{"id":77022,"date":"2013-03-13T00:13:52","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T00:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=77022"},"modified":"2013-03-13T00:13:52","modified_gmt":"2013-03-13T00:13:52","slug":"wikileaks-sampanthan-told-us-that-he-would-support-the-rajapaksas-before-fonseka-as-the-lesser-of-two-evils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-sampanthan-told-us-that-he-would-support-the-rajapaksas-before-fonseka-as-the-lesser-of-two-evils\/","title":{"rendered":"WikiLeaks: Sampanthan Told US That He Would Support The Rajapaksas Before Fonseka As The Lesser Of Two Evils"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cSegudawood’s comments indicate how complicated the election situation is even before the president announces whether a presidential elections will be held in the spring. (NOTE: the president is scheduled to announce his decision at the November 15 Congress of the SLFP. END NOTE.) The key complicating factor at this point is General Fonseka, who could split the Sinhalese vote and deprive the Rajapaksas of their key issue of winning the war. But Fonseka would be very hard for the Tamil community to support, however much they may dislike the Rajapaksas<\/a><\/span>. TNA leader Sampanthan<\/a><\/span>, for example, told us that he would support the Rajapaksas before Fonseka as the lesser of two evils.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0the\u00a0US Embassy Colombo<\/a><\/span>\u00a0informed Washington.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the\u00a0WikiLeaks<\/a><\/span>\u00a0database. The cable is classified as \u201cConfidential\u201d and recounts a meeting the US Embassy had with the Chairman of Sri Lanka\u00a0Muslim Congress<\/a><\/span>,Basheer Segu Dawood.\u00a0\u00a0The cable was written on November 06, 2009 \u00a0by the US Ambassador to Colombo,\u00a0Patricia A. Butenis<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

The ambassador wrote; “It is such complicating factors, as well as other big issues such as GSP-Plus and the U.S. Incidents Report that may be giving the president pause in deciding whether to call early presidential elections. Some keen observers are starting to believe that the president may wait another two years for the next regularly schedule polls. By then, presumably, the political storms over GSP-Plus and the Incidents Report will likely have passed in one way or another, General Fonseka<\/a><\/span> may have faded from the scene, and the international economic situation will likely have improved with a potentially positive impact on the Sri Lankan economy. The political landscape, therefore, would be very different from the increasingly rocky one the president now faces.”<\/p>\n

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

Related posts to this cable;<\/p>\n

WikiLeaks: Muslim Congress Strategy To Defeat Rajapaksa \u2013 Tamil Future In The Hands Of The Diaspora<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

VZCZCXRO1167\r\nOO RUEHAG RUEHROV RUEHSL RUEHSR\r\nDE RUEHLM #1019\/01 3101237\r\nZNY CCCCC ZZH\r\nO 061237Z NOV 09\r\nFM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO\r\nTO RUEHC\/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0738\r\nINFO RUCNMEM\/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY\r\nRUEHKA\/AMEMBASSY DHAKA PRIORITY 2024\r\nRUEHIL\/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD PRIORITY 9060\r\nRUEHKT\/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU PRIORITY 7298\r\nRUEHLO\/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 5207\r\nRUEHNE\/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 3453\r\nRUEHNY\/AMEMBASSY OSLO PRIORITY 5159\r\nRUEHOT\/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA PRIORITY 0032\r\nRUEHSM\/AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM PRIORITY 0694\r\nRUEHKO\/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 4270\r\nRUEHCG\/AMCONSUL CHENNAI PRIORITY 9623\r\nRUEHBI\/AMCONSUL MUMBAI PRIORITY 6917\r\nRUEHON\/AMCONSUL TORONTO PRIORITY 0006\r\nRHEFDIA\/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY\r\nRUEHGV\/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 3817\r\nRHHMUNA\/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY\r\nRUEHBS\/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY\r\nRHEHAAA\/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY\r\nRUEKJCS\/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY<\/pre>\n
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 001019 \r\n\r\nSIPDIS \r\n\r\nDEPARTMENT FOR SCA\/INSB \r\n\r\nE.O. 12958: DECL: 11\/07\/2019\r\nTAGS: PGOV PREL PREF PHUM PTER EAID MOPS CE\r\nSUBJECT: MUSLIM CONGRESS LEADER ON ELECTIONS, FONSEKA, AND\r\nTAMILS \r\n\r\nCOLOMBO 00001019  001.2 OF 003 \r\n\r\nClassified By: DEPUTY CHIEF OF MISSION VALERIE C. FOWLER.  REASONS: 1.4\r\n (B, D) \r\n\r\n\u00b61. (C) SUMMARY: In a meeting with PolOff, Chairman of Sri\r\nLanka Muslim Council (SLMC) and Eastern Provincial opposition\r\nleader Basheer Segudawood spoke of his party's strategy to\r\ndefeat President Rajapaksa at the upcoming elections.  The\r\nstrategy included forming a broad coalition with the UNP and\r\nother smaller minority parties and abolishing the Executive\r\nPresidency.  In order to win, the coalition would need the\r\nsupport of Tamil diaspora representatives, both in working\r\nwith local Tamils and with the Tamil diaspora community\r\nabroad.  Segudawood noted the Tamil diaspora was hosting a\r\nconference in London November 12-13 to discuss the\r\npost-Prabhakaran future of Tamils.  Many of the minority\r\nleaders were invited and were planning to attend.  According\r\nto the SLMC leader a broad coalition of opposition\r\npoliticians was planning to join the newly formed United\r\nNational Front (UNF) for the election.  Segudawood expressed\r\ntentative support for General Fonseka as a possible candidate\r\nof the coalition.  END SUMMARY. \r\n\r\nUNP-led Grand Coalition\r\n----------------------- \r\n\r\n\u00b62. (C) The SLMC Chairman discussed the signing of the MOU\r\ncreating the United National Front by the United National\r\nParty (UNP), SLMC, Mangala Samaraweera's Sri Lanka Freedom\r\nParty Mahajana (SLFP-M), and Mano Ganeshan's Western People\r\nFront (WPF), as well as 19 other organizations and political\r\nparties.  Segudawood pointed out that minority parties such\r\nas the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), People Liberation\r\nOrganization of Thamileelam (PlOTE), Tamil United Liberation\r\nFront (TULF), WPF, SLMC and the Upcountry People's Front were\r\nnow willing to work together with this grand coalition.  One\r\nof the pledges of the coalition, developed in part to bring\r\nthese parties to common ground, would be to abolish the\r\nExecutive Presidency and return the country to a\r\nparliamentary system of government.  UNP and SLFP (M) had\r\nalready made public statements on the issue.  While the SLMC\r\nhad been publicly silent on its support for the coalition,\r\nSegudawood stressed that the SLMC would back the coalition to\r\ndefeat the president.  The chairman underscored UNP leader\r\nRanil Wickremesinghe's popularity with minorities but echoed\r\nthe sentiment, expressed privately by many political\r\nobservers in Colombo, of Wickremesinghe not being the ideal\r\ncandidate to beat the president.  Segudawood said he was\r\ndisappointed at some of the public actions, press releases,\r\nand agendas of individual opposition and minority parties,\r\nwhich he believed had been counterproductive to building an\r\nanti-Rajapaksa coalition, and stressed the need for one voice\r\namongst the parties allied against the president. \r\n\r\nGeneral Fonseka: Coalition Leader?\r\n---------------------------------- \r\n\r\n\u00b63. (C) The SLMC chairman indicated there had been back\r\nchannel talks by opposition party operatives with Fonseka\r\nabout his role as a possible coalition leader.  He remarked\r\nthat while Fonseka's Sinhalese nationalistic ideology might\r\nbe similar to that of the Rajapaksas, Fonseka came from a\r\nfamily that was born-and-bred UNP and would be the only one\r\ncapable of beating the current government.  