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UNP drops Federal concept-Party ‘repositioning’ itself – Ravi

Courtesy The Island 26-09-2007

UNP parliamentarian and Colombo District leader Ravi Karunanayake yesterday confirmed that there was a policy shift in the UNP on the ethnic issue.

The UNP will be abandoning its federalist stand and abrogating the Oslo declaration. It will also be reviewing the 2004 Ceasefire Agreement in order to suit the present ground situation.

This decision has not been ratified or even discussed at the UNP Political Affairs Committee or the Working Committee as yet.

However, Karunanayake confirmed that the policy shift is under serious consideration and that party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had proposed the change in the stand of the UNP at the commemoration of the 101st birth anniversary of J. R. Jayewardene held last week.

Karunanayake categorized this policy shift as a case of the UNP "repositioning" itself.

When asked whether this was not an opportunistic shift of policy, Karunanayake said that it was not so because it is the UNP that had made representations to the All Party Representatives Committee to the effect that it should not get bogged down over semantics.

Karunanayake stressed that it was necessary for the UNP to "reposition" itself with regard to the ethnic issue because the way the public perceived what they said had resulted in repeated defeats.

Our sources indicate there is wide spread support for this policy shift within the UNP.

The UNP yesterday said it had never proposed Federalism as a solution to the national issue. It was for devolution of power to the maximum possible level while protecting the rights of all ethnic groups, Colombo District UNP Parliamentarian Ravi Karunanayake told a press conference at the office of the Leader of the Opposition. It was vital to find a political solution to the problem in the North and East without conceding even an inch of land to the LTTE, he stressed.

"We had never come to an agreement with the LTTE or any other party to go for a Federal solution and the UNP had never accepted or proposed a Federal solution to the problem of the North and East. It was only a creation by the media and not by us," he said.

"Our party stands for maximum devolution of power and when the Ceasefire Agreement was signed by the UNP government of 2001 we did not have a Federal solution in mind, but only a mode of maximum devolution of power to solve the problem," he said.

He said the UNP was always prepared to amend the CFA or to go for any change within these ambits to arrive at a solution to the problem. The UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had briefed the diplomatic community in Colombo, yesterday on the political solution of the UNP to settle the ethnic problem, he said.

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