It appears that trouble is brewing in Sri Lanka. Reports suggest that one of the coalition partners, the JVP, has resigned from the Sri Lanka government, see Sri Lanka ruling coalition splits. This basically means the government no longer has a majority in parliament. The locals at work suggest that this means elections within the next couple of months, although it appears that the government can continue for a short while and can even get through the Joint Mechanism Agreement which is the issue which the JVP has resigned over.

As I as driving into work today I noticed many red flags flying from buildings at the side of the road. They started before Kadawatha & were pretty solid on most buildings (at least it seemed to me) until I got to Imbulgoda (travelling along the Kandy Road from Colombo). The red flags are in support of the JVP.

So its a bit of a nervous time ahead for us in Sri Lanka. We have already had the police out