SRI LANKA: NEW MEGA-CABINET BOOSTS RAJAPAKSA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 COLOMBO 000230

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/06/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER PHUM MOPS CE
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: NEW MEGA-CABINET BOOSTS RAJAPAKSA
BROTHERS' CONTROL

REF: A. COLOMBO 170

B. COLOMBO 186

Classified By: Ambassador Robert O. Blake, Jr., for reasons 1.4(b,d).


1. (C) Summary. President Mahinda Rajapaksa's recent
cabinet reshuffle has served to consolidate his and his
brothers' control, particularly over the all-important
defense portfolio. The new United National Party (UNP)
ministers have settled for distinctly secondary ministries,
while their defection has severely divided and weakened the
main opposition UNP. The President now has a reasonable
buffer of 9 seats in Parliament and has sidelined the
Buddhist nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). To
achieve this, the President has created a cabinet of 54
ministers and a similar number of deputies, perhaps a record
anywhere -- but certainly for a country of only 20 million.
New Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama is far less likely
than his predecessor to push the President on issues of
concern to the international community, such as human rights.
One joker in the President's deck is Ports and Aviation
Minister Mangala Samaraweera, who retains an independent
voice and support base. Samaraweera is becoming a magnet
for those within the ruling SLFP who are dissatisfied with
the Rajapaksa Government's nepotism, including over 20 Sri
Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) members of parliament (MPs) loyal
to Chandrika Kumaratunga. See paras 5-13 for brief bios of
significant new additions to the Cabinet. End Summary.


2. (C) President Mahinda Rajapaksa's recent cabinet
reshuffle (ref a) has served to consolidate his and his
brothers' control, particularly over the defense
establishment. The post of Deputy Defense Minister (formerly
held by Prime Minister Wickremenayake) is now vacant, leaving
only the President, as Defense Minister, and his brother
Gothabaya, the Defense Secretary, responsible for military
policy. The addition of UNP members to the cabinet has not
in any way weakened the President's hold on power. The new
UNP ministers have been given relatively less important
ministries. The defection of the "crossovers" has seriously
weakened the UNP. The President now has a respectable buffer
of 9 seats in Parliament, and no longer has to depend on JVP
support. Moreover, new Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama
is far less likely than his outspoken predecessor to
challenge the President on human rights, humanitarian relief,
and relations with the West.


3. (C) Nevertheless, Mangala Samaraweera retains his
independent base and could be in a position to cause trouble
for the Rajapaksas down the road. The Ports and Aviation
Minister, who previously also held the Foreign Ministry, is
becoming a key figure among those dissatisfied with the
Rajapaksa Government's nepotism. He appears to be finding
common ground with at least 20 SLFP MPs considered close to
former President Chandrika Kumaratunga. Samaraweera
reportedly opted for Ports and Aviation instead of the
Foreign Ministry because he felt new Foreign Secretary
Palitha Kohona would be too beholden to the Rajapaksas, thus
limiting Samaraweera's independence of action. As Ports and
Aviation Minister, he will also have line responsibility for
a Rajapaksa pet project, Mihin Air, a new budget airline that
the GSL plans to launch this month. Rumors abound that the
Rajapaksas planned to take private equity positions in this
venture, but fund it using public pension money.


4. (C) A UNP MP who is a Ranil loyalist last week told us
that the UNP MPs crossed over for three reasons: some,
nearing retirement, felt they couldn't wait any longer to
become ministers. Some, implicated in corruption charges,
were seeking ministerial immunity. The rest were followers
of these other two groups and felt obligated to follow their
mentors, lest their financial support dry up. This view
overlooks a more important factor: that many were fed up with
Ranil's autocratic style and losing record. However, it does

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help explain why these MPs would have settled for relatively
little in joining the government.

The following is bio information on key new ministers:

Rohitha Bogollagama, Minister of Foreign Affairs
-------------- ---


5. (C) Rohitha Bogollagama, previously Minister of
Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion (2005-2007),
is a lawyer-turned-politician and Rajapaksa loyalist. His
friendly relations with the President go back to school days.
He was a leading member of the GSL's peace negotiating team
at the Geneva peace talks in February 2006. Bogollagama was
originally elected as a UNP MP from Kurunegala District in

2000. He crossed over to the SLFP from the UNP in 2004 and
was given the Ministry of Advanced Technology and National
Enterprises. He served as Minister of Industries from
2002-2004. Prior to entering politics, he was Legal Advisor
to Voice of America from 1991-1999 and maintained close ties
to the Embassy. He has experience in handling commercial,
trade, and shipping dispute resolution settlements and
arbitration. He also served as Chairman and Director General
of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka from 2005-2007 and
has held key positions in several public corporations. His
personal problems have often hit the newspapers. He is a
lavish spender of public money, taking his family on foreign
trips at government expense. His son's unofficial presence
at the Geneva peace talks attracted severe media criticism.
Bogollagama is estranged from his wife, who has made a habit
of publicly confronting Bogollagama's allegedly numerous
paramours. His son, 27, is studying business in Singapore
and a daughter, 25, studies medicine in India. He is a
Sinhalese Buddhist.

