Hill told to quit SL by Dec. 28

Hill to function as CEO from Dubai

Dubai moves to act against migrant workers

Rejection of Sajin's request for 18 business class tickets the sore point

Govt. claims Hill sold nine aircraft without BOI approval

Mihin owes SriLankan a colossal sum of over USD 1 mn.

SriLankan claims UL board which includes President's B-i-L approved all deals

Govt. irked over SriLankan's silence on request to take over loss making Mihin

By Sonali Samarasinghe

Even as the Rajapakse government in an act of customary pique last week cancelled the work permit and terminated the residence visa of SriLankan Airlines CEO Peter Hill, Dubai was to react angrily vowing it would take steps to weed out illegal Sri Lankan migrant workers in Dubai.

Peter Hill has been given until December 28 to leave Sri Lankan shores and airline sources confirmed he would leave Sri Lanka to Dubai. However thumbing their noses at the government, Emirates is widely expected to retain Hill as CEO of SriLankan Airlines where he will continue to fully function as the Chief Executive Officer and run the airline from Dubai.  

Under the 1998 agreement Emirates signed with the Government of Sri Lanka, in which President Mahinda Rajapakse was a key minister, Emirates holds 43 percent of the shares but has 100% management control including sole discretion in appointing the Chief Executive Officer of the company. The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) owns 51% shares while the rest is owned by the employees.   

In another twist to the drama The Sunday Leader learns that upon hearing of the shoddy treatment meted out to Emirates and its hand picked employees, Dubai has put in place steps to pack off any dodgy Sri Lankan migrants working with no permits. An amnesty of two months is to be afforded to the illegal immigrant workers to leave the wealthy Sheikdom.

Sri Lankans in Dubai

Dubai's leader ultramodern, apolitical and astute businessmanSheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum is not only the powerful Emir of Dubai but the nephew of Emirates Airlines Chairman, Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum. He succeeded the Emirates' Chairman's older brother in 2006. 

It is learnt all Sri Lankans have now been asked to re-register themselves with the Foreign Employment Bureau in Dubai for a re-evaluation of their work permits.

Sri Lanka's migrant labour force has become the backbone of the country's economy accounting for more than half of Sri Lanka's foreign exchange earnings. Swarms of them work in Dubai and such steps would mean more hassle and disaster for the workers who sometimes work in harrying conditions to eke out a living and uplift the economic conditions of their families.

The already bitter relationship between Emirates and the Rajapakse regime was to reach breaking point last Friday when the national carrier failed to accede to several demands made by President Rajapakse and his entourage in London.

President Rajapakse who was earlier on a visit to Japan had flown to England on a private visit to witness his son Yoshita's passing out parade at the Dartmouth Naval Academy.  Rajapakse's personal attendant Sajin Vass Gunawardena who had arranged several temple visits in Kyoto, Japan for the President during his visit to Japan was in charge of making flight arrangements in London.

Business class seats

It was imperative Rajapakse and his entourage got on a December 13 flight to Colombo to be in time for the all important budget vote on December 14. Airline sources confirmed to The Sunday Leader Sajin Vass Gunawardena had in fact required 35 seats of which 18 were to be business class.  

Sajin who runs the budget airline Mihin Lanka sources say negotiated with the commercial department of the airline whose head is none other than his own brother, Manoj Vass Gunawardena. However airline sources said the commercial section had gone through all the flights and could not offer the President more than five business class seats to accommodate Rajapakse and other VVIPs. Some seats had been booked and paid for by bona fide passengers almost seven months before and could not be arbitrarily cancelled under any circumstances, the sources said.

However even though Sajin had been presented with some options he chose on behalf of the President not to accept these options and to make his own arrangements, sources said. 

When asked if this was the straw that broke the camel's back, BOI Chairman Dammika Perera who had set the ball rolling by canceling Hill's work permit said the rot started long before and that Emirates was crippling the national carrier and undercutting on pricing.

Be that as it may not five days after the third reading of the budget vote the BOI sent a letter to the Department of Immigration informing them Peter Hill's work permit had been cancelled. On December 19, the Department of Immigration sent a letter to SriLankan Airlines Chairman Harry Jayawardena which stated as follows:

Residence Visa Terminated

Terminating the Residence Visa issued to Mr. P.M. Hill - British National, Passport No. 761046345.

