WikiLeaks: \u2018Just Do Nothing\u2019 Is What Ranil Learned From His Christmas Vacation Reading On Roosevelt ! \u2013 US<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nWe publish below the cable in full;<\/p>\n
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 000051 \r\n\r\nSIPDIS \r\n\r\nDEPARTMENT FOR D, SA, SA\/INS, INR\/NESA; NSC FOR E. \r\nMILLARD \r\n\r\nPLEASE ALSO PASS TOPEC \r\n\r\nE.O. 12958: DECL: 01-12-14 \r\nTAGS: PGOV PREL PINS PINR CE\r\nSUBJECT: In meeting with Ambassador, Prime Minister \r\nponders delay in resolution of Defence Ministry question \r\n\r\nRefs: Colombo 44, and previous \r\n\r\n(U) Classified by Ambassador Jeffrey J. Lunstead. \r\nReasons 1.5 (b,d). \r\n\r\n\u00b61. (C) SUMMARY: Prime Minister told the Ambassador \r\nJanuary 10 that it was up to the President to make a new \r\noffer on how to deal with the Defense portfolio. In the \r\nmeantime, he is offering power-sharing at the Provincial \r\nlevel. It appears both sides are waiting to gauge their \r\nstrength in the April 10 Provincial Elections. END \r\nSUMMARY. \r\n\r\nA New Proposal \r\n-------------- \r\n\r\n\u00b62. (C) The Ambassador was called in to see Prime \r\nMinister Wickremesinghe on the afternoon of Saturday, \r\nJanuary 10. Milinda Moragoda was also present. The \r\nmeeting began with the participants exchanging thoughts \r\non the books they had read over the Christmas\/New Year's \r\nlull, with the PM noting in particular a biography of \r\nFranklin Roosevelt. The PM then turned to the purpose \r\nof the meeting, saying that he was at an impasse with \r\nthe President. He had decided, therefore, to try to \r\ndeal with the broader issue of cooperation, and leave \r\nDefense and the Peace Process for later. He would make \r\na proposal to her that for the upcoming Provincial \r\nElections (now proposed to be held simultaneously in all \r\nprovinces on April 10), the United National Party (UNP) \r\nand the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) agree that the \r\nlosing party would be offered two provincial ministries, \r\nperhaps even including the Chief Ministership. Of \r\ncourse, the PM said, this meant that the SLFP would have \r\nto give up its plans for an electoral alliance with the \r\nSinhalese-radical Janantha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). If \r\nthe two sides could work together like this in the \r\nProvinces, then they could do so in the Center also. \r\nSome SLFP politicians could become Central Ministers, \r\nbut with at least 40 SLFP'ers remaining as the official \r\nOpposition, so that the JVP could not claim that role. \r\nIf all of this worked, then they could find a way to \r\nhandle Defense. \r\n\r\n\u00b63. (C) The Ambassador said that he wanted to be sure \r\nthe PM realized two things before going into a \r\ndiscussion of the current issue. First was that we \r\nbelieved that what he and his government had done in the \r\npast two years on peace and on bringing Sri Lanka into \r\nthe modern economic world were unprecedented. Second, \r\nthat we were clear that it was the President who had \r\nprecipitated the current crisis. That being said, both \r\nthe peace process and economic reform were at risk, and \r\nthe challenge now was to find a way forward. \r\n\r\n\u00b64. (C) The Ambassador then described his December 26 \r\nmeeting with the President when he had handed over the \r\nletter from Secretary Powell. The Ambassador told the \r\nPM that he had pressed the President hard to come up \r\nwith a bold political approach to resolve the crisis, \r\nand that she had resisted initially but finally conceded \r\nshe might have some new ideas. What was the PM's \r\nthinking now on Defense? Was the Indian idea of \r\nconstituting separate theater commands still in play? \r\n\r\n\u00b65. (C) The PM said that he had made a proposal on how \r\nto handle Defense issues, which the President had \r\nrejected. Elaborating, the PM said that under his plan \r\nthe President could remain as Secretary of Defense, he \r\nwould be Minister of National Security and (former \r\nDefense Minister) Tilak Marapana would be named Minister \r\nAssisting Defense. The entire Defense establishment \r\n(Army, Navy, Air Force) would be put under the PM's \r\ncontrol (\"gazetted\" to him). All operational matters \r\nwould fall under Marapana. The President would chair \r\nthe National Security Council. This would be similar to \r\nthe French system, he said, where there is a \"Minister \r\nof Armies.