Tuesday 13th October, 2026
The Opposition and the government engaged in an interesting thrust and parry over secret political deals in Parliament the other day. SJB MP Mujibur Rahman lashed out at the JVP, accusing it of having struck a deal with what he described as the corrupt political forces and helped them rise to power in 2005. He argued that the JVP’s political history was replete with similar deals.
Prime Minister Dr Harini Amarasuriya promptly stuck her oar in to defend the JVP, arguing that even if the SJB’s points were conceded for the sake of argument, the JVP had never struck secret political deals under cover of darkness, unlike its critics in the Opposition. But history tells a different story. The JVP has failed to distinguish itself from other political parties when it comes to deal-making. Like its rivals, it has shown that it does not scruple to subjugate principle to political expediency in pursuit of its own interests.
The JVP-led NPP government has faced severe criticism over ‘deals with foreign governments’, particularly its failure to make public the full texts of several agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) signed with India, China and the United States. Critics have questioned whether the current administration is living up to its promises of transparency and accountability, especially where the agreements concern defence, national security, foreign policy and the media. This wall of secrecy, as it were, has made a mockery of the government’s much-advertised commitment to upholding transparency and accountability.
Can the JVP-NPP government reconcile what it describes as legitimate confidentiality requirements with its stated commitment to transparency? Signing international agreements is an ordinary function of any government, but withholding their terms can undermine public confidence when the arrangements may affect national security, economic interests or even sovereignty.
Founding Leader of the JVP Rohana Wijeweera would turn in his grave if he knew of the agreements between India and the JVP-led government. It was during a violent anti-India campaign that Wijeweera met a tragic end in 1989.
The JVP has struck deals with both the SLFP and the UNP. Adversity and expediency are said to make strange bedfellows. In 1970, the JVP actively took part in the election campaign of the SLFP-led United Front (UF), with its stalwarts like Mahinda Wijesekera leading the propaganda campaign of the UF. It took up arms against the UF government in 1971. In 1977, it gravitated towards the UNP. The Batalanda Commission report, which the JVP is using against former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, has revealed that “by the time the 1977 General Elections were declared, the peripheral organizers of the JVP were active, and in fact went to the extent of directly supporting the United National Party, which had been during that period classified as a right-wing capitalist political force” (p. 14). Following its abortive second uprising, the JVP entered into what could be described as a political deal with the SLFP in 1994. Ten years later, it coalesced with the SLFP-led United People’s Freedom Alliance, obtained 39 seats and secured Cabinet posts. It left the UPFA government the following year. However, it campaigned hard for SLFP presidential candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa, playing a crucial role in ensuring his victory in 2005. Thereafter, it closed ranks with the UNP-led political alliances at the 2010 and 2015 presidential elections, and had representation on the National Executive Council of the Yahapalana government.
It is popularly said in this country that when floods strike, even mongooses and cobras forget their enmity and cling to floating logs to stay afloat. When the floodwaters recede, however, their fights resume. This is precisely what we are witnessing on the political front. In Sri Lanka, there is hardly a political party that has not played the role of either the mongoose or the cobra, depending on the circumstances. One may recall that the vociferous SJB bigwigs now berating their JVP counterparts were prominent members of the UNP-led Yahapalana government, which enjoyed a political honeymoon with the JVP between 2015 and 2019.