"As per the request made by the Director General, Board of Investment of Sri Lanka by his letter dated 19th December 2007, the Residence Visa issued to Mr. P.M. Hill, as the Chief Executive Officer of SriLankan Airlines is hereby terminated with effect from 28-12-2007. You are advised to submit the original passport of Mr. Hill to this department to terminate his residence visa.

D.M.S.D. Jayaratne

Acting Controller

General of Immigration & Emigration

Cc: Secretary/Ministry of Internal Administration

Chairman/Director General, Board of Investment of Sri Lanka

(Please see elsewhere on this page for copy of letter)

Ironically Peter Hill is now married to a Sri Lankan - Janaki, and has a right in any event to apply for residency and for citizenship based on that criteria. Nonetheless the cancellation of the residence visa he now holds was issued through BOI channels which is one of the reasons why the BOI is playing a big part in this political game.     

Perera also told The Sunday Leader that it was due to the shabby treatment by Peter Hill of the airlines main shareholder, the Government of Sri Lanka that he now stands dismissed from the country.

Almost declaring him persona non grata Perera told The Sunday Leader that in the past two years he has not entertained any request by President Mahinda Rajapakse and has also treated government departments with disdain.

Charge denied

However an official speaking on behalf of SriLankan Airlines categorically denied the charge stating that every time a request was made seat allocations were given to the President and his staff and there had never been a situation where the President of Sri Lanka had not been accommodated.

Reacting angrily to allegations they treated government departments badly, SriLankan Airlines sources said that from buying yellow robes for clergy, to accommodating huge amounts of excess baggage at no cost to the government, to working very closely to promote Sri Lanka's sports together with the Sports Ministry, and to bending over backwards to promote Sri Lanka as a tourist destination in collaboration with the Tourist Board, the airline had on the contrary worked closely and amicably with relevant government departments. SriLankan Airlines sources said these were unbudgeted expenditure but the airline always acceded to the government's requests.

Be that as it may the government last week adduced two main reasons for the cancellation of Hill's work permit. It said that SriLankan Airlines had sold up to nine aircraft without BOI approval. The government position is that  Peter Hill had disposed of upto nine aircraft without BOI approval having purchased them under special facilities afforded by the BOI.

With government consent

SriLankan Airlines sources however argued that if in fact aircraft had been sold it was done with the full consent of the government through its board members and chairman. The government representatives on the SriLankan Airlines Board are Chairman Harry Jayawardena and Board Members Raju Chandiram, Sanath Ukwatte and First Lady Shiranthi Rajapakse's brother, Nishantha Wickremasinghe who is of course the brother in law of President Rajapakse no less.    

BOI Chairman Perera also said Emirates was undercutting SriLankan Airlines on the pricing by flying the same routes at a lesser price. For instance he said the Colombo-Dubai- New York sector is cheaper on Emirates than on SriLankan.

A SriLankan Airlines source however told The Sunday Leader that code sharing flights are priced and administered according to international agreements and standards. For instance SriLankan Airlines will fly to Dubai-New York code sharing on Emirates on the Dubai-New York sector. In this event SriLankan will get its share of the full price for the Colombo Dubai sector as the flight is SriLankan, computed according to mileage. Once that is deducted it will also get 25% of the remainder as it is code sharing with Emirates up to New York.

Office in New York

This is if the travel document is from SriLankan. Furthermore, Emirates operates an office in New York and SriLankan has the added advantage of having its presence in New York.

Another allegation is that Emirates is making use of all SriLankan flying rights. However SriLankan Airlines' industry sources told The Sunday Leader that even though Sri Lanka had flying rights to many of these countries including New York, Emirates which now operates daily into New York has secured its own rights as well to all of the countries it flies to even though it used Sri Lanka's flying rights at the beginning through the national carrier.

Airline industry sources therefore said it would be absurd to forward this argument now and it would be better for instance to fly to New York code sharing with Emirates rather than not be able due to financial constraints to operate a flight at all. They point out that possessing flying rights but not possessing the financial power to make use of these rights would be even more disastrous to the national carrier.

However speculation is also rife SriLankan Airlines is now being hounded to accommodate the grandiose plans of Sajin Vass Gunawardena.