For Fonseka to be\r\na viable candidate in the eyes of the minority and\r\nopposition, however, he first would have to sign an agreement\r\nto abolish the Executive Presidency within 90 days of the\r\nelections.  Fonseka had yet to make a decision on whether he\r\nwould run, or with which party or group of parties he might\r\nally himself.  According to Segudawood, Fonseka would want\r\ntwo issues clarified before considering the coalition offer: \r\n\r\nCOLOMBO 00001019  002.2 OF 003 \r\n\r\nhis future after the Presidency was dissolved, and concerns\r\nfor his personal security, implying that the Rajapaksas might\r\nstop at nothing to prevent him running against them.\r\nSegudawood pointed out that UNP leader Ranil Wickramsinghe\r\npersonally promised Fonseka that the people would protect\r\nhim.  Janatha Vimukhti Peramuna (JVP) was also putting forth\r\na bill to Parliament that guaranteed former commanders and\r\nsenior officers, personal security. \r\n\r\nTamil Future in the Hands of the Diaspora\r\n----------------------------------------- \r\n\r\n\u00b64.  (C) Segudawood claimed the Tamil Diaspora would be a key\r\nplayer in the upcoming elections.  He noted that the Tamil\r\nDiaspora was hosting a conference on November 12-13 in\r\nLondon, which 20 Sri Lankan-based minority leaders were\r\nplanning to attend.  Among the possible attendees were\r\nSivanesthurai Chandrakanthan a.k.a. Pilliyan (TMVP), Rauff\r\nHakeem (SLMC), Sampanthan (TNA), and Mano Ganesan (TNA).\r\n(NOTE: Embassy is seeking a meeting with TNA leader\r\nSampanthan before he travels to London.  END NOTE.)  The\r\nchairman described the diaspora as being divided into three\r\nto four groups but that it generally fell in two categories\r\nsimilar to the Tamil community in Sri Lanka: those who\r\nsupported the LTTE and those who opposed it.  Segudawood\r\nbelieved the challenge for the coalition lay in bringing the\r\nTamil diaspora, the resident Tamil community, and the other\r\nminority leaders together to win the elections.  The\r\ninfluence of the Tamil diaspora would have a critical impact\r\nin this regard. \r\n\r\nPresidential Election Strategy\r\n------------------------------ \r\n\r\n\u00b65. (C) Segudawood discussed a strategy he believed might pull\r\nvotes from the president's United People's Freedom Alliance\r\n(UPFA).  He hinted that perhaps two or more UPFA officials\r\nwere already prepared to switch allegiance to the new\r\ncoalition.  According to Segudawood, there were UPFA members\r\nwho were very displeased with the Rajapaksa regime and ready\r\nto pull the plug on it.  If the opposition were able to win\r\nover at least two UPFA members, Segudawood believed others\r\nwould be willing to do the same.  The SLMC chairman remarked\r\nthat the people were tired of hearing the president's\r\npropaganda of \"winning the war\" as his chief political\r\naccomplishment and centerpiece for the upcoming elections.\r\nGiven the current government's unpopularity with the Muslims\r\nand Tamils, in order for the president to win, Segudawood\r\nclaimed that the president needed at least 75 percent of\r\nSinhalese votes.  He hoped with Fonseka as the coalition\r\ncandidate, the coalition could cut substantially into the\r\npresident's Sinhalese base.  At the same time, he claimed the\r\nTamil and Muslim minorities together comprised 1.5 million\r\nvotes and noted that the coalition's success depended on them. \r\n\r\nComment\r\n------- \r\n\r\n\u00b66. (C) Segudawood's comments indicate how complicated the\r\nelection situation is even before the president announces\r\nwhether a presidential elections will be held in the spring.\r\n(NOTE: the president is scheduled to announce his decision at\r\nthe November 15 Congress of the SLFP.  END NOTE.)  The key\r\ncomplicating factor at this point is General Fonseka, who\r\ncould split the Sinhalese vote and deprive the Rajapaksas of\r\ntheir key issue of winning the war.  But Fonseka would be\r\nvery hard for the Tamil community to support, however much\r\nthey may dislike the Rajapaksas.  TNA leader Sampanthan, for\r\nexample, told us that he would support the Rajapaksas before\r\nFonseka as the lesser of two evils.  It is such complicating \r\n\r\nCOLOMBO 00001019  003.2 OF 003 \r\n\r\nminority factors, as well as other big issues such as\r\nGSP-Plus and the U.S. Incidents Report that may be giving the\r\npresident pause in deciding whether to call early\r\npresidential elections.  Some keen observers are starting to\r\nbelieve that the president may wait another two years for the\r\nnext regularly schedule polls.  By then, presumably, the\r\npolitical storms over GSP-Plus and the Incidents Report will\r\nlikely have passed in one way or another, General Fonseka may\r\nhave faded from the scene, and the international economic\r\nsituation will likely have improved with a potentially\r\npositive impact on the Sri Lankan economy.  The political\r\nlandscape, therefore, would be very different from the\r\nincreasingly rocky one the president now faces. \r\n\r\nBUTENIS<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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