Political gadfly Mangala Samaraweera,who in his earliest avatar 25 years ago was a celebrated fashion designer,was a key cabinet member of the SLFP led govt. of former pres.Chandrika ,also holding the post of foreign minister at one time.These days,"Mangy",as his pals call him,is on the other side of the politcial divide after falling out with the govt. of pres.Rajapakse.He has been one of the most savage critics of the regime in recent times,even earlier alleging that elements within the regime intend bumping him off.As usual,Mangy's take on the situ in SL post LTTE makes excellent copy for scribes.
"If we don’t give a political settlement, the next phase of the war will not be fought in the jungles of the Vanni, but in the corridors of power in the west, where the still very powerful LTTE Inc, with added money power – because more and more Tamils started contributing of late because they saw what was happening, and people who had never contributed before are now sympathetic to that cause, - they will use whatever influence they have to claim nationhood legitimately through the United Nations like what happened in East Timor and some other countries."
The ‘Gota Kalliya’ is calling the shots - Mangala SamaraweeraMangala Samaraweera is no stranger to controversy. In this interview, he speaks to C.A.Chandraprema about the reasons that led to him falling out with the Rajapakse government, his views on the manner in which the LTTE was crushed, and his own political future.
Q. There is a question in many people’s minds as to why you, who did so much to bring the present government into power, ultimately left a very popular and successful government to join what is obviously not a successful and popular opposition.
A. I must correct you by saying that I didn’t leave. President Rajapakse removed me on the 9th of February 2007, along with Anura Bandaranaike and the late Sripathy Sooriyarachchi. There were several invitations subsequently to rejoin the government and I did not do so and I will not do so, on certain principles. As early as 2006, when I was the foreign minister under president Rajapakse, I saw the writing on the wall when the white van culture started. When those students in Trincomalee were abducted and killed followed by the 17 aid workers who were executed in the east, I met president Rajapakse and told him several times the implications of this culture of impunity. I met the defense secretary, Basil Rajapakse and Lalith Weeratunga as late as December 2006 when things were moving in an unacceptable direction, and the president was becoming a prisoner of the extremist elements in the government. I wrote a confidential letter to the president on the 13th of December, (which I released to the press after my removal) where I put down all my concerns and the risk of international isolation. Many of the things which are happening now were anticipated in that letter. On the 28th of January I was removed as the foreign minister and on the 9th of February, I was removed from the government. The reason why I will not go back is because I sincerely believe despite all the euphoria even at this moment, that the direction that president Mahinda Rajapakse is taking is very detrimental to the future of this country. Even very recently, there were certain messages passed to me, and I can very comfortably be the 110th minister in this government with all the perks, but my conscience will not permit it. Even if the whole country and the whole world endorses president Rajapakse’s actions at the present moment, and there is only one person left behind, I am willing to start my journey all over again, on behalf of what I believe in.
Q. If you take this white van culture which you say was one of the turning points in your relationship with the government, the UNP, which you are now associated with, had to do it on a much larger scale in order to crush the JVP. That was the way that war was fought. There was no alternative.
A. Yes, certainly we know that was how the JVP was fought and that is why at that time, the president (Mahinda Rajapakse) and myself were the joint convenors of the Mother’s Front which fought against the death squads at that time. One can’t change one’s tune when you are in power. But at this moment in time, I feel that the UNP and the opposition forces I’m working with, are far more democratic and also they represent some of the values I stand for, because I have always been an extreme liberal. I have always loved the SLFP and because I have always believed that the SLFP represents the centrist values which I hold dear, but unfortunately under president Rajapakse the SLFP has become an extremist party and today the decisions are not taken by the traditional SLFP but by other extremist forces whom I feel are keeping the president almost a prisoner.
Q. Aren’t you overestimating the influence of the JHU and the Wimal Weerawansa group, because there is the LSSP, the CP, Rajitha Senaratne, Tissa Vitarana, D.E.W.Gunasekera, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, and others in the government as well.
