UDUWE DHAMMALOKA SAYS THAT JHU WOULD TOPPLE THE GOVERNMENT BY JOINING LTTE PROXY PARTY AND THE UNP
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
June 09, 10.00 PM:The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the political party headed by Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka, pledged that it would topple the two-months old United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government headed by President Chandrika Kumaratunga by getting together with the united opposition that included the proxy party of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the United National Party (UNP).
JHU spokesman Uduwe Dhammaloka who is a Buddhist monk legislator said his party would join the united opposition to topple the government by changing its former decision to support or oppose the government on an issue-by-issue basis.
The JHU that campaigned at the last general elections against the LTTE would become strange bedfellows in politics with the proxy party of the LTTE, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in toppling the UPFA government together .
Even before receiving the support of the JHU “the joint opposition, parties including 22 of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) holds the majority in parliament (115 seats),” the Tamil Net news website of the LTTE recently claimed. Political commentators in Colombo said that the Buddhist monks who held a crucial margin would definitely be able to topple the government in parliament.
The government is short of five members of the House for a clear majority and the Buddhist monk’s party is having nine members in parliament.
In the 225 member Sri Lanka parliament any government should have a majority of 113 members. In the midst of this crisis the main junior partner of the UPFA government , the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) making a concession to the government dropped their earlier demand that the country’s cabinet should be limited to only 35 , making room for the government to offer portfolios to woo opposition political parties to join the government.
The negotiations with the eight MP’s strong Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) a political party of the Indian origin Tamils , by Minister Mangala Samaraweera reportedly failed last week since their price to join was too high to meet.
During the election campaign, it was openly alleged that the opposition United National Party invested some of their funds for JHU to cut into the pro-Sinhala Buddhist votes that might go to the UPFA. At the same time , JHU monk Uduwe Dhammaloka has been maintaining close relations with the UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe , long before the JHU was formed, just before the last general elections.
Though the JHU and the government earlier had discussions , some of the demands could not be met, sources close to the government said. One demand, the sources said , was to release from remand jail a businessman with underworld connections and who funded the JHU heavily. The JHU later denied having made the demand.
The JHU said it was joining the joint opposition after two of their parliamentarians were injured during a clash in the parliament June 8 over the swearing in of a replacement MP while there was a court order restraining it. The two monks, a sitting member and the new monk who took part in the swearing in were allegedly injured and admitted to a hospital .
Ever since the JHU entered the parliament they were openly supporting the UNP and the UNP candidate was elected as the Speaker with their support. So, the announcement that they would join the joint opposition to topple the government came as no surprise.
At a separate news conference Trade Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle said that the government was ready to face another general elections to receive a fresh mandate from the people. Wimal Wimalawansa, the leader of the JVP parliamentary group said they would also support the proposal for new general elections.
The parliament cannot be dissolved until one year elapses from a general elections. If the government is toppled the UNP will be forced to form a government with the JHU, SLMC, CWC and the Tamil national Alliance.
