While calling for unity among southern political parties on the national question, Sri Lanka’s government succeeded last week in enticing defections from the main opposition, sparking fresh acrimony between the island’s two biggest parties amidst ongoing horsetrading with smaller parties.
Two senior United National Party (UNP) parliamentarians crossed over to and join the United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government Wednesday last week – the day Norwegian peacebrokers declared that the government and the Liberation Tigers would soon resume negotiations in Geneva.
The defections prompted UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to suspend his party’s support for the government’s peace efforts and to threaten to withdraw it if President Mahinda Rajapakse continued to poach his MPs.
UNP Deputy General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said the UNP has resolved to reconsider the support they pledged the government at the recent All-Party Conference to discuss Sri Lanka’s conflict.
“There is no use of our support to them in this situation,” an outraged Mr. Attanayake told the Daily Mirror.
Some analysts suggest that were enough UNP parliamentarians to be tempted into the government, the UNP may withdraw its entire support for the peace process and limit any progress possible from the Geneva talks.
However, other analysts argue that conversely, if enough UNP MPs cross over to the government, President Rajapakse’s alliances with extremist Sinhala nationalist parties could become redundant.
Sri Lanka’s power structures could change further if the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) joins the government coalition, a move which the upcountry party is seriously considering according to press reports.
Optimists argue if President Rajapakse were able to form enough of a coalition with his SLFP MPs and UNP defectors (and possibly even defectors from the Sinhala nationalist parties), the minority government could regain some stability with which to undertake peace talks.
However, Attanayake said stern action will be taken against dissident MPs to discourage future crossovers.
Despite Wickremesinghe’s warning over the peace process and Attanayake’s threats, The Island newspaper cited informed sources close to the President as saying other UNP parliamentarians will be joining the government in the near future, with the President saying he expected to have a two thirds majority in Parliament within a very short time.
Press reports speculated that ten more UNP parliamentarians have expressed their desire to join the government, among them Ratnapura District MP Susanthe Punchinileme and Dharmadasa Banda.
UNP stalwarts Mahinda Samarasinghe and Keheliya Rambukwella joined the UPFA government and were sworn in before President Mahinda Rajapakse as Cabinet Ministers.
Mr. Samarasinghe, a former senior UNP minister and until last week the Opposition’s Chief Whip is now the government’s Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights, while Mr. Rambukwella, a Kandy District UNP frontline parliamentarian, was sworn in as Minister for Policy Planning and Implementation.
News reports also said that though former government negotiator Professor G.L Peiris was keen to cross over to the UPFA, there was strong opposition from a government ally.
Mr Peiris had been a member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) – the largest party in the present ruling coalition - before he crossed over to join the UNP in 2001.
However, the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) allegedly opposed Mr. Peiris joining the UPFA government, arguing that he is a staunch sympathizer of NGOs and ‘a supporter of separatist politics’.
Interestingly, the JVP, whilst a key campaign partner of newly elected President Rajapakse, is not actually in the ruling coalition.
The UNP responded to the defections last week by sacking the two parliamentarians who crossed the floor, having earlier warned that tough disciplinary action would be taken against anyone who violated the party constitution.
The UNP’s Assistant General Secretary Tissa Attanayake, a confidant of party leader Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, was quoted by the Daily Mirror as warning other dissidents they would be taught a bitter lesson not only by the party but also by the people.
Mr. Attanayake said Mr. Wickremesinghe had met the dissidents, discussed their grievances and was ready to address some of those problems.
“The dissidents are planning to join the government solely for personal gain and their claim that they are supporting the President for a national cause is mere eyewash,” Mr. Attanayake said.
“There have been such crossovers earlier. Such people do not last long in politics. Earlier, some UNP MPs crossed over to the government. Of them only Sarath Amunugama is surviving in politics today. Party supporters at the grassroots level do not approve such selfish acts,” Mr. Attanayake said.
Mr. Attanayake also said those who crossed over had been bribed, and had not done so for altruistic reasons as claimed by one of the parliamentarians who crossed the floor.
"One of the MPs justified the decision to join the government saying they did it for the good of the country,” he said, referring to a statement by Mr. Rambukwella that the dissident group decided to cross over “mainly to support President Mahinda Rajapakse in his quest for peace and to support him in other issues of national importance”.
“Now, ten vehicles had been ordered to be used by them in the government. Is this the way of building the country according to a national programme," he asked bitterly.
The UNP, in turn, is attempting to tempt defections from the ruling coalition. The UNP has decided to revive the United National Front (UNF) in a bid to attract loyalists of former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, reported the Sunday Times.
The UNP’s policymaking working committee and the parliamentary group at an emergency meeting on Thursday following the defection of two top MPs decided to broaden the base the party by reviving the UNF which could potentially include the Ceylon Workers Congress and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress.