Shockingly The Sunday Leader learns SriLankan Airlines was approached by a top official in the Presidential Secretariat a few months back to take over the debt ridden Mihin Lanka and help run the spluttering airline under the experienced SriLankan Airlines wing. However sources told The Sunday Leader the national carrier had not responded to the request.

Dying Mihin

The government had wanted to resurrect the dying Mihin and urged SriLankan to take it under its wing.

The plan some industry sources say is for the disastrously constituted Mihin Air to crawl in to the national carrier and take over its operational structure. They allege the government, irked at SriLankan Airlines' silence over the issue is now intent on destroying the existing airline structure in order to consolidate and bring Mihin under the wing of the national carrier.

However Mihin Lanka sources when contacted stated SriLankan was the national carrier operating on different bases while Mihin was a budget carrier and the two were operated on entirely different terms.

Nonetheless it is interesting to note that President Mahinda Rajapakse in his budget speech 2008 ironically said that the Lankaputra Development Bank was set up to extend financial assistance to ordinary entrepreneurs who were affected by the privatisation of development banks, while  Mihin Lanka - the new budget airline was set up to facilitate foreign travel of low income travellers and a process had commenced to re-engineer the management of SriLankan Airlines, in a manner favourable to the country.

As this newspaper has revealed in its past issues the Lankaputra Bank headed by none other than Sajin Vass Gunawardena's father has far from granting small and medium enterprises loans decided to extensively fund among other top level companies, Sajin's Mihin as well.

Owes colossal sum

Meanwhile it is learnt Mihin already owes SriLankan Airlines a colossal sum of over one million US dollars for ground handling and other services provided.

When asked what the nature of the relationship with Mihin was, SriLankan Airlines sources said  there had been no negotiations between the two companies or the two commercial teams to discuss terms and conditions and therefore Mihin is treated like any other airline such as Expo Lanka.  However if they wanted a relationship it was up to them to initiate discussions.

Be that as it may, the total operational cost of Mihin Lanka as of March 31, 2007 was  a stupendous Rs. 195,410,886.41 and despite extensive state patronage Mihin Lanka is incurring some Rs. 8-9 million in losses each day.

While the operating expenses of Mihin Lanka reportedly stood at Rs. 195,410,886.41 as at March 31, 2007 its ambitious advertising campaign and promotion costs are sky high as well - a staggering Rs. 25,249,614.13. The amount spent on staff salaries and allowances are Rs. 16,129,577.06 and the aircraft wet leasing charge is Rs.90.8 million.

Stupendous salaries

Managing Director/CEO, Sajin Vaas Gunewardena draws a monthly salary of Rs. 450,000 while Senior Manager, Flight Operations - Errol M. G. Cramer makes Rs. 500,000 a month. Head of Flight Operations, Athula Dissanayake sits pretty with a salary of Rs. 600,000, according to particulars furnished to parliament on December 10, 2007. Head of Commercial, Rohan Perera and Head of Finance and Administration, Lohan Sajiva Suwaris draw Rs. 350,000 each.

There are also six officials drawing Rs. 250,000 per month while Coordinator to CEO, Vimal Perera and Manager, Human Resources and Administration, Joyce Kandaragama are paid Rs.150,000 each per month. Mihin Lanka according to documents furnished to parliament employs a total of 157 personnel.

But that's not all. This high spending 'budget' airline also owes the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation Rs. 300 million for fuel purchases.

It is in this context that the debt ridden Mihin is perhaps seeking to piggy back on SriLankan Airlines.

The JVP's split personality

Somawansa Amarasinghe and Velupillai Pirapaharan

By Sonali Samarasinghe

There are two not dissimilar forces at work in this country leading it on to destruction.

Pirapaharan and his men in the north and Somawansa Amarasinghe and his men in the south. The surest sign the LTTE neither wanted peace nor a negotiated settlement within a united Sri Lanka was the role it played in electing a hawkish government set on a military solution.

The surest sign the JVP neither wants peace nor a negotiated settlement et al was the duplicitous role it played in the recently concluded budget vote last Friday (14).  

Winston Churchill once defined a fanatic as one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. Perhaps it is this element of fanaticism that still lurks within the JVP polity that propelled them to blackmailing the government with conditions totally unrelated to the budget or the state of the economy when negotiating their 38 votes last month. 

