{"id":61026,"date":"2012-11-20T08:51:28","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T08:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=61026"},"modified":"2012-11-23T09:38:49","modified_gmt":"2012-11-23T09:38:49","slug":"wikileaksthe-rajapaksa-position-in-the-party-is-strengthened-at-the-bandaranaikes-expense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaksthe-rajapaksa-position-in-the-party-is-strengthened-at-the-bandaranaikes-expense\/","title":{"rendered":"WikiLeaks:The Rajapaksa Position In The Party Is Strengthened At The Bandaranaikes’ Expense"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Colombo Telegraph<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNirupama Rajapakse, a cousin of the PM and former SLFP MP, told poloff that relations between the President and Prime Minister have always been “very bitter,” but are worse than ever now. The President has long regarded the Rajapakse family, which has had SLFP Members in Parliament for as long as the Bandaranaike clan, as the only real rival to her family’s dynastic grip on the party, Rajapakse said. Kumaratunga<\/a><\/span> thus sees the Prime Minister’s candidacy as a lose-lose situation for her, Rajapakse suggested. If he wins, the Rajapakse<\/a><\/span> position in the party is strengthened at the Bandaranaikes’ expense; if he loses, the party (the leadership of which Kumaratunga wants to pass on to her son Vimukthi<\/a><\/span>, now a 27-year-old veterinary student) as a whole is weakened. (Note: Besides three sons of his own for whom he nurses similar ambitions of political ascendancy, the Prime Minister, like the President, has a brother who is an MP.\u201d the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Mahinda and Chandrika | Pic by Ishara S. Kodikara<\/p><\/div>\n

A Leaked \u201cCONFIDENTIAL\u201d US diplomatic cable, dated September 30, 2005, updated the Secretary of State on Sri Lanka\u2019s presidential election 2005. The\u00a0Colombo Telegraph<\/a><\/span>\u00a0found the related leaked cable from the\u00a0WikiLeaks<\/a><\/span>\u00a0database. The cable was signed by the US Ambassador Jeffrey Lunstead.\u00a0<\/em>The cable details a US meeting with\u00a0Deputy Minister\u00a0Nirupama Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span>, a cousin of\u00a0Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

The Ambassador wrote \u201cRajapakse agreed that the election was likely to be extremely close–perhaps separated by just a few hundred thousand votes–and thus the President’s apparent decision so far not to campaign for the SLFP candidate (she is scheduled to leave the country soon once again–this time to Paris) is likely to hurt the PM. \u2018It is also strange of the brother (Foreign Minister Anura Bandaranaike, who is still overseas) to stay away\u2019 during the campaign, she noted. The pair’s behavior is fueling renewed speculation that the President may scuttle the PM’s chances by dissolving Parliament–perhaps just days before the election. Besides her brother, the President can count on the support of \u2018very few SLFP’ers,\u2019 according to Rajapakse–primarily Buddhist Affairs Minister Ratnasiri Wickremenayake, Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama, Deputy Information Minister Dilan Perera and Deputy Power Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe local press, meanwhile, has been full of reports of confrontations and flare-ups between the President and the Prime Minister and his camp since her return. According to one unconfirmed report, the Prime Minister threatened to walk out of a September 29 Cabinet meeting in which the President raised the contradictions between the positions espoused by the Prime Minister in the JVP and JHU agreements and SLFP policies. In an apparent back-handed slap at the President’s efforts to rein him in, the PM has appointed outspoken JVP propagandist and Kumaratunga foe Wimal Weerawansa as official co-spokesman (along with pro-JVP Ports Minister Mangala Samaraweera) of his presidential campaign. Another front-page article highlighted the President’s call at a September 29 public ceremony attended by the Prime Minister for the PM not to abandon educational reform efforts–as he his electoral pact with the JVP implicitly threatens to–begun during her administration.\u201d he further wrote.<\/p>\n

Placing a Comment the ambassador wrote \u201cWe have been hearing the same rumor about the dissolution of Parliament for more than a month, but have no indication that this is something seriously under consideration by the President. That said, Kumaratunga’s displeasure with the PM is obvious. She had hoped to leave a legacy as a pro-peace president, with the controversial tsunami aid agreement (known as the P-TOMS) with the SIPDIS Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as a hallmark of those efforts. That the PM’s agreement with the Kumaratunga-baiting JVP repudiates these policies–and specifically vows to abnegate her cherished P-TOMS–must be especially unbearable to her. The contents of the still-unpublished manifesto should provide a good indication of which SLFP heavyweight prevails in this battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related posts;<\/p>\n

WikiLeaks: \u2018Who Knows? Mahinda Will Never Say What He Believes\u2019 \u2013 Nirupama Rajapaksa<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Read the Cable below for further details;<\/p>\n

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 001730 \r\n\r\nSIPDIS \r\n\r\nSTATE FOR SA\/INS \r\n\r\nE.O. 12958: DECL: 09\/29\/2015\r\nTAGS: PGOV CE\r\nSUBJECT: SRI LANKA FREEDOM PARTY INTERNAL BATTLE LINES\r\nDRAWN UP WITH PRESIDENT'S RETURN \r\n\r\nREF: A. COLOMBO 1672 \r\n\r\n     \u00b6B. COLOMBO 1639 \r\n\r\nClassified By: DCM JAMES F. ENTWISTLE.  REASON:  1.4 (B,D). \r\n\r\n\u00b61.  (SBU)  With the September 27 return of President\r\nChandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga from abroad, the internal\r\nbattle lines within the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) are\r\nhardening, with the first major confrontation--the contents\r\nof the party manifesto--likely to occur during the Central\r\nCommittee meeting scheduled for September 30.  The President,\r\nwho has reportedly already drafted the manifesto and wants\r\nits speedy approval, is expected to use the document to force\r\nher errant presidential candidate, Prime Minister Mahinda\r\nRajapakse, to backtrack on the nationalist hard line endorsed\r\nin his electoral pacts with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna\r\n(JVP) and Jathika Hela Urumayu (JHU) (Reftels).  Kumaratunga\r\nhas already made several public statements--including an\r\naddress before the Asia Society in New York that stressed\r\nfederalism as part of the solution to the ethnic\r\nconflict--that directly contradict the positions espoused in\r\nthe pacts. \r\n\r\n\u00b62.  (U)  The local press, meanwhile, has been full of reports\r\nof confrontations and flare-ups between the President and the\r\nPrime Minister and his camp since her return.  According to\r\none unconfirmed report, the Prime Minister threatened to walk\r\nout of a September 29 Cabinet meeting in which the President\r\nraised the contradictions between the positions espoused by\r\nthe Prime Minister in the JVP and JHU agreements and SLFP\r\npolicies.  In an apparent back-handed slap at the President's\r\nefforts to rein him in, the PM has appointed outspoken JVP\r\npropagandist and Kumaratunga foe Wimal Weerawansa as official\r\nco-spokesman (along with pro-JVP Ports Minister Mangala\r\nSamaraweera) of his presidential campaign.  Another\r\nfront-page article highlighted the President's call at a\r\nSeptember 29 public ceremony attended by the Prime Minister\r\nfor the PM not to abandon educational reform efforts--as he\r\nhis electoral pact with the JVP implicitly threatens\r\nto--begun during her administration. \r\n\r\n\u00b63.  (C)  Nirupama Rajapakse, a cousin of the PM and former\r\nSLFP MP, told poloff that relations between the President and\r\nPrime Minister have always been \"very bitter,\" but are worse\r\nthan ever now.  The President has long regarded the Rajapakse\r\nfamily, which has had SLFP Members in Parliament for as long\r\nas the Bandaranaike clan, as the only real rival to her\r\nfamily's dynastic grip on the party, Rajapakse said.\r\nKumaratunga thus sees the Prime Minister's candidacy as a\r\nlose-lose situation for her, Rajapakse suggested.  If he\r\nwins, the Rajapakse position in the party is strengthened at\r\nthe Bandaranaikes' expense; if he loses, the party (the\r\nleadership of which Kumaratunga wants to pass on to her son\r\nVimukthi, now a 27-year-old veterinary student) as a whole is\r\nweakened.  (Note:  Besides three sons of his own for whom he\r\nnurses similar ambitions of political ascendancy, the Prime\r\nMinister, like the President, has a brother who is an MP.) \r\n\r\n\u00b64.  (C)  The Prime Minister's gratuitous decision to defy the\r\nPresident by signing electoral pacts with the JHU and\r\nJVP--especially when he did not need to do so to gain their\r\nsupport--had only exacerbated tensions, Rajapakse observed.\r\n\"It was very foolish of him,\" she commented.  When asked why\r\nhe chose to sign the pacts, Rajapakse replied that he had\r\ncalculated that it was more important to snag JVP votes--and\r\npre-empt any possibility of them running a candidate--than to\r\nwoo minority voters.  In the PM's view, the minorities would\r\nnever vote for him anyway, she explained.  On the other hand,\r\nthe SLFP, which is organizationally weak at the grass roots\r\nlevel compared to the opposition United National Party (UNP),\r\nhas lost many supporters to the JVP in the south, and the PM\r\nbelieves he needs the JVP's organizational abilities to help\r\nhim win against the UNP.  When asked if the PM truly believes\r\nthe anti-peace process positions he espoused in the JVP and\r\nJHU agreements, Rajapakse responded, \"Who knows?  