Karu Jayasuriya, Minister of Public Administration
and Home Affairs
-------------- --------------


6. (C) Karu Jayasuriya joined the UNP in 1994 and was former
Deputy Leader of the United National Party from 2000-2006.
First elected to Parliament in 2000, he became Minister of
Power and Energy in the 2001 UNP-led Government. He served
as Leader of the Opposition of the Western Provincial Council
from 1999-2000 and Mayor of Colombo from 1997-1999.
Jayasuriya was appointed Ambassador to Germany in 1992, with
concurrent accreditation to Austria and Switzerland. He
served as a commissioned officer in the Sri Lankan Army from
1965-1972. Jayasuriya hails from Gampaha District, is
married, and has two daughters. One daughter is married to
UNP MP Navin Dissanayake, who also joined the Government in
January 2007 as non-Cabinet Minister of Enterprise
Development and Investment Promotion. Jayasuriya, born on
September 29, 2006, is a Sinhalese Buddhist, speaks excellent
English, and is well disposed to the United States.

G.L. Peiris, Minister of Export Development
and International Trade
--------------


7. (C) G.L. Peiris is one of Sri Lanka's leading
intellectuals and a prominent UNP MP. He served from
2002-2004 as Minister of Enterprise Development and
Constitutional Affairs and chief government policy spokesman
under Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Front (UNF)
Government. He also served as head of the GSL Peace
Delegation in the round of negotiations that led to the Oslo
and Tokyo Declarations. A moderate on the peace process, he
has urged the Government to test the sincerity of the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) through negotiations.
He has criticized the GSL for going into war without a clear
political strategy. Peiris first entered politics at the
invitation of Chandrika Kumaratunga in 1994. He held various
portfolios in her government, including Minister of Justice,

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Minister of Constitutional Affairs, Minister of Industrial
Development, and Deputy Minister of Finance. He crossed over
to the UNP in 2001 after accusing the PA and Kumaratunga of
inefficiency and gross abuse of power. A brilliant scholar
and public speaker in both English and Sinhala, Peiris has
authored several law texts widely used in Sri Lanka. He is
married and has one daughter.

Milinda Moragoda, Minister of Tourism
--------------


8. (C) Milinda Moragoda, a prominent UNP MP from Colombo
District, was a close confidant of UNP leader Ranil
Wickremesinghe. From 2002-2004 he served in the UNF
government as Minister of Economic Reform and also was
involved in defense reform. A moderate on the peace process,
he was a key member of the GSL delegation to the 2002-2003
peace talks with the LTTE. He refused President Rajapaksa's
entreaties to take a higher-profile ministry, both out of
caution and because he did not want to buried in the often
extravagant patronage demands that come with running large
ministries. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was an
important adviser to President Premadasa on economic,
financial, and trade issues. Moragoda manages several banks
and companies owned by his family and hosts a popular talk
show on current events on a local private television channel.
He has written many op-ed pieces for local and international
publications. Moragoda was educated in Sri Lanka and
Switzerland, and was a fellow at Harvard's International
Affairs Institute from 1994-1995. He is well-spoken,
self-assured, and at ease with Westerners. Moragoda, also a
U.S. citizen, is married to a U.S. citizen. A Sinhalese
Buddhist, he speaks excellent English and some Sinhala.

Rauff Hakeem, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications
-------------- --------------


9. (C) Rauff Hakeem, leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim
Congress, is one of Sri Lanka's top Muslim leaders. In 2000,
President Kumaratunga appointed him Minister of International
Trade, Ports Development and Shipping, and Muslim Religious
Affairs. In 2001, after pledging support to the new UNP
government, he became Minister of Ports Development and
Shipping, Eastern Province Development, and Muslim Religious
Affairs. He served on Sri Lanka's peace delegation in
2002-2003 and has pressed for a separate Muslim delegation to
future talks. He first entered Parliament in 1994 and that
same year was appointed Deputy Chairman of Committees, the
number three position in Parliament. Hakeem is a graduate of
the Sri Lankan Law College. Hakeem speaks excellent English,
and is friendly with American diplomats.

Champika Ranawaka, Minister of Environment
and Natural Resources
--------------


10. (C) Champika Ranawaka, an electrical engineer, is the
theoretician and policy formulator for the Jathika Hela
Urumaya (JHU). One of the few laypersons in the leadership
of the monk-based JHU, he is a radical Sinhalese nationalist.
He became an MP just last week, after another JHU MP, a
monk, stepped down in his favor. He was the national
organizer for the Sinhala Urumaya, a Sinhalese nationalist
party formed in 2000. He formed the National Movement
Against Terrorism in 1998 and the Sinhala Nationalists'
Movement in 1992. Champika joined the JVP in 1986 and in
1987 formed the Organization to Protect the Motherland, which
protested the Indo-Lanka peace accord. Champika studied at
the University of Moratuwa and later lectured there. He
hails from Kalutara district, is married, has two children,
and speaks good English.

Sarath Amunugama, Minister of Enterprise Development
and Investment Promotion

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-------------- --------------


11. (C) Sarath Amunugama, previously Minister of Public
Administration (2005-2007),is a former civil servant and
Chandrika Kumaratunga loyalist. He held the Ministry of
Finance in Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA) Government in
2004, but fell out of favor with President Rajapaksa in 2005
because his budget proposals did not fully support the
Mahinda Chintana ("Mahinda's Thoughts"). He also has served
as the Vice President of the United People's Freedom Alliance
(led by the SLFP),Deputy Secretary of the SLFP, and media
spokesman of the PA. Amunugama was first elected to
Parliament as a UNP MP in 1994. In 1999, he joined the PA.
In his civil service career, he served as Chairman of Lake
House, a state-owned newspaper group, Secretary to the
Ministry of Media and Tourism, and Government Agent of Kandy.
He also served as Secretary General of the Asian Media
Information and Communication center in Singapore and as
Director of Communication Development at UNESCO in Paris. In
1990, he spent a year as a visiting fellow at Harvard's
Department of Anthropology. He earned a degree in
Communication from the University of Regina in Canada in 1973
and completed his doctoral studies in anthropology in 1986 at
the University of Paris.

Bandula Gunewardena, Minister of Trade, Marketing
Development, Cooperatives and Consumer Affairs
-------------- --------------


12. (C) Bandula Gunewardena is a UNP MP and previous UNP
Minister for Rural Economy. He crossed over to the UNP from
the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (a socialist party allied with
the PA) with G.L. Peiris and others who accused Kumaratunga's
government of inefficiency and gross abuse of power. Since
joining the UNP, he has become an advocate of economic
liberalization. In 2006, he led a group of UNP MPs who
called for the appointment of a parliamentary select
committee to probe the conduct of Central Bank Governor
Cabraal and his alleged involvement in pyramid schemes. He
is expected to withdraw these charges now that he has joined
the Government. Prior to entering politics, Gunewardena was
an economics teacher.


P. Dayaratne, Minister of Plan Implementation
-------------- -


13. (C) P. Dayaratne has been a UNP MP since 1977. As part
of his new portfolio, he will oversee negotiations with the
Millennium Challenge Corporation. He has held various
cabinet portfolios in UNP governments since the 1970s,
including Power and Energy (1987),Lands, Mahaweli, and
Irrigation (1989),Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, and
Welfare (1991-1994) and Health, Nutrition, and Welfare
(2002-2004). Dayaratne comes from a Colombo suburb, but
represents the southeastern Ampara District in Parliament.
Before entering politics, he served as an engineer in the
civil service. Dayaratne is a graduate of Brighton Technical
College in the United Kingdom. He is married.

COMMENT: THE BIG TENT
--------------


14. (C) We eagerly anticipate the outcome of an opposition
effort to submit the new Cabinet to the Guinness Book of
World Records. It has been difficult enough to construct so
many ministerial portfolios; our favorite is the "Ministry of
Indigenous Medicine." It was telling that the opening
session of Parliament under the new arrangements broke out in
pandemonium when SLFP stalwarts and leaders of the smaller
parties revolted at being relegated to back benches to
accommodate the new, swollen ministerial ranks -- including
the UNP crossovers. There was a delay of about two hours
while an all-party ad-hoc committee sorted out the ruckus.
The first meeting of the full Cabinet also has been postponed

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indefinitely until a room large enough to accommodate the
group is located. Time will tell how solid the foundation of
the President's new majority is - but it is clear that it was
hard indeed to construct a roof capacious enough to cover it.
BLAKE