Sri Lanka's minority government Wednesday entered into a deal with a Marxist party to halt privatisation and introduce sweeping reforms in exchange for support it needs to survive.
The People's Alliance (PA) of President Chandrika Kumaratunga signed a nine-page agreement with the leftist JVP, or People's Liberation Front, that will place the government in a "probationary" status for one year.
PA general secretary D. M. Jayaratne, who signed on behalf of the ruling coalition, warned that it may not be able to implement "every single full stop and a comma" in the agreement.
"We are in a rapidly changing society and clauses in this agreement will need change as we go along," Jayaratne said at a ceremony where he exchanged the agreement with the his JVP counterpart Tilvin Silva.
"We hope you will help us to modify and carry forward this agreement," Jayaratne said.
The final agreement was not immediately released, but the JVP said it contained conditions including a halt to privatisation and fresh elections within a year under a neutral caretaker government.
"This is a historic step we have taken today because it is the first time a political party has entered into a pact with a government without seeking any positions for itself in return," Silva said.
He said the JVP believed it was in a position to force the government to press ahead with democratic reforms and "defeat a conspiracy in parliament by reactionary forces."
The JVP is insisting that the government put in place five independent commissions to run the civil service, judiciary, police, elections department and state-run media organisations.
The JVP's parliamentary group leader Wimal Weerawansa said the party will immediately pull out of the deal if the government reneges on any of the agreements entered into Wednesday.
"We will have no cabinet portfolios to leave. so it will be easy for us to quit this agreement if the government is not sincere," Weerawansa said.
A senior government minister at the ceremony, where the two sides exchanged signed copies of the agreement, said the government had the services of the "best legal brains" and the JVP was locked into a deal.
Another senior minister, Richard Pathirana who holds the public administration portfolio, said the JVP's agreement was forcing the government to implement what it had promised seven years ago.
"They have reminded us of the [socialist] promises we made before we came to power in 1994," Pathirana said. "So it will not be difficult for us to implement these things because we already identify ourselves with them."
The JVP insists that there can be no new commitments made to international lending agencies.
The leftists also want the government to hold parliamentary elections by next September, but state media reports Wednesday quoted the president as saying there will be no elections in the next few years.
A JVP source said one of the key conditions was the pruning of the 44-member cabinet to 20 and that it must be done by September 12. The demand has caused serious dissension within ruling party ranks.
Several ministers who have already publicly crossed swords with Kumaratunga were conspicuous by their absence at the PA-JVP signing of the coalition agreement.
The People's Alliance government came to power following October 2000 parliamentary elections, cobbling together a shaky coalition with two minority parties.
However, with the defection of seven legislators in June, her government became a minority in parliament and Kumaratunga suspended parliament to avoid a no-confidence vote -- COLOMBO (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