A. Yes, all those very progressive people are within the government, but they have become just names and nothing else. They are just waiting there and have absolutely no influence over the policy direction which the government is taking. Most of them are there for the perks and privileges of whatever post they hold. But the decisions are taken by the JHU and the Weerawansa faction. Within SLFP circles, they are called the ‘Gota kalliya’. That faction is very, very powerful. When Professor Tissa Vitarana had spoken at that recent meeting at the parliamentary grounds and he expressed the view that the proposals from the APRC will see the light of day, I was told by those who had been on that platform that Wimal Weerawansa had gone right up to Professor Vitarana and blackguarded him in filth. Subsequently the president had endorsed that action. I was also told that the president had questioned Tissa Vitarana on the contents of his speech.
Q. Why do you say they are extremists? I would see Gotabhaya Rajapakse as a man very similar to Ranjan Wijeratne. They are both not politicians, but practical men. Both of them fought wars to win, not to lose. Can the fact that they were both successful, be held against them?
A. If you are a person who believes that the end justifies the means, certainly yes. I admit that the end was something that Sri Lanka needed. I welcome the defeat of the LTTE. Long before Gotabhaya and these new found heroes started talking about the LTTE, in the past ten to fifteen years, when Mahinda Rajapakse was a minister and never ever opened his mouth in parliament against the LTTE, I was one of those who criticized the LTTE publicly in and out of parliament. When I was foreign minister, the external affairs commissioner of the European Commission told me that it was only because of my assurance that we would use the listing of the LTTE as a terrorist organization to pressurize them to come back to the negotiating table that they had finally given in.
It was on a request made by me that Condoleeza Rice agreed to open up a full time unit in the FBI with 41 full time agents, to follow and monitor the fund-raising activities of the LTTE. So I welcome the fact that the LTTE has been decisively defeated. But I am not happy with the way in which that victory was achieved. I think it could have been done without losing the confidence of the moderate Tamil people. We have not yet won the war, because we have yet to win the peace. The battle for Eelam has been defeated in the jungles of the Vanni, but we have merely elevated it to a higher international level. We have internationalized our internal issue, unnecessarily, by the manner in which the defense secretary and the army commander handled the situation. Sri Lanka has a wonderful disciplined army. But their reputation has been tarnished. I don’t want to go into details, because if I do, there may be white vans hovering around my house. The leadership given by Mahinda Rajapakse was correct. He gave the army whatever equipment they wanted, but this war could have been won without the international condemnation we are facing now. We can all play to the gallery and say that we don’t need the international community, but we do. There was nothing to celebrate in the victory in the UN human rights council, because all those countries which matter to us in economic terms were against us. Finally, Bolivia or Cuba is not going to help us financially. What people will realize soon is that what is more important than the war to defeat terrorism is the war against poverty. We are losing the friends we need to win that war. And yes certainly, Gotabhaya Rajapakse can be compared to Ranjan Wijeratne.
I have no respect for the manner in which he handled the JVP problem. This is something that will bring howls of protest, but I am also rather ashamed at the way the authorities handled the surrender of the LTTE. I am a Sinhalese and a Buddhist. In school we were told stories of how magnanimous the Sinhalese were. We were made to believe that the Sinhalese were a compassionate forgiving nation. The way the authorities handled the surrender of some of the LTTE leaders and the families of LTTE leaders, was to me rather unacceptable. But having said that, let’s move forward. But then again, the president’s speech in parliament gave me the chills. It confirmed my worst fears. The fact that he said that there will no longer be minorities in this country is a clear indication of his thinking. When you say there are no minorities, it almost implies that the genuine grievances of the Tamil people can be wished away by a presidential statement. President Rajapakse is reflecting the world-view of some of the Sinhala chauvinists who always held that there is no ethnic problem in this country, but only a terrorist problem. Now that the terrorist problem has been taken care of, their logic would be that there can’t be an ethnic problem either. This is a very dangerous situation because I feel that if there is no political settlement, Prabhakaran’s death may not be the end. We may see many more Prabhakarans in the future. If we don’t give a political settlement, the next phase of the war will not be fought in the jungles of the Vanni, but in the corridors of power in the west, where the still very powerful LTTE Inc, with added money power – because more and more Tamils started contributing of late because they saw what was happening, and people who had never contributed before are now sympathetic to that cause, - they will use whatever influence they have to claim nationhood legitimately through the United Nations like what happened in East Timor and some other countries.