Party sources told the Times they hoped to respond to Rajapakse’s tactics by attracting Kumaratunga loyalists such as Dilan Perera, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Lasantha Alagiyawanna and Mervyn Silva.
According to a resolution adopted by the working committee, the proposed UNF would include leftist parties that did not agree with the UNP''s open economic policies, but agreed with its approach to the ethnic conflict, the paper said.
On that point, the UNP suspended its decision to withdraw its support for the government’s peace efforts, saying it would adopt a wait-and-see approach, the Sunday Times said.
But other points of friction are emerging, not least because there are certain conditions the UNP is attaching to its “unconditional support” for the peace process.
For a start, the UNP is protesting the use of the 2004 electoral register for the upcoming local government elections. This was used for the presidential election in November 2005 and was considered faulty, according to UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya.
98,532 electors were unable to vote due to the errors and island-wide five to ten percent were not registered, according to The Island newspaper.
The UNP has requested President Rajapakse to postpone the local government elections by 90 days so an updated electoral register could be used instead. The UNP has begun enacting legal action against the government to prohibit the use of the 2004 register.
Secretary General of the UNP, N. V. K. K. Weragoda, filed a writ application requesting the Sri Lanka Court to compel the Commissioner of Elections to postpone polls, till the completion of the registers, including the names of all the electors who are eligible to vote.
Meanwhile, President Rajapakse met CWC leader Arumugam Thondaman last Friday. During the meeting Thondaman agreed to consider extending his support to the government after the forthcoming local government polls, government sources told The Daily Mirror.
Sources told The Daily Mirror that the CWC leader, who had returned from India Friday morning, had been advised by the Indian government to hold talks with Rajapakse to smooth over their differences.
During the meeting, the President reportedly invited the CWC leader to join the government and Mr. Thondaman had said that the CWC felt that it was appropriate to align with the UNP at the upcoming local polls since plantation workers had overwhelmingly supported the UNP candidate in last November’s presidential elections.
The CWC leader had said that he would therefore make moves towards joining the government after the local polls. However, it is uncertain what the future of this alliance would be if the UNP withdraws its support for the peace process over the defections.
This potential alliance comes as the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka (MCSL), an umbrella organization for 58 Muslim organizations in the country expressed its disappointment over President Rajapakse''s rejection of a Muslim delegation at peace talks.
Press reports said that President Rajapakse had told the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), once the island’s largest Muslim party, but now a rump organisation after a series of splits and defections, that forthcoming peace talks would be bilateral – between his government and the LTTE.
Two senior United National Party (UNP) parliamentarians crossed over to and join the United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government Wednesday last week – the day Norwegian peacebrokers declared that the government and the Liberation Tigers would soon resume negotiations in Geneva.
The defections prompted UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to suspend his party’s support for the government’s peace efforts and to threaten to withdraw it if President Mahinda Rajapakse continued to poach his MPs.
UNP Deputy General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said the UNP has resolved to reconsider the support they pledged the government at the recent All-Party Conference to discuss Sri Lanka’s conflict.
“There is no use of our support to them in this situation,” an outraged Mr. Attanayake told the Daily Mirror.
Some analysts suggest that were enough UNP parliamentarians to be tempted into the government, the UNP may withdraw its entire support for the peace process and limit any progress possible from the Geneva talks.
However, other analysts argue that conversely, if enough UNP MPs cross over to the government, President Rajapakse’s alliances with extremist Sinhala nationalist parties could become redundant.
Sri Lanka’s power structures could change further if the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) joins the government coalition, a move which the upcountry party is seriously considering according to press reports.
Optimists argue if President Rajapakse were able to form enough of a coalition with his SLFP MPs and UNP defectors (and possibly even defectors from the Sinhala nationalist parties), the minority government could regain some stability with which to undertake peace talks.
However, Attanayake said stern action will be taken against dissident MPs to discourage future crossovers.
Despite Wickremesinghe’s warning over the peace process and Attanayake’s threats, The Island newspaper cited informed sources close to the President as saying other UNP parliamentarians will be joining the government in the near future, with the President saying he expected to have a two thirds majority in Parliament within a very short time.
Press reports speculated that ten more UNP parliamentarians have expressed their desire to join the government, among them Ratnapura District MP Susanthe Punchinileme and Dharmadasa Banda.
UNP stalwarts Mahinda Samarasinghe and Keheliya Rambukwella joined the UPFA government and were sworn in before President Mahinda Rajapakse as Cabinet Ministers.
Mr. Samarasinghe, a former senior UNP minister and until last week the Opposition’s Chief Whip is now the government’s Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights, while Mr. Rambukwella, a Kandy District UNP frontline parliamentarian, was sworn in as Minister for Policy Planning and Implementation.
News reports also said that though former government negotiator Professor G.L Peiris was keen to cross over to the UPFA, there was strong opposition from a government ally.
