DESPITE JVP PROTESTS PRESIDENT KUMARATUNGA IS LIKELY TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF CABINET MINISTERS AGAIN FOR CWC
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
May 31, 10.45 AM: Amidst, the main partner of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) writing letters of warning against increasing Ministerial positions in the cabinet the government is likely to increase the number by another two, according to Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) sources in Colombo.
The sources said that it was most likely that President Chandrika Kumaratunga might increase the cabinet posts by another two since Arumugam Thondaman led Indian origin Tamils’ party is strongly contemplating to leave the UNP led opposition coalition and join the government very soon.
The volley of criticism that was fired at the President by the JVP after she last week increased the positions of the cabinet from 35 to 37, said it was a violation of the MOU signed between the two major governing parties.
But commentators in Colombo, said the government of President Kumaratunga was left without any alternative other than to seek help from small ethnic parties like the CWC, after the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) that had many disagreements with the government from their proposal to release from jail of a bookie owner and a capitalist with connections to the underworld, who heavily funded the JHU to the election of the Speaker of the parliament. The government backbenchers have been clashing in very acrimonious debates with the JHU monk parliamentarians in the House, since the election of the Speaker. The JHU, despite its attempts to down play the alleged connections with the UNP was closely identified with the UNP after their support helped the UNP candidate win the election to the post of Speaker.
According to the sources, the CWC will be offered two ministerial positions to join the government. The joining of the CWC is expected to be announced after CWC leader Arumugam Thondaman’s arrival in Colombo from his visit to India, the sources said. The government would most likely to abandon the Upper Kotmale Hydro Power scheme that caused the ire of the CWC as a condition to their support, same sources said.