Commitment to war

The conditions included a commitment to war and a solution that in effect eschewed not only the APRC proposals but any viable power sharing package rather than a promise of peace or halt to indiscriminate government spending.

During his address at the party's "Heroes' Day" commemoration, JVP Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe set forth four demands for the government in exchange for his party's support. They were: (1) Abolish the Ceasefire Agreement of February 2002; (2) Dissolve the All-Party Representative Committee (APRC) still busy formulating political proposals to end the ethnic conflict; (3) Ban UN officials from visiting Sri Lanka and not pay heed to their statements; and (4) An oath by the government to protect Sri Lanka's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Except a commitment on protecting the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity something all governments are bound to do under oath as per the constitution in any case, the other three demands were ludicrous at best. They were also old.

These were conditions the JVP had set prior to it extending support to Rajapakse on no less than three occasions in 20 and 12 point agreements. Rajapakse happily signed but did not keep his word. The JVP gave him their support and did not insist on Rajapakse keeping his side of the bargain. Obviously the fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me concept does not work for the JVP.

Fooling people

Perhaps this is because both the JVP and the Rajapakse family are too busy fooling the people all the time. Be that as it may abolishing the CFA which is non existent and most often violated would be a joke while it must be kept alive at least for forms sake in order to hold the LTTE to a possible negotiated settlement. The LTTE has repeatedly said it would talk only on the basis of the CFA.

The APRC was to be President Rajapakse's trump card in an elusive southern consensus which has little hope of materialising given that it is his own party the SLFP and the extremist JHU that refuse to approve a set of widely accepted proposals.

Banning UN officials from visiting Sri Lanka is idiotic given that Sri Lanka is a member of the UN and subscribes to its existence. Neither can Sri Lanka exist in this world isolated and relegated to a pariah state.  

Political survival

Having said that what then informs the JVP polity? Obviously political survival. But not as a third force but as a substantial mainstream party.  

And it is to this end that the internal fights within the JVP on the budget vote was finally won by the likes of K.D. Lalkantha and Wimal Weerawansa whose agenda in the long term is not the defeat of the government, nor the public interest but the emergence of the JVP as the only alternative political force in the country.

It is this thinking of a powerful core group within the party that surfaced last Friday as the 37 members of the JVP abstained from voting on the budget. Mind you this is the very same budget Weerawansa likened after its presentation to 'a woman with loose morals draped in a Kandyan saree.'

It is this political aspiration that gives an insight as to why the hard core members of the party - unless the more moderate voices of those like Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Vijitha Herath can break through - will continue to hold the party back from subscribing to any decision that would either prop up the UNP or the SLFP.

The opposition has gone on record stating it could have secured 123 votes against the ruling coalition if not for the sudden change of stand by the JVP to abstain from voting.  The opposition had 112 members including 37 JVP MPs while another 11 members from the government were to join them to defeat the budget. Among them, they said, were three SLFP ministers and two UNP dissidents currently holding ministerial portfolios.

Abstention

In fact the surest sign the government would indeed have been defeated at Friday's budget was the fact that the JVP abstained from the vote. The Marxists had already made it clear, despite several statements to the media it would not change its November 19 stance on the budget: that it was not prepared to bring down the Rajapakse government. 

This then was the underlying fabric that was to inform any JVP decision and had there been no chance of members from the government ranks crossing over to the opposition guaranteeing a victory, the JVP would surely have voted against the budget.

But surely in politics, politicians will obviously tell particularly the media only what they want publicised. It was no different between the hardliners and the moderates in the JVP. The moderates played down the conditions given by Amarasinghe, they focused on the economic hardships of the people while the hawks in the JVP pushed the patriotic line and the military mindset.

Disastrous

For the JVP the disastrous administration of the Rajapakse regime is essential to its emergence as a powerful political force. In fact the JVP dissident member Nandana Gunathileka even told the BBC Sandeshaya Service Monday, the party had not yet given up the idea of an armed struggle; in effect that it is not unlike the LTTE in its survival methods.

Both the LTTE and the JVP need war, economic disaster, corruption, international isolation and human rights crises to survive. A sound administration will relegate both elements to the dustbins of politics and would in the case of the JVP force them back into violence.

