By Amantha Perera
COLOMBO, May 11 2005 (IPS)

In times of tragedy, nations will look for solace in the most unexpected of places, even among the dead. Almost five months after tidal waves from the Dec. 26 tsunami killed more than 31,000 Sri Lankans and left another 200,000 destitute, this seems to ring true in the island-nation.

Many seem to be turning their eyes upon Ranasinghe Premadasa, Sri Lanka’s second executive president who died 12 years ago when he was assassinated by a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber on May 1, 1993, while taking part in an International Labour Day procession in the capital.

Premadasa’s image has witnessed a revival in the past two months, in the midst of a lethargic tsunami reconstruction effort by the incumbent government.

”If he was here, things would have been okay. He would have made sure that the people would be taken care of,” G H Munasinghe, a pedicab driver in Colombo said. Munasinghe felt that Premadasa would not have let the tsunami reconstruction effort falter because he ”was a hands-on leader”.

Since the Boxing Day tsunami, spawned by an undersea quake in northern Sumatra in the Indonesian archipelago, the Sri Lankan government has yet to agree on a joint aid distribution mechanism with the rebel Tamil Tigers and a final reconstruction plan.

Initially, the tragedy raised hopes that the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels – who fought a brutal war for two decades seeking a separate homeland for minority Tamils until a 2002 ceasefire – would work together to reconstruct the coast including vast swathes under rebel control in the north and east.

The delay also reflects strong opposition to the Tamil Tigers from within the coalition government, where a junior partner, the anti-LTTE People’s Liberation Front (JVP), has rejected the plan and threatened to leave the coalition – a move that would lead to the collapse of the government.

Aid agencies and donors pledged two billion dollars for relief and reconstruction, although about 500 million dollars has yet to be signed and sealed.

Of an estimated 97,000 new houses needed for tsunami victims only a mere 119 have been completed, according to the Task Force For Building The Nation. Work has begun on 3,076 houses and 80,000 houses are to be completed within two years.

”For the man who completed the one million houses programme and undertook the challenge of further building another 1.5 million houses, the task of providing accommodation for a maximum of 100,000 families would have been just a few months work,” Siresena Cooray, chairman of the Premadasa Centre said in a commemorative message on International Labour Day.

In fact Premadasa’s lasting legacy has been the housing programme he initiated from the time he was appointed prime minister in 1978. He spearheaded the Gam Udawa (Village Awakening) programme aimed at providing free housing especially for the rural poor till the time of his death. During his presidency from 1989, Premadasa also initiated a government sponsored dole programme for the poor.

”He helped the poor a lot, now no one is doing that. The poor now are not looked after,” Premalal Lawrence, who hails from the minority Tamil community, said. The revival however did not materialise out of the blue. Three months after the tsunami, a local TV channel, ‘Sirasa TV’, featured the slain president in one of its massive publicity billboards in Colombo.

”People’s President, you’re solely missed,” said the message. During a protest organised by Premadasa’s own party, the United National Party, to demonstrate against the slow tsunami reconstruction effort, tsunami victims garlanded the UNP leaders.

”I never had doubts of my father’s ability. It is a Sri Lankan thing to only recognise a person’s good after he is dead. It is a reality check,” Premadasa’s son Sajith Premadasa, a UNP parliamentarian from the deep south, told IPS. ”The tragedy is that it has taken so long for people to realise the inefficiency of the present politicians. My father can never be compared with the present lot.”

The former president was known to be a meticulous workaholic who got up at 3 a.m. everyday. Former aides still relate how Premadasa wanted total control of everything from negotiations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as the Tigers are formally known, to the plans for the new houses.

”Premadasa would have been on the scene building houses right now, not bickering in Colombo,” said Munasinghe.

Despite the legacy of being the ”people’s president”, his four years at the helm of the nation were also tumultuous.

Extra judicial killings during Premadasa’s presidency were at an unprecedented level. In the South, these killings had been perpetrated by Sri Lanka security forces, militant groups and various para military and vigilante groups.

In July 1987, India played a major role in brokering the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord. The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) attempted to take control of security in the north-east for the next three years. However, this agreement made by Premadasa’s predecessor Junius Jayawardena saw violent conflict between the IPKF and Tamil Tigers.

The presence of Indian troops in Sri Lanka also prompted the People’s Liberation Front, now a part of the ruling United People’s Front Alliance, to take up arms against the government. Premadasa put down this rebellion ruthlessly.

In 1990, the IPKF was withdrawn by New Delhi under pressure from Premadasa.

Premadasa also had to face internal rebellion that ultimately led to the splintering of the once powerful UNP. Two former party and cabinet colleagues Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake were the key players in an impeachment motion against the president. He used his personal cohesive power and the executive presidency to stop the motion from being brought to parliament. Athulathmudlai, Dissanayake and several allies were then expelled from the party and parliament.

A few weeks before Premadasa was killed by the suicide bomber, Athulathmudali had been assassinated – adding to speculation that the president was behind it.

At the time of his death, Premadasa was not the most popular figure in Sri Lanka because of his atrocious human rights record. In fact on the night of his horrific killing, fireworks were lit in several Colombo suburbs to celebrate his demise.

Till the post-tsunami revival, even his own party members had mentioned Premadasa only in passing. But now that he is back in the limelight, it is unlikely that he will sink back into oblivion, at least not any time soon.

Excerpt: