamil Network therefore categorically rejects the claim that the Ministry of Livestock Development and Estate Infrastructure has been set up to serve the needs of the Indian Tamil community,'' it said.

It asserted that neither the UNP nor the SLFP which is now the major constituent of the PA government had taken any steps to address the underdeveloped situation of the Indian Tamils. If the UNP disenfranchised them by taking away their citizenship, it was the SLFP that instituted the "infamous Sirima - Shastri Pact'' under which they were deported. Ethnic violence against them had occurred under both the UNP and SLFP and neither party had taken preventive measures or steps to punish those responsible.

ITN said that redressing the underdeveloped situation of Indian Tamils requires: an Indian Tamil Ethnic Council empowered among other things to draw a program of affirmative action; A Commissioner of Indian Tamil Affairs empowered among other things to implement the enactments of the Indian Tamil Ethnic Council; and the restructuring of the plantation sector in collaboration with multilateral financial institutions to form a network of outgrowers so that the human development of Indian Tamil estate workers and the long term profitability of the estates can be ensured.

Sri Lanka's relations with India "Absolutely excellent ... they can't be better" - Kadirgamar

From S. Venkat Narayan Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, December 18: Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar today declared that his country's relations with India under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government "are absolutely excellent ... They can't be better."

Kadirgamar said this at a press conference when a reporter asked if Sri Lanka is satisfied with India's policy towards his island-nation since the government of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee assumed charge nine months ago.

The visiting minister's assertion is significant in the light of speculation in the media here that the perceived sympathies of some of the partners in the ruling coalition towards Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) - the Tamil rebel group waging a guerrilla war for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the Indian Ocean island's northern and eastern provinces - may be causing some anxiety in Colombo.

Kadirgamar's remarks came a day after he met Defence Minister George Fernandes, who is known to have made several pro-LTTE statements, but before he became a minister in the federal cabinet.

Asked what transpired during his talks with Fernandes shortly after he arrived here last evening, the minister refused to divulge any details. It was "just a courtesy meeting," he said.

Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India Mangala Moonesinghe, who was present at the meeting, told me tonight: "It was a very cordial meeting. It lasted over an hour. They talked on various things." But he too politely refused to elaborate.

Estate alienation will be a Trojan horse says LJEWU

Several estates are to be handed over to various individuals who are blissfully unaware of the consequences of accepting possession of these properties, a leading plantation union said yesterday.

The Lanka Jathika Estate Workers' Union (LJEWU), through a statement issued by its General Secretary Rajah Seneviratne said there was a time when both the JEDB and the SPC were prepared to release most of their estates. But there were no takers. Elkaduwa Plantations comprising 20 such estates came into being as a result of that situation.

"Today, workers employed on them are deprived of their statutory dues such as EPF, ETF and gratuity. The company itself finds it tough to manage this estate and offer the stipulated number of work-days to its workers", Seneviratne said.

He said that it was natural in those circumstances for a political party that has the welfare of the workers in mind to oppose insidious moves by individual ministers to sell public property to their relatives and friends for a song.

The statement said that the UNP voted against the Head 510 of Mr. Thondaman's ministry because he failed to give an assurance that he would oppose the sale/transfer of JEDB estates to friends of the government outside tender procedure.

Seneviratne dismissed Thondaman's claim that the UNP action would deprive the plantations of funds allocated for estate housing to its ministry. Seneviratne said that it was the housing ministry where Mr. Chandrasekeran was the deputy minister that had allocated funds for estate housing and not Thondaman's ministry.

The LJEWU alleged that the CWC leader is more concerned about advancing his personal causes and making cheap political gains rather than improving the lot of the estate workers.

Plantation land should be acquired for proper public purposes - GL

Government has to ensure that plantation land is not acquired for frivolous purposes, resulting in losses to the economy, Minister of Justice, Constitutional Affairs and National Integration and Deputy Minister of Finance Prof. G L Peiris said last week.

The minister told the 144th Annual General Meeting of the Planters' Association of Ceylon that a mediating mechanism should be found to ensure that land is acquired for proper public purposes, and to prevent acquisition for any kind of mala-fide extraneous purposes.

Prof Peiris was responding to a comment by Planters' Association Chairman Mahendra Amarasuriya that ad-hoc land acquisition all over the country, had become a serious problem for the plantation companies. Mr. Amarasuriya said even lands which had been identified in an ADB (Asian Development Bank) plan for diversfication are suddenly taken over without any notice by all sorts of people at various levels. He said ministers, members of parliament and even Pradeshiya Sabha representatives were responsible.

