Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has three months more to stay at the presidential residence before giving way to the new incumbent. As the country prepares for yet another national poll - the second in less than two years after the April 2004 parliamentary

elections - Kumaratunga’s fate has become the talking point. Presidential polls must be held this year. The Supreme Court announced that Kumaratunga’s term end on Dec. 22, six years after her 1999 election, and that an election be called before that. Why are people discussing Kumaratunga’s fate? There is a view that the private media is partly controlled by the opposition UNP - hence the continuous Kumaratunga bashing.

Junius Richard Jayewardene was the first executive president after he chartered a new constitution when his UNP won in 1977. Jayewardene served two terms and then handed over to his deputy, Ranasinghe Premadasa who won the presidential poll in the early 1990s. Premadasa was better known for crushing a revolt by the Marxist People’s Liberation Front or JVP by using ruthless tactics in which thousands died. In the prime of his political career, Premadasa was killed by a Tamil rebel on May 1, 1993. Jayewardene, who had retired from politics, died at his Colombo home.

Dingiri Banda Wijetunga, the prime minister, then took over from the slain Premadasa to complete the final two years of the latter’s term. Wijetunge gracefully gave over to Kumaratunga in 1994. Now it is Kumaratunga’s turn to retire. Being just 60 years, the incumbent president is seen planning to create space for herself. Kumaratunga may be allowed to remain in the high-security presidential mansion by whoever becomes the new president, i.e., PM Mahinda Rajapakse, candidate from the ruling alliance or opposition lea-der Ranil Wickremesinghe. The president is LTTE’s prime target. She lost an eye in an LTTE attack just before the 1999 poll. Some say she would retire and serve the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) as an elder states-woman while others say that she would come back to parliament as a potential PM or opposition leader. Kumaratunga’s ride to fame has not been easy. Daughter of two former prime ministers, she has seen her father get assassinated; her husband gunned down by suspected JVP militants and herself escaping death at the hands of the LTTE.

Soon after her husband Vijaya was killed in the 1980s, she fled to the UK with her two children and returned in mid-1990 to take over the SLFP. Her two children have completed their university education in Britain. Her son Vimukthi’s appearance at a recent press conference to discuss animal rights has triggered speculation that Kumara-tunga is grooming him. Kumaratunga’s security is a worrisome issue. She needs all the security necessary to thwart any LTTE threat. On the other hand the security issue might also restrict any future political rule. The Elections Commissioner is expected to announce the poll date. When that happens the chances are that Kumaratunga will not be the focus of attention and for the moment go off the public radar.

Samath, a freelancer, wri-tes for THT from Colombo