Little wonder the JVP vowed it would not help bring down the Rajapakse regime though not 24 hours later it was K.D. Lalkantha himself who told the media the government would have to get ready for an election by mid 2008 as it was clear it could not complete its full tenure of six years.

Therefore the only way for the JVP to gain lost credibility with their vote base - recall the Marxists were only able to retain Tissamaharama in the last local elections - is to prop up the government of the day on the one hand while tearing it down in the eyes of the voter on the other.      

To this end Somawansa Amarasinghe, the schizophrenic leader of the JVP after the budget vote was quick to accuse the government of politicising military victories, charging it used military operations to gain political benefit during the budget. Funnily enough however it was this very same Somawansa who had earlier set four demands, not only for the continuation of the military effort but for the effective destruction of any viable political solution in exchange for their support for the budget.

If that wasn't using the war in relation to the budget then Santa Claus is coming down the chimney tonight. 

Uncanny resemblance

Again sounding uncannily like LTTE Leader Pirapaharan, JVP Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe addressing the media in Colombo justified his party's decision to abstain from voting last Friday despite being 'against the budget,' saying that it was the only way to convey its opposition to the budget without falling prey to the UNP trap as much as Pirapaharan in his "Heroes' Day" speech of 2005 said the LTTE would not fall into Wickremesinghe's international trap. 

Amarasinghe who also justified the JVP move to abstain by stating it had received information foreign elements and diplomats were involved, later told media at a press briefing the government had demonstrated an inability to combat corruption and unwanted foreign interference.

Significantly reflective of the Quixotic political aspirations of Amarasinghe, he reportedly said "We also doubt whether the government would continue military operations as it was in recent times. If the government stops military operations against terrorists at any point in future, the JVP is ready to take over the task from thereon." He also invited the UNP to join the JVP.

However, neither the JVP's Somawansa Amarasinghe nor its Propaganda Secretary Wimal Weerawansa are strangers to intervention by foreign diplomatic forces. Weerawansa who visited then Indian High Commissioner Nirupam Sen at India House every Thursday for his weekly thosai and iddli during the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration from 2002-2004 should know this very well. Indeed by contrast the current High Commissioner Alok Prasad has studiously avoided dabbling in local politics playing the role of a true diplomat, not interfering in the domestic political arena.  

Cache of arms

Be that as it may that not days after the final reading dissident JVP member Nandana Gunathileka charged the JVP had not given up thought of an armed struggle, is not without its significance.

Mind you the arms and ammunition available to the JVP during their reign of terror in the late 1980s and the cache of weapons stolen during bloody clashes with the army and police or acquired by them through methods available to any terrorist group be it the JVP or the LTTE, have never been properly recovered or handed over to the proper authorities. Nor have any attempts been made to document or make records of them. 

For the JVP the success of the budget notwithstanding the continuance of this chaotic administration was imperative to their purpose.

Imperative to their survival is political instability and social unrest due to economic factors. Increased military activity will mean more IDPs, more casualties, more human rights abuses and a sense of powerlessness among the masses. This would be the ideal breeding ground for the JVP not only to accelerate their trade union activities in the public sector but also to beef up their own cadre and continue to play the saviour of the nation.  

But there were no hosannas when the JVP drenched the pages of this country's bloody history with the blood of innocent men and women and with the sweat and tears of hundreds of forces personnel. And neither did a star appear in the east as last week the JVP was to notch up yet another dishonorable mention in this country's history books.

All three options

It was the only political party in history to exercise all of its three options during this budget saga. Firstly at the second reading on November 19, the JVP voted against the budget. On the votes of the Defence and Public Security and Internal Administration on Thursday December 6 at the committee stage it voted for the budget fuelling speculation it would vote with the government on December 14, and in the final reading it abstained, thereby making use of all three options available to a member of parliament at one and the same budget.

Be that as it may, as part of their 2008 programme the JVP had earmarked several key government departments to mobilise trade unions under their control. The coming year is to be a year of strikes and strife with JVP's K.D. Lalkantha warning the government frequently of islandwide strikes if salary anomalies are not looked into or salaries not raised.

For a cash strapped government such strikes would not only be economically crippling but politically disastrous and no one knows this more than the JVP.

As part of their destabilising tactics they would certainly have voted against the budget and lashed out at the Rajapakse regime as long as they were certain the outcome would favour the government.