Mr Peiris had been a member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) – the largest party in the present ruling coalition - before he crossed over to join the UNP in 2001.
However, the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) allegedly opposed Mr. Peiris joining the UPFA government, arguing that he is a staunch sympathizer of NGOs and ‘a supporter of separatist politics’.
Interestingly, the JVP, whilst a key campaign partner of newly elected President Rajapakse, is not actually in the ruling coalition.
The UNP responded to the defections last week by sacking the two parliamentarians who crossed the floor, having earlier warned that tough disciplinary action would be taken against anyone who violated the party constitution.
The UNP’s Assistant General Secretary Tissa Attanayake, a confidant of party leader Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, was quoted by the Daily Mirror as warning other dissidents they would be taught a bitter lesson not only by the party but also by the people.
Mr. Attanayake said Mr. Wickremesinghe had met the dissidents, discussed their grievances and was ready to address some of those problems.
“The dissidents are planning to join the government solely for personal gain and their claim that they are supporting the President for a national cause is mere eyewash,” Mr. Attanayake said.
“There have been such crossovers earlier. Such people do not last long in politics. Earlier, some UNP MPs crossed over to the government. Of them only Sarath Amunugama is surviving in politics today. Party supporters at the grassroots level do not approve such selfish acts,” Mr. Attanayake said.
Mr. Attanayake also said those who crossed over had been bribed, and had not done so for altruistic reasons as claimed by one of the parliamentarians who crossed the floor.
"One of the MPs justified the decision to join the government saying they did it for the good of the country,” he said, referring to a statement by Mr. Rambukwella that the dissident group decided to cross over “mainly to support President Mahinda Rajapakse in his quest for peace and to support him in other issues of national importance”.
“Now, ten vehicles had been ordered to be used by them in the government. Is this the way of building the country according to a national programme," he asked bitterly.
The UNP, in turn, is attempting to tempt defections from the ruling coalition. The UNP has decided to revive the United National Front (UNF) in a bid to attract loyalists of former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, reported the Sunday Times.
The UNP’s policymaking working committee and the parliamentary group at an emergency meeting on Thursday following the defection of two top MPs decided to broaden the base the party by reviving the UNF which could potentially include the Ceylon Workers Congress and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress.
Party sources told the Times they hoped to respond to Rajapakse’s tactics by attracting Kumaratunga loyalists such as Dilan Perera, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Lasantha Alagiyawanna and Mervyn Silva.
According to a resolution adopted by the working committee, the proposed UNF would include leftist parties that did not agree with the UNP''s open economic policies, but agreed with its approach to the ethnic conflict, the paper said.
On that point, the UNP suspended its decision to withdraw its support for the government’s peace efforts, saying it would adopt a wait-and-see approach, the Sunday Times said.
But other points of friction are emerging, not least because there are certain conditions the UNP is attaching to its “unconditional support” for the peace process.
For a start, the UNP is protesting the use of the 2004 electoral register for the upcoming local government elections. This was used for the presidential election in November 2005 and was considered faulty, according to UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya.
98,532 electors were unable to vote due to the errors and island-wide five to ten percent were not registered, according to The Island newspaper.
The UNP has requested President Rajapakse to postpone the local government elections by 90 days so an updated electoral register could be used instead. The UNP has begun enacting legal action against the government to prohibit the use of the 2004 register.
Secretary General of the UNP, N. V. K. K. Weragoda, filed a writ application requesting the Sri Lanka Court to compel the Commissioner of Elections to postpone polls, till the completion of the registers, including the names of all the electors who are eligible to vote.
Meanwhile, President Rajapakse met CWC leader Arumugam Thondaman last Friday. During the meeting Thondaman agreed to consider extending his support to the government after the forthcoming local government polls, government sources told The Daily Mirror.
Sources told The Daily Mirror that the CWC leader, who had returned from India Friday morning, had been advised by the Indian government to hold talks with Rajapakse to smooth over their differences.
During the meeting, the President reportedly invited the CWC leader to join the government and Mr. Thondaman had said that the CWC felt that it was appropriate to align with the UNP at the upcoming local polls since plantation workers had overwhelmingly supported the UNP candidate in last November’s presidential elections.
The CWC leader had said that he would therefore make moves towards joining the government after the local polls. However, it is uncertain what the future of this alliance would be if the UNP withdraws its support for the peace process over the defections.
This potential alliance comes as the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka (MCSL), an umbrella organization for 58 Muslim organizations in the country expressed its disappointment over President Rajapakse''s rejection of a Muslim delegation at peace talks.
Press reports said that President Rajapakse had told the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), once the island’s largest Muslim party, but now a rump organisation after a series of splits and defections, that forthcoming peace talks would be bilateral – between his government and the LTTE.