\" He did not think the Indian proposal for \r\nseparate theater commands, which would be gazetted to \r\nhim, would work. Nor could he accept her proposal to \r\ngazette to him specific Defense functions relating to \r\nthe peace process. He had made his offer, it was now up \r\nto her to come up with something new. Since he could \r\nnot administer the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) without \r\nfull defense powers, he had asked her to sit down with \r\nthe Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), amend the \r\nCFA, and take it over. \r\n\r\n\u00b66. (C) The Ambassador repeated that he had urged the \r\nPresident to look at the matter as a political, not a \r\nlegal issue, and that he had also urged her to think of \r\na way to bridge the gap. The two sides had actually \r\nmade some progress, he said, and now seemed stuck on \r\nwhat would be gazetted to the PM. The PM wanted the \r\nArmed Services in toto under his control; she wanted to \r\ngazette certain Armed Services functions. Perhaps there \r\nwas an answer in there. \r\n\r\n\u00b67. (C) The PM said that he thought that the President \r\nwas really concerned about what happened to her when her \r\npresent term ended. The Ambassador said he believed \r\nthat was correct, but that there was an additional \r\nfactor. From his conversations with the President, he \r\nsaid, he believed the underlying motivation for her \r\nactions was to send a message that she would not be \r\ntreated in the last two years of her Presidency as she \r\nwas in the preceding two years. PM accepted this, but \r\nsaid that if she wanted Ministers to treat her with \r\nrespect, she also had to treat them properly. \r\n\r\nAkashi Visit and High-level Co-chairs Meeting \r\n--------------------------------------------- \r\n\r\n\u00b68. (C) The conversation then shifted to the upcoming \r\n(January 19-25) visit of Japanese Special Envoy Akashi \r\nand the proposed early-February High-level Co-chairs \r\nmeeting in Washington. Discussion in Septel. \r\n\r\nIt's the PM's Call \r\n------------------ \r\n\r\n\u00b69. (C) As the meeting concluded, Milinda said that the \r\nPM was glad to hear our views, that he heard a lot of \r\nviews, including Milinda's own, as well as those of \r\nother Ministers. In the end, however, only the PM could \r\nmake the decision. It was his government and his \r\npolitical future. The Ambassador replied that we \r\nunderstood completely that it was his country, his \r\nissue, and needed his solution. Moragoda asked that the \r\nAmbassador convey to Assistant Secretary Rocca that her \r\ncomments to Ambassador Subasinghe had been heard. \r\n\r\nCOMMENT \r\n------- \r\n\r\n\u00b610. (C) Unless there is some sudden and unexpected \r\nbreakthrough on the Defense side, it appears almost \r\ncertain that we are set for a period of drift at least \r\nuntil the provincial elections are concluded. The PM's \r\nproposal for power-sharing at the provincial level is \r\nquite vague. It also has a poison pill attached in the \r\nrequirement that the SLFP give up its proposed alliance \r\nwith the JVP. All that said, we remain convinced that \r\nthe two sides could bridge the gap on defense and come \r\nto an earlier understanding -- if they can summon the \r\nwill to do so. Indian High Commissioner Sen, whom the \r\nAmbassador saw the evening previous, was quite \r\npessimistic, although that may be because he is wedded \r\nto his theater concept. \r\n\r\nJust Do Nothing? \r\n---------------- \r\n\r\n\u00b611. (C) As the Ambassador left, the PM commented again \r\non his vacation reading. He said that one thing he had \r\nlearned from the Franklin Roosevelt biography was that \r\nfor a lot of the time \"Roosevelt just did nothing.\" \r\nThat might be the wrong inspiration to take from that \r\nbook. END COMMENT \r\n\r\n\u00b612. (U) Minimize considered. \r\nLUNSTEAD<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":117690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,2375,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories","category-wikileaks"],"yoast_head":"\n
WikiLeaks: Ranil's Proposal To Chandrika Has A Poison Pill - US - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-ranils-proposal-to-chandrika-has-a-poison-pill-us\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WikiLeaks: Ranil's Proposal To Chandrika Has A Poison Pill - US - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-ranils-proposal-to-chandrika-has-a-poison-pill-us\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-31T01:14:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-01-12T11:09:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Ranil-Wickramasinghe.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-ranils-proposal-to-chandrika-has-a-poison-pill-us\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-ranils-proposal-to-chandrika-has-a-poison-pill-us\/\",\"name\":\"WikiLeaks: Ranil's Proposal To Chandrika Has A Poison Pill - 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