US embassy cable - 05COLOMBO426

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 000426 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS 
USPACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/24/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, CE, Political Parties, LTTE - Peace Process 
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA:  JVP PUMMELS GOVERNMENT NEGOTIATING 
OVERTURE; CWC SHEDS PORTFOLIOS 
 
REF: A. COLOMBO 404 
 
     B. COLOMBO 359 
 
Classified By: AMB JEFFREY J. LUNSTEAD.  REASON:  1.4 (B,D). 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1.  (SBU) Summary:  President Chandrika Kumaratunga's tenuous 
majority in Parliament looks shakier than ever after renewed 
threats from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) to quit the 
coalition and the decision by two Ceylon Workers Congress 
(CWC) ministers to resign from their posts.  Although both 
parties stopped short of withdrawing support from the 
government, these very public displays of partisan pouting 
are putting increased pressure on the troubled coalition. 
End summary. 
 
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JVP:  THIS TIME WE MEAN IT 
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2.  (U)  Government coalition partner Janatha Vimukthi 
Peramuna (JVP) is once again threatening to pull out of the 
United People's Front Alliance (UPFA) coalition 
government--this time to protest Peace Secretariat chief 
Jayantha Dhanapala's February 22 announcement of Government 
willingness to begin talks on an interim arrangement with the 
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) (Ref A).  Speaking in 
Parliament on February 24, JVP MP and Propaganda Secretary 
Wimal Weerawansa asserted that his party would quit the 
coalition if the Government began discussions with the Tigers 
on their controversial proposal for an Interim Self-Governing 
Authority (ISGA).  (Note:  Dhanapala's statement, which 
appeared on a government website February 23, did not refer 
to ISGA specifically.  End note.)  He emphasized that the JVP 
had not been consulted before Dhanapala made the 
announcement, a lapse Weerawansa described as a violation of 
the coalition agreement between the leftist JVP and President 
Kumaratunga's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).  Weerawansa's 
warning was followed by a JVP press conference later in the 
day, in which he, flanked by hard-line MP Nanda Gunatilleke 
and party Secretary Tilvin Silva, lashed out at the 
government for making unilateral decisions without consulting 
its coalition partner.  The JVP does not oppose negotiations 
with the LTTE, Silva said--just negotiations focusing on an 
interim arrangement, which the party has long maintained 
would open the door to a de facto separate state in the north 
and east.  Any talks on an interim arrangement must occur in 
tandem with discussion of a final settlement, the trio 
stressed. 
 
3.  (C)  JVP MP and Culture Minister Vijitha Herath confirmed 
to us on February 25 his party's displeasure at Dhanapala's 
statement.  Agreeing to talk about ISGA is tantamount to 
agreeing to a blueprint for a separate state, he said, to 
which the JVP would never agree.  Dhanapala's announcement 
was a "national decision" on which the JVP, as the largest 
partner in the UPFA, should have been consulted.  When 
reminded that the JVP has threatened to leave the coalition a 
number of times before (Ref B), Herath conceded the point but 
stressed that this time his party was "very firm" in its 
commitment to follow through if the Government ignores its 
concerns.  Information Minister and presidential confidant 
Mangala Samaraweera had been in discussions with JVP leaders 
until midnight that day trying to sort out the differences, 
Herath said, to no avail.  The JVP was incensed by the 
President's "my-way-or-the-highway" ultimatum (Ref B) in a 
public address earlier in the month--and had tried 
unsuccessfully to extract a retraction--and now saw the 
coalition in deep crisis, he indicated.  "We are headed for a 
political tsunami," Herath concluded. 
 
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CWC, IN PLAYGROUND DISPUTE, 
OPTS TO STOP PLAYING 
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4.  (U) The JVP's very public display of impatience with the 
Government coincided with a decision the same day by Ceylon 
Workers Congress (CWC) MPs Muthu Sivalingam and M.S. 
Sellasamy to resign from their positions as Minister and 
Deputy Minister, respectively, of Estate Housing, 
Infrastructure and Community Development.  The two MPs have 
an appointment to meet the President on February 28.  Despite 
the resignations, the CWC stopped short of formally 
withdrawing the support of its eight MPs from the government. 
5.  (C)  Sivalingam told us on February 25 that he had 
tendered his resignation because of a playground dispute. 
According to Sivalingam, he had sponsored the construction of 
a playground in Nuwara Eliya District, CWC's traditional 
stronghold, only to have the Government give the credit for 
the project--and the honor of presiding over its opening--to 
a rival Tamil politician.  There is no point in holding a 
Cabinet post, Sivalingam lamented, if the Government ignores 
him. 
 
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COMMENT 
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6.  (C) Since the tsunami, concerns about maintaining her 
fragile coalition and appeasing her contentious partner 
appear to have faded into the background for President 
Kumaratunga.  If the JVP was looking for the President to 
back-pedal on some of her recent tough replies to its chronic 
complaints, it must be disappointed.  Dhanapala's February 22 
statement, with its reference to an "interim arrangement" was 
a reiteration of what the President has been saying for 
months.  The JVP, however, has taken it as a direct 
challenge.  The coalition partner has threatened to walk out 
numerous times before, but this latest falling-out cuts to 
the core of JVP efforts to pose as last-ditch defender of 
Sinhalese nationalism.  It remains to be seen whether these 
former Marxist insurgents remain "firm" in their most recent 
ultimatum to the President, since the common analysis is that 
the JVP benefits in the long term by staying in the 
coalition. 
 
LUNSTEAD