The Lankadeepa carried a sensational lead story yesterday stating that the UNP had decided to shift away from the federalist model as a solution to the ethnic conflict. The federalist model had been a cornerstone of UNP policy up to date, and was the platform on which they appealed to the minority voters - many of whom showed a marked preference for the UNP over the PA. The Lankadeepa report also went on to say, that not stopping at abandoning the federalist position, the UNP had also decided that the ceasefire that they entered onto with the LTTE in 2002 had to be 'reviewed' in accordance with the new realities. The UNP had even decided that the Oslo declaration, where agreement had been reached on a federalist solution, had to be abrogated.

Last week, none of this had been discussed at the political affairs committee and it has not been ratified by the working committee either. This was a surprise decision arrived at by the UNP leadership. Even though none of this is still official, this policy shift has the fullest backing of almost the entire UNP. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this may prove to be by far the most popular policy decision that Ranil Wickremsinghe made after assuming the leadership of the UNP 13 years ago. The minority parties will not be happy, but then the view of important UNPers is that the minority parties had adopted a policy of opportunistically joining the government even though the government stood for exactly the opposite of what they wanted. The UNP, after languishing in the opposition for 13 long years seems to have realized that even the minority parties side only with those who can carry the vote of the majority community.

UNP Colombo district leader Ravi Karunanayake, when asked whether this was an opportunistic shift in policy said that it was not so because it was the UNP that told the All Party Representatives Committee (APRC) that they should not quibble over semantics and that what was needed was far reaching devolution of power without labeling it as 'federalism' or otherwise. Karunayake also characterized the UNP's shift in policy as a case of 'repositioning' themselves to suit the ground situation. Karunanyake said quite openly that "If frankness brings us defeat time after time, then we have to rethink our policies, otherwise we will never be able to come to power" . The UNP's new position is that federalism should be abandoned and that the provincial councils system should be strengthened.

The UNP seems to have finally come down to what was the commonsense solution anyway. Just last week, UNP reformist minister Rajitha Senaratne came back to Sri Lanka from an official visit to Japan, where he had had a one hour meeting with Yasushi Akashi, the Japanese peace envoy. Minister Senaratne had told Akashi, that in the past, the longest Sinhala-Tamil war in Sri Lanka had been the 14 year war during the time of King Parakramabahu, but that that the present war had lasted 30 years. Moreover solutions to the problem had been under discussion for more than 50 years. Therefore, this problem could not be solved overnight. The approach that Senaratne had suggested to Akashi is that, the provincial councils system which was put in place under the 13th amendment to the constitution should be implemented first. Minister Senaratne pointed out that the JVP, which was opposed to federalism, was also already within the provincial councils system, and they could not block the implementation of the 13th amendment. Once the system is made to function properly in the north and east as well, Senaratne had said that vesting the provincial councils with further powers could be discussed. Minister Senaratne had argued that the piecemeal implementation of a solution would not be resisted in the way that federalism is being resisted.

Senaratne had also stressed that Sri Lanka now has a president who can carry the Sinhala vote with him and that this was the best chance that Sri Lanka has had in a long time, to find a solution to this problem. Before the UNP decided to change their policy favouring a federalist solution, a piecemeal approach to a solution had thus occurred to many people independently. Akashi had seen Senaratne's point. But in the context where the main opposition party in the country was playing Don Quixote with the ethnic issue, the hands of our foreign friends were tied. Political analysts say that the UNP's shift in policy in many ways vindicates President Mahinda Rajapakse's steadfast opposition to any federalist solution. The place where UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe first gave signs of a shift in UNP policy was at last week's commemoration of J.R.Jayawardene on his 101st birth anniversary at the Jayawardene Cultural Centre.