Ball and chain syndrome

The failure of the latest round of talks on 10 December between the warring political foes in Colombo dashed any hope for an early solution to the over-a-month-old political impasse. After the expiry of 15 December 2003 deadline set by the two leaders, no fresh deadline has been set. Earlier on 5 November, President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who belongs to the opposition Peoples Alliance (PA), in a constitutional coup declared emergency in the country. Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe of the United National Party (UNP), which holds majority in the parliament, was on a visit to the United States and it was in his absence that on 4 November 2003, President Kumaratunga sacked the ministers for information, defence and home, suspended parliament for two weeks upto 19 November and ordered deployment of the troops at key installations.

President Kumaratunga has so far been able to sell her drastic measures on the grounds of the alleged threat to national security arising from the submission of the proposals for the Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on 31 October. While most political analysts and Sri Lanka watchers bought her story, the question remains whether allowing the LTTE to put across its proposals constitutes what President Kumaratunga calls "making too many concessions", and warrants the imposition of emergency. The president's drastic action in reality has more to do with the UNP government's adventurism in submitting a motion for impeachment of the controversial Supreme Court Chief Justice Sarath N Silva. The move sought to arrest an impending judgement from the apex court as to who really is the 'boss' of the defence forces as well as the government of Sri Lanka. Since any impeachment motion against the president ultimately has to be referred to a referendum by the chief justice, many Peoples Allaince (PA) leaders saw the impeachment of the chief justice as the first step towards impeaching President Kumaratunga. The president has asked for the impeachment motion to be withdrawn.