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Premadasa Still Faces Bitter Criticism

An attempt to impeach Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa, spearheaded by the opposition and dissident members of his own party, has failed. But Premadasa still faces bitter criticism from his countrymen for having supplied arms to a Tamil group which were later used to kill soldiers from Sri Lanka’s own army. That fiasco and the impeachment exercise have left his reputation badly tarnished.

Gamini Navaratne writes from Colombo
SIR Lanka has weathered its biggest political and constitutional crisis since Independence from the British 43 years ago after a failed attempt to impeach 67-year-old Pre-sident Ranasinghe Premadasa on charges of abuse of power.
A motion to Impeach Premadasa. leader of the ruling right-wing United National Party (UNP), was submitted by the main opposition group, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party led by ex-prime minister Slrimao Bandaranalke. It was backed by a number of disgruntled UNP members.
Premadasa Initially used all manner of strategies to prevent the motion from coming before the country's lawmakers: He prorogued Parliament on September 2, a day before the motion could have come before the 225-member house. He later threatened to dissolve the house in an attempt -to scare off dissidents within his party known not to be in a mood to face a fresh general election.
The battle ended on October 7, when the speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament, Haniffa Mohamed, ruled that the resolution, which he did not make public, lacked "the required number of valid signatures" and hence would not be debated.
Supporters of the resolution had claimed that 122 of the 225 members of Parliament had endorsed the motion, well above the simple majority required for It to proceed. But members of the ruling party countered that some signatures had been obtained ille-
gally. They pointed out that, some of the original 47 UNP signatories to the motion had since retracted their names on the grounds that they had been "misled."
Trouble has been brcwlpg
within the UNP and the country at large since Premadasa won power In 1988, succeeding his mentor, Junius Jayewardene, now 85, who ruled for the 11 previous years.
The prime minister nar-
rowly beat Bandaranalke in an election which the combined opposition says was rigged. Bandaranalke herself has said in a petition to the Supreme Court that the election was neither free nor fair. But after nearly two and a half years, the court has still been unable to conclude its hearings on her petition due to delaying tactics by defence counsel. It is the longest case tn Srl Lanka's his-tory.
The UNP dissidents were led by two once-powerful ministers who were contenders for the party's presidential nomination. One was Lahth Athulathmudali, who served as minister of national security under Jayewardene but who was demoted to the education portfolio under Premadasa. The other was Gamini Dlssan-ayake, who was once in charge of a major hydro power and Irrigation project but was dropped from cabinet two yearsago.
Both expected to be appointed prime minister — at least after Premadasa took over — but were bypassed for a less well-known politician, D.B. Wijetunga, who has little popular support.
The first test of the strength of opposing forces in Parliament took place
September 24. A crucial vote to extend the "state of emergency." in existence almost continuously since ethnic violence Involving the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority began in 1983, passed easily: 131 for, 72 against.
UNP dissidents ensured the motion's passage. The government thus obtained the emergency powers it needed to deploy security forces against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LITE) who have been waging a ten-year was to win a separate state for the Tami) minority in the island's northeast.
But the proposed Impeachment was a different kettle of fish. The main Issue was the restoration of parliamentary democracy to replace the executive presidency system Introduced by Jayewardene in 1978. Critics say the new system has led to abuses of power by both Jayewardene and Premadasa, leading Srl Lanka down the path to dictatorship.
Much depended on Speaker Mohamed, who had initially "entertained" the opposition motion. Even if he was prevented from placing It one the parliamentary order paper he could still have read it out. Had he done so the names of the
signatories to it would be revealed to the public for the first time, embarrassing many government backbenchers.
One of the other charges levelled against the president, besides abuse of power, is that he consorted with the Tamil Tigers in an attempt to divide rival Tamil factions.
Premadasa consorted with the Tamils, his critics charge, by supplying the LTTE with arms to quell the Tamil National Army," a body set up by the Indian Peace Keeping Force before It withdrew in 1989, its mission of checking Sinhalese-Tamil violence unfulfilled.
After the departure of Indian troops, there was for some time a lull in LTTE activities marked by direct talks aimed at achieving a political solution to the ethnic conflict. But the talks flopped and fighting began again, with the LTTE using government-supplied arms against the government's own troops.
The opposition has exploited this fiasco to the full, much to the embarrassment of Premadasa, making him unpopular with the security forces who have lost hundreds of lives In the renewed fighting and, consequently, among the Sinhalese masses.
While Premadasa seems to have survived the latest challenge to his authority, the arms-sales scaqdal and the impeachment exercise have left his image badly tarnished.
— GEMINI NEWS
GAMINI NAVARATNE Is a Sri Lankan Journalist who runs the Sandesh Press Agency tn Colombo.