Stressing that the government takes the plantation sector very seriously, Minister Peiris said the wellbeing of the economy is dependent on the robust health of the plantation sector. 'We may have remittances from the Middle East, we may have various other sources of income, but the mainstay is still the plantation economy," he said.

The minister said one of the biggest challenges facing the plantation industry in Sri Lanka was the need to make maximum use of land resources which were no longer plentifully available due to urbanisation. He urged the plantation community to face this challenge by focusing on using more sophisticated agricultural methods to derive the maximum advantage from limited land resources, to focus on finding new markets for their produce and on improving the working conditions of the plantation labour.

Referring to the progress of the plantations since privatisation, Prof. Peiris said he agreed entirely with the view that the divestiture of the plantation sector had been a success.

In his address, Mr Amarasuriya revealed that lands are often acquired by various government and local authorities without a vote for their development, and since there are no funds for development fertile lands are abandoned to weeds. He said the plantation sector was already facing a serious crisis as a result of the collapse in the rubber market and falling tea prices, and diversification had become imperative. One of the more important areas of diversification proposed was forestry, but the plantation companies face many bureaucratic problems in harvesting the forestry grown for that purpose, Mr Amarasuriya said.

He said tea plantations would need to continue to increase productivity and yields. "Until we get over 2000 kilograms per hectare we cannot be satisfied," Mr Amarasuriya said, pointing out that Sri Lanka still had the highest cost of production among major tea producers and was the least productive. Kenya had now achieved 3000 kgs of tea per hectare, in comparison to Sri Lanka's 1465 kgs per hectare in 1997. In the rubber sector, prices have fallen below the cost of production, and companies with more than 50 per cent exposure to rubber were in crisis, Mr Amarasuriya warned.

The Planters' Association, which was established in 1854, represents the collective interests of the plantation sector, the 23 plantation companies and private estate and factory owners. Twenty of these companies have been privatised. The office bearers re-elected for the year ahead were Messrs. Mahendra Amarasuriya (Chairman) and Jayantissa Ratwatte (Deputy Chairman).

Rohan Perera

The death of Rohan Perera on Friday took away from the scene a man still in the prime of his life who in his fifty two years on this good earth provided a pleasant presence, made many friends, acquired a reputation for integrity and reliability in his field of work and did his best for his family whom he dearly loved.

Rohan was barely out of his teens when he followed his brother, Clarence, now retired in Australia, to a career in journalism at Lake House. This smart young man who was appearance conscious and always took care to dress well started his reporting days covering inquests in the coroner's courts and then became a regular reporter in the company of veterans like Norton Weerasinghe and M.J.M. Zarook. He, like them, was to soon establish a reputation for integrity.

At a point of time in his career when he refused to knuckle down to a superior's demands saw him moved out of the courts where he had established a fine reputation to general assignment duties. It was new turf and he pounded the beat doing all manner of stories including a long stint in the press gallery in parliament. Good humored, smiling and obliging, his editors liked him for his winning ways no less than for his reliability.

Journalism, then as now, was not the most financially rewarding of professions; especially so for a young man who had to cope with the needs of a growing family. Like many of his colleagues, Rohan took on a "string" writing for McGraw Hill publications from his brother Clarence, some 22-years his senior, when the latter quit his job of chief sub-editor of the Observer to emigrate to Australia.

Although he did have that additional income, he found a position in the French Embassy in Colombo more remunerative than a career at Lake House. He never regretted the change. Press relations was part of his work at the embassy where he did many other things besides. His contacts in the newspaper world made him invaluable as a publicity officer and his knowledge of people and places in Sri Lanka made him most useful to his employers.

As at Lake House, he was very well liked at the embassy for his friendly disposition and helpful ways. The embassy was a tower of strength to him during the illness that sapped his vitality and, together with his wife, Sheila and children Rukmal and Surangi, stood by him steadfastly. To see him slipping away was more painful for them than for Rohan himself who never lost hope till the very end.

Ever since his illness was first diagnosed and was considered surgically treatable, he always kept his chin up even after he knew very early that secondaries had begun taking their toll. He stoically underwent the necessary therapy with his family and his religion helping him to give the good fight. But it was an unequal battle and his family must surely be happy there was no prolonged suffering!

Rest in peace, my friend. It was good knowing you both as a colleague and friend. Your colleagues will remember the yarns they swapped with you and your unfailing kindness and courtesy.

M. de S.

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