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Bread and Circuses By Cicero

'From guerilla attacks to open warfare' was the title of our opening column three weeks ago but not in our wildest dreams did we imagine that the firing would become so ferocious so soon. Last week saw what l ooked ominously like the parting of the ways for the President and the UNF Government although desperate efforts are being made to salvage the situation even now. Allegations that the People's Alliance was planning a coup de'tat (albeit constitutionally) to oust the Government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe saw the Government giving a 10-day ultimatum to the President to concede three demands among which is a measure which will shackle her powers to dissolve Parliament in December.

Although the two main players in this long unfolding drama, which has gripped the country's attention as no soap opera can hope to, were expected to meet this week the Prime Minister did not meet the President although his thinking was conveyed to her by Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar with whom Mr. Wickremesinghe had a lengthy one-to-one meeting in Parliament.

For her part the President has shown no indication of wishing to climb down. At Wednesday's Cabinet meeting she had rejected a proposal by Justice Minister Lokubandara to abolish the Special Presidential Commissions to investigate certain types of offences and substitute the normal process of the law instead again leading to heated arguments with the two arch legal eagles Ministers Tilak Marapona and K. N. Choksy and her two arch antagonists Ministers Ravi Karunanayake and Rajitha Senaratne. On top of all this came the refusal by the Chairman of the Rupavahini Corporation to grant the air time the President had originally asked for on Thursday to make a statement on the present situation. Eventually air time was granted to the President.

Is a coup being hatched or not in the bowels of the PA? If any such action is being contemplated this cloak and dagger game must be the best documented in the history of conspiracy for the Rupavahini was able to show the document charting the dark deeds. Whether this has received the imprimatur of the PA or not what is clear is that such a document is in existence.

This was tacitly accepted by the PA media spokesman Dr. Sarath Amunugama (whose status incidentally has been challenged by PA Executive Committee member Batty Weerakoon) when he said that the PA gets a variety of position papers from civil society groups, academics and the like. However what the Government has homed in on is that some of the recommendations made in this document have already been put into motion by way of the President asking some Cabinet Ministers for explanations on such issues as the clashes in the Eastern Province.

Is the Government crying 'coup' to draw a red herring for its own purposes? While this is one school of thought the PA too is caught in a cleft stick.

While they will deny that there is a coup they cannot be caught in the awkward posture of acknowledging that they are a lacklustre Opposition which will allow the Government its own way. Hence the eagerness of not only Dr. Amunugama but also Leader of the Opposition Mahinda Rajapakse to say that they are indeed working like beavers to bring about the downfall of the Government by legitimate means of course. But if that is the game plan then the scenario sketched out in the document under question looks suspiciously close to what the doctor ordered.

Is it some kind of curious game then that the Government and the PA are playing, some dance of strange choreography? For its part the Government is putting the PA on notice that it will not countenance any attempt to dislodge it before its term is over while the PA (or at least the SLFP) seems to be flattered that it is taken notice of.

But behind this shadow play is more serious business. What it all boils down to is the President's powers and in particular her power to dissolve Parliament in December. This is underlined by the request made by the Government to the President as revealed by Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris last Thursday that the President should give up her powers in this regard. Not only does the President enjoy this power but SLFP spokesmen have gone to the length of claiming that Parliament does not even enjoy the power to dissolve itself, a measure which the Government has been contemplating in the case of an impasse with the President. This then is the bottom line.

But then can it be a one-way street? Whatever the President decides she would want the Government to make some kind of concession or gesture of peace. She has already signalled her displeasure at certain Cabinet Ministers and Minister Ravi Karunanayake in particular and even asked for his head.

Will she not ask the Prime Minister that the Cabinet be made into a zone of peace if co-habitation is to work as everybody would want it to? Already she has gone on record as saying that if there have been any misdeeds, acts of corruption, irregularities and maladministration those should be reported to relevant agencies such as the Police or the Bribery Commission. For the main bone of contention on the President's part has been that she has been questioned on a variety of issues in the Cabinet which have no immediate bearing on the formulation of policy.

With the Government giving an ultimatum of 10 days to the President to make her stand known things are bound to hang fire for the time being. But the kind of uncertainty which pervades the country at the moment will not do anybody any good even though we can derive some passing comfort by humbling the Bangladeshis and basking in the glory of the Asian Games. It is a question of Bread and Circuses then.

Whether Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar will become Prime Minister or not he will certainly have his niche in history. In the past week he has emerged as the man who has the ears of both the President and the Prime Minister, the eminence grise who is privy to state secrets.

It must give this former Oxford Union President who is indubitably the most mellifluous speaker of English in public life great satisfaction that he has been able to command the national spotlight so remarkably after a political life of just a decade or so. But whoever picked him as the 'dark horse' in the Prime Ministerial Stakes was certainly mistaken. One of the arguments attributed for picking him is that the Tamil parties will have to think twice before opposing him. But opposing him as Foreign Minister is what the Tamils have been doing all along. It sticks in their gullets that a Tamil (albeit of cosmopolitan complexion) should be the chief spokesman for a 'Sinhala Government'.

Another ray of hope is offered by the President's commitment to abolishing the Executive Presidency which she had reiterated at lastweek's Cabinet meeting even while she had protested against its piecemeal dismantling as in the case of the proposed abolition of the Special Presidential Commissions.

This the Government has taken as an affirmative position and is likely to introduce legislation for returning power to Parliament through a Prime Minister in the Westminster tradition.

Are these straws in the wind or will they form a solid basis for co-habitation? The people will ponder and ponder while their leaders quarrel and quarrel.

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