Q. You are a politician and all politicians are in the game for power. The position that you hold today is extremely unpopular. How does this mesh with your political ambitions?
A. Yes, I admit, it is extremely unpopular at the moment, and also I agree with you that I am not a politician who believes in spending years in the political wilderness for one’s principles. But at a critical moment like this, when I have to chose between my principles and being in power, I chose my principles, because I finally believe that is what matters the most. But I am not at all pessimistic. Despite all this wild euphoria, I believe that there is a vacuum for a moderate, liberal minded political leadership. If we look at the last WPC elections, the government won a significant victory, but the minorities have completely deserted the SLFP and the UPFA. Of the 66 elected only one, Nauser Fowzie was from the minorities and all others were Sinhalese. So we have an alienated minority community, both the Tamils and the Muslims. What is even more important is that when 150,000 voted for the UPFA, 142,000 didn’t vote at all. It was 142,000 who despite all that hype during the election period, didn’t bother to go to the polling station and vote. But of course I must say that they did not vote for the UNP either. Usually the proportion of spoilt votes is 1.1%, but at the WPC election, it was nearly 4% these are the ones who actually go to the polling station and spoil their vote and these I know, in most areas, were disgruntled SLFPers. So there is a vacuum for a social democratic leadership.
Q. You have hitched your bandwagon to that of the UNP…
A. Yes, and no. I am still a member of the SLFP, I still pay Rs 1000 out of my salary to the SLFP fund, and I still believe in the founding principles of the SLFP. Sri Lanka is still a two party system. It has to be either the SLFP or the UNP. At this particular moment where the leadership of the SLFP has been hijacked by the extremists I think it is important that I work with the UNP, as an alliance, not a member, and I am at the moment trying to forge along with the UNP, a broad, liberal democratic alliance which will represent all those values that I talked about earlier.
Q. For the past fifteen years, the UNP has been a sinking ship…
A. I always had a weakness for sinking ships. I see the UNP today in the same position that I saw the SLFP in 1989-90. By that time, Mrs Bandaranaike was ageing, we had lost all elections since 1977, and the SLFP was riddled with factionalism. I remember as a new member of the central committee, when I was appointed by Mrs Bandaraike in the 1990s. I was shocked to see some members throwing chairs at one another. There were times when these meetings used to end up in fisticuffs. In 1990, even diehard SLFPers had given up hope of ever seeing an SLFP government again. It was in this situation that S.B.Dissanayake and I, with Mrs Bandaranaike’s blessings canvassed for a broad alliance, which Anura and Mahinda both opposed vehemently using much the same kind of argument that some within the UNP are raising against a broad alliance today. "How can they sacrifice the hand symbol?" and other arguments of the like were put forward. But we went ahead and formed this alliance initially with the Desha Vimukthi Janatha Pakshaya which did not have even a proper membership. Then we got the LSSP and one faction of the SLMP. At that time, these parties did not have a huge vote base, but by the very fact that the alliance was formed, that gave a certain amount of confidence, to the people that this was now becoming a winnable entity. That alliance which was formed with such great difficulty is still in power today. So there are ways and means of salvaging a sinking ship. Whatever people may say about the UNP leadership, I now that the UNP rank and file and the voters at the village level as well as disgruntled elements from the SLFP and other parties are very much there. They need to be energized. I think we must stop being obsessed by what the leadership is doing or ought to be doing.
Q. In the early 1990s, your efforts were helped by the LTTE who killed off the entire leadership of the UNP. But today, it doesn’t seem look you are going to get that kind of help…
A. I don’t agree with you that the LTTE killing off the UNP leaders helped, because by that time, the country anyway was in a mood for a change of government. If the LTTE helped by killing off the UNP leadership in 1994, then the LTTE boycott also helped to bring the present president into power in 2005. But in the immediate future, for the first time, the LTTE will not be a major factor. I think we can win the next presidential or general election with a lot of hard work. My feeling is that people will realize the value of Ranil Wickremesinghe in the months ahead. Sri Lankan will need the Ranil Wickremesinghes, the Mangala Samaraweeras and Rauff Hakeems as time goes along, because the economy needs to be straightened out, and the country needs people who can deliver. Don’t write off Ranil just yet.
