A fresh attempt to hammer out a bipartisan Sinhala approach to Sri Lanka’s drawn out the ethnic conflict ended abruptly with the defection of an opposition legislator to the government.
Following renewed pressure from India, President Mahinda Rajapakse met with United National Party (UNP) opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe last week to agree on a common approach to the festering conflict, but the initiative failed.
“The opposition leader did not know that even as they met, the government had secured the defection of one of his MPs,” UNP parliament Joseph Perera said. “So how can we work like this?”
“We cannot accept this double dealing and we cannot support the government anymore.”
Minutes before the meeting, Rajapakse gave a minister post to UNP legislator Susantha Punchinilame who had defected to the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
Analysts say a settlement with the Tamil Tigers to end the decades old ethnic conflict requires an amendment to the constitution and that would mean bipartisan support for the two thirds majority needed in parliament.
The failed effort came as Sri Lanka’s political parties were under pressure from the island’s foreign backers to end the searatist conflict.
The meeting between Rajapakse and Wickremesinghe came a day after outgoing US Ambassador Jeffrey J. Lunstead said that a solution to civil strife would require “radical changes in the way the entire nation is governed.”
Last week a top Indian offical flew to Colombo to press President Rajapakse and Mr. Wickremesinghe to cooperate towards shaping a powersharing proposal.
India’s External Affairs Ministry Secretary Shyam Saran came on Monday with a message from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to both men, press reports said.
Mr. Saran said India supported a negotiated political settlement to the conflict. India’s concerns with regard to Tamil civilians and their right to life was also expressed, reports said.
However, 24 hours after Mr. Saran left, the President moved instead to woo more UNP MPs to his benches to bolster his parliamentary majority, even though the UNP had warned him any such attempt to lure crossovers at a time they were meant to be cooperating with him to arrive at a solution to the ethnic crisis would irredeemably damage their relationship.
After the poaching of another UNP MP on Thursday, the fourth this year, the UNP has now informed India that “there is a complete breakdown of trust between it and the government and it will not be possible to work with President Rajapakse on the peace process,” a pro-UNP broadsheet said Sunday.
The UNP thinking was communicated to both the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo Nirupama Rao and New Delhi on Friday, The Sunday Leader said.
President Rajapaksa has called an all-party meeting for Tuesday to work out devolution proposals but with the UNP now boycotting the meeting and Rajapakse’s Sinhala nationalist allies scoffing at it, question marks have arisen over the exercise, the Sunday Times said.
A representative of each political party taking part in the long running, but utterly inconclusive All-Party Conference has been invited together with a 15-member multi-ethnic advisory board for the inaugural meeting chaired by President Rajapaksa on Tuesday.
However, without the support of the UNP and the ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP), the proposals are not going to pass parliament, unless they are very weak– in which case it will be rejected by the Tamils.
Mr. Saran had told President Rajapakse devolving powers to the Tamils was key if Sri Lanka was to raise its head from the spectre of war. To this end, Mr. Saran had offered India’s constitutional expertise.
Following renewed pressure from India, President Mahinda Rajapakse met with United National Party (UNP) opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe last week to agree on a common approach to the festering conflict, but the initiative failed.
“The opposition leader did not know that even as they met, the government had secured the defection of one of his MPs,” UNP parliament Joseph Perera said. “So how can we work like this?”
“We cannot accept this double dealing and we cannot support the government anymore.”
Minutes before the meeting, Rajapakse gave a minister post to UNP legislator Susantha Punchinilame who had defected to the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
Analysts say a settlement with the Tamil Tigers to end the decades old ethnic conflict requires an amendment to the constitution and that would mean bipartisan support for the two thirds majority needed in parliament.
The failed effort came as Sri Lanka’s political parties were under pressure from the island’s foreign backers to end the searatist conflict.
The meeting between Rajapakse and Wickremesinghe came a day after outgoing US Ambassador Jeffrey J. Lunstead said that a solution to civil strife would require “radical changes in the way the entire nation is governed.”
Last week a top Indian offical flew to Colombo to press President Rajapakse and Mr. Wickremesinghe to cooperate towards shaping a powersharing proposal.
India’s External Affairs Ministry Secretary Shyam Saran came on Monday with a message from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to both men, press reports said.
Mr. Saran said India supported a negotiated political settlement to the conflict. India’s concerns with regard to Tamil civilians and their right to life was also expressed, reports said.
However, 24 hours after Mr. Saran left, the President moved instead to woo more UNP MPs to his benches to bolster his parliamentary majority, even though the UNP had warned him any such attempt to lure crossovers at a time they were meant to be cooperating with him to arrive at a solution to the ethnic crisis would irredeemably damage their relationship.
After the poaching of another UNP MP on Thursday, the fourth this year, the UNP has now informed India that “there is a complete breakdown of trust between it and the government and it will not be possible to work with President Rajapakse on the peace process,” a pro-UNP broadsheet said Sunday.
The UNP thinking was communicated to both the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo Nirupama Rao and New Delhi on Friday, The Sunday Leader said.
President Rajapaksa has called an all-party meeting for Tuesday to work out devolution proposals but with the UNP now boycotting the meeting and Rajapakse’s Sinhala nationalist allies scoffing at it, question marks have arisen over the exercise, the Sunday Times said.
A representative of each political party taking part in the long running, but utterly inconclusive All-Party Conference has been invited together with a 15-member multi-ethnic advisory board for the inaugural meeting chaired by President Rajapaksa on Tuesday.
However, without the support of the UNP and the ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP), the proposals are not going to pass parliament, unless they are very weak– in which case it will be rejected by the Tamils.
Mr. Saran had told President Rajapakse devolving powers to the Tamils was key if Sri Lanka was to raise its head from the spectre of war. To this end, Mr. Saran had offered India’s constitutional expertise.