It was the opposition's success in pulling out not only four members of the SLMC, Anura Bandaranaike and Wijedasa Rajapakshe, but also a significant number of others from government ranks including the imminent cross over of six members of the CWC that sent the JVP into a tailspin resulting in the mass abstention.

Mixed messages

Nonetheless while the JVP was busy sending mixed messages to various parties partly due to the fact they were internally fractured on the issue, the budget vote itself had transformed itself into a referendum of sorts within parliament.

If ever there was a budget which had less to do with fiscal spending and or the public interest and more to do with political survival then this budget was that budget.

Firstly the myth floated by the government was that the 2008 budget would distance the national economy from international players like the World Bank and the IMF while strengthening the bedrock of the local economy such as agriculture.

For a government that continues to sell its Central Bank gold reserves to settle its recurrent expenditure like salaries and thinks nothing of plunging the country into debt by floating US$500 million bond issues on the pretext of infrastructure development, any budget it puts forward is bound to be meaningless in terms of realities and will bring more economic instability and social unrest.

Even as inflation hit an all time high of 24.1 percent in October, its own Consumer Affairs Minister Bandula Gunawardena last week told the BBC Sinhala Service the government will be forced to print more money or immediately abandon the war, fertiliser subsidies, state recruitments, welfare expenditures and school mid-day meals.

One sided

While the government therefore has asked the people to tighten their belts, and even put up posters stating the people were willing to starve on behalf of the war effort like they did during WWII, the government itself is not willing to tighten it belt due to political expediency and for personal gain.

The success of this budget therefore sits very comfortably with the agenda of political and economic instability as harboured by the JVP.

Secondly the budget vote was slowly being shifted away from pure economics and spun into one of national politics. A vote for the budget was being mooted as a vote for the Sinhala Buddhist majority. The pro budget chinwags were being hailed as patriots and others as traitors.

Same wine different bottle

The old ruse of the Rajapakse propagandists so liberally used by him on his election platform in 2005 was to work again to a lesser extent. Surely Sri Lanka can be saved from anything but its own countrymen!

In this the government was amply helped by its most ardent groupie, Wimal Weerawansa. Both Ven. Elle Gunawansa Thero and Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekara, leaders of the JVP backed National Patriotic Movement and Manel Mal Movement, addressed the media stating the passing of the budget would mean a win for the patriotic forces over national and international evil forces. Weerawansa of course is a key figure in both these movements.

So much so the budget debate on November 19 was liberally laced with hawkish references with both the government and the JHU playing up the patriotic card. 

JHU Parliamentary Group Leader Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thero was quick to tell parliament the budget should be passed in order to defeat the 'foreign elements that interfere in the country's affairs.'

However all was not rosy in the JVP ranks either. Despite blanket denials of deep fractures within the party by both Weerawansa and Amarasinghe it was clear that a decision could not be reached on the voting at the final stage of the budget until the last moment.

Moderate elements like Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Vijitha Herath could not in the end prevail over the more strident voices of hardline fanatics like Wimal Weerawansa or the passionate Marxist comrades like K.D. Lalkantha.

The fractures were clear even as the JVPs Dissanayake lashed out at the government for using patriotism to suit the situation.

"What is this patriotism?"

"Patriotism should come from within and cannot be applied on oneself like honey if and when you want. What is this patriotism? It is the government that has made unpatriotic decisions that are detrimental to the people. We have always been patriotic and have always stood by the people. We never sought money or positions, all we wanted was what was right by the people," he had reportedly said.

Meanwhile government elements had already blistered the city with pro government/budget posters even before the vote on the second reading was made public, thanking not only the so called patriots in parliament but also the JVP for voting for the budget though in fact on November 19, they voted against the budget.

However while persons like Lalkantha were to tell confidants there would be a change in their stance on the final reading depending on whether the government would fall or otherwise the more moderate Anura Kumara Dissanayake was adamant that since the vote would be taken on the same budget there would be no change.

This stand was also taken by JVP MP Vijitha Herath, also a politburo member with even JVP Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe in an interview with Max TV stating the party would vote against the budget on December 14.

However the politburo's own fractious discussions and the conflicting remarks made by the JVP soon after the vote on the second reading certainly reflected on the one hand the internal rift brewing within the party and the duplicity of its politics on the other. A classic case of Jekyll and Hyde