The agreement signed last week by Sri Lanka’s two main parties to cooperate on crucial problems facing the island, including the ethnic conflict and managing the economy, has been met with cautious optimism as well as scepticism.
Representatives of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), and the main opposition United National Party (UNP) signed the 10-clause cooperation accord to implement a four point common national agenda in a televised ceremony Monday last week.
The SLFP-UNP deal is to last for two years.
“We have all agreed here that the only way forward is a political solution to peace,” UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said after the signing ceremony.
“Without stability, the country cannot develop,” he added. “This agreement today is to achieve peace and a political solution to national question.”
Mr Wickremesinghe said the agreement sought to pave the way for a better political culture and environment where importance is given to gathering in harmony, discussing in harmony and dispersing in harmony.
President Mahinda Rajapakse declared: “we are moving in a new direction of political understanding and consensus, as seen in India and other countries.”
He then invited the two Sinhala nationalist parties, JVP and JHU – both of whom had crucially supported his presidential campaign in November 2005 – to also join the government.
“We have placed the country first,” President Rajapakse said. “With this coming together it would be possible to eliminate terrorism, and build a country at peace where all people can live together without fear.”
JHU parliamentary group leader Athuraliye Rathana told the BBC Sinhala service that his party supports the UNP-SLFP agreement as it united the Sinhalese.
The agreement was signed for the SLFP by General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena and for the UNP by Chairperson Malik Samarawickrema, with the ceremony taking place at the President's official residence in Colombo.
Under the agreement, the UNP will “extend support to the Government in the pursuit of a negotiated settlement to the on-going conflict.”
The common national agenda includes four identified issues: Conflict in the North & East, Electoral Reforms, Good Governance and Social Development
The proposed structure for collaboration, including the modalities for collaboration, will be “implemented at an early date after further direct discussion between the two Leaders and acceptance by the appropriate bodies of each of the two Parties’” the agreement stated.
The SLFP-UNP agreement is ‘significant’ reported Bloomberg.
“A bipartisan attempt to solve the longstanding ethnic conflict between the Sinhalese and the Tamils is an unprecedented innovation for Sri Lanka, which has tried all else – including armed intervention by neighbouring India and third-party mediation by Norway – without much success.”
“Bravo, They Did It,” said a Daily Mirror headline, while a Daily News editorial called it “a historic day in the post-independence political history of Sri Lanka.”
“This agreement helps bring about a convergence on a political solution, especially on power sharing, in the peace process,” said Jehan Perera, director of the National Peace Council, a Sri Lankan non-governmental peace advocacy organization.
“The government will be assured of a two-thirds majority in parliament to pass legislation when reaching agreement with the LTTE.”
“There's cautious optimism in the market that a common political agenda will add more weight in coming to a negotiated peace settlement,” Sriyan Gurusinghe, general manager at Ceylinco Stock Brokers Ltd. in Colombo, told Bloomberg.
But others were sceptical, with many arguing that whilst the bi-partisan concensus looks good on paper, it was doubtful it would last.
“We are closely watching [the two parties],” said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam.
A bipartisan approach is needed to stop the ethnic outbidding, he said, adding “[the agreement] will at least have the Sinhala leaders becoming a bit honest with their own people.”
India has also reacted with cautious optimism to the signing of the agreement.
The Indian assessment is that the agreement between the SLFP and the UNP is indeed crucial, but “it needs to be watched what and where it leads to,” the IANS news agency reported.
Norwegian development minister Eric Solheim welcomed the “move to build a southern consensus.”
The LTTE has in the past complained that unless the Sinhalese political parties made up their minds on how much they were willing to concede, it was impossible to negotiate.