He will\r\nnever say what he believes.\" \r\n\r\n\u00b65.  (C)  Rajapakse agreed that the election was likely to be\r\nextremely close--perhaps separated by just a few hundred\r\nthousand votes--and thus the President's apparent decision so\r\nfar not to campaign for the SLFP candidate (she is scheduled\r\nto leave the country soon once again--this time to Paris) is\r\nlikely to hurt the PM.  \"It is also strange of the brother\r\n(Foreign Minister Anura Bandaranaike, who is still overseas)\r\nto stay away\" during the campaign, she noted.  The pair's\r\nbehavior is fueling renewed speculation that the President\r\nmay scuttle the PM's chances by dissolving\r\nParliament--perhaps just days before the election.  Besides\r\nher brother, the President can count on the support of \"very\r\nfew\" SLFP'ers,\" according to Rajapakse--primarily Buddhist\r\nAffairs Minister Ratnasiri Wickremenayake, Finance Minister\r\nSarath Amunugama, Deputy Information Minister Dilan Perera\r\nand Deputy Power Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage. \r\n\r\n\u00b66.  (C)  Comment:  We have been hearing the same rumor about\r\nthe dissolution of Parliament for more than a month, but have\r\nno indication that this is something seriously under\r\nconsideration by the President.  That said, Kumaratunga's\r\ndispleasure with the PM is obvious.  She had hoped to leave a\r\nlegacy as a pro-peace president, with the controversial\r\ntsunami aid agreement (known as the P-TOMS) with the \r\n\r\nSIPDIS\r\nLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as a hallmark of those\r\nefforts.  That the PM's agreement with the\r\nKumaratunga-baiting JVP repudiates these policies--and\r\nspecifically vows to abnegate her cherished P-TOMS--must be\r\nespecially unbearable to her.  The contents of the\r\nstill-unpublished manifesto should provide a good indication\r\nof which SLFP heavyweight prevails in this battle.\r\nLUNSTEAD<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":61029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2187,1,2375,27],"tags":[6606,6607,6608,6609],"class_list":["post-61026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-most-popular","category-news","category-stories","category-wikileaks","tag-2005-elctions-sri-lanka-in-wikileaks","tag-chandrika-and-mahinda-conflict-in-wikileaks","tag-rajapaksa-family-and-bandaranaike-family","tag-rajapksa-sons-and-brothers-in-wikileaks"],"yoast_head":"\nWikiLeaks:The Rajapaksa Position In The Party Is Strengthened At The Bandaranaikes' Expense - 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\/wikileaksthe-rajapaksa-position-in-the-party-is-strengthened-at-the-bandaranaikes-expense\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WikiLeaks:The Rajapaksa Position In The Party Is Strengthened At The Bandaranaikes' Expense - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaksthe-rajapaksa-position-in-the-party-is-strengthened-at-the-bandaranaikes-expense\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-20T08:51:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-11-23T09:38:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Mahinda-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"199\" \/>\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\/wikileaksthe-rajapaksa-position-in-the-party-is-strengthened-at-the-bandaranaikes-expense\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaksthe-rajapaksa-position-in-the-party-is-strengthened-at-the-bandaranaikes-expense\/\",\"name\":\"WikiLeaks:The Rajapaksa Position In The Party Is Strengthened At The Bandaranaikes' Expense - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaksthe-rajapaksa-position-in-the-party-is-strengthened-at-the-bandaranaikes-expense\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaksthe-rajapaksa-position-in-the-party-is-strengthened-at-the-bandaranaikes-expense\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Mahinda-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-20T08:51:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-11-23T09:38:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaksthe-rajapaksa-position-in-the-party-is-strengthened-at-the-bandaranaikes-expense\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaksthe-rajapaksa-position-in-the-party-is-strengthened-at-the-bandaranaikes-expense\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaksthe-rajapaksa-position-in-the-party-is-strengthened-at-the-bandaranaikes-expense\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Mahinda-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Mahinda-1.jpg\",\"width\":\"300\",\"height\":\"199\",\"caption\":\"Mahinda and Chandrika | Pic by Ishara S. 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