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Empowering political pact

The Memorandum of Understanding signed by the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the opposition United National Party is a political breakthrough of the first order. Meant to be operational until October 2008, this bipartisan agreement on "key issues vital for the well being" of the island nation has the potential to herald a new era of peace and development. The coming together of the two main political forces in Sri Lanka bucks the long-term trend. The politics of reflexively negative, disruptive, opposition has reinforced majoritarianism; and been a major contributor to the worsening of the ethnic conflict over half a century. Full credit must go to the UNP leader and former Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, for investing his faith in President Mahinda Rajapaksa notwithstanding repeated poaching by the ruling party into the ranks of UNP parliamentarians. The accord provides scope for Mr. Rajapaksa to move away from the conservative-nationalist policy framework that brought him to the presidency in November 2005 with the aid of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the Janatha Hela Urumaya. It empowers his government to forge a national consensus in Parliament on issues like power sharing to address the genuine grievances of Sri Lankan Tamils and also to initiate measures for economic and electoral reforms, good governance, and social development.

The accord could not have come at a better time. With the LTTE stepping up its campaign of terrorism and provoking deadly counter-attacks from the state, the JVP has been busy mustering street support against the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement and the internationally backed Norwegian mediation. The MoU will boost both the confidence and the stock of the Government team as it prepares to go into a fresh round of talks with the LTTE in Geneva on October 28 and 29. The absence of a southern consensus on Sri Lanka's principal national challenge, the Tamil question, has continually provided the Tigers the oxygen to take on the Sri Lankan state. The political breakthrough in the South will empower the government team to demand a serious discussion on devolution of power and also on subjects such as political plurality and human rights in the territories controlled by the LTTE. The MoU includes a tentative agreement on the ethnic issue; this is to be settled by the two main Sinhala parties after further discussion and wider consultation. The promising agreement identifies six subjects, including defence and foreign affairs, as constituting the exclusive domain of the central government and leaves the rest to the jurisdiction of `regional administrators.' As Mr. Wickremesinghe noted at the MoU signature function, such political events are rare in this part of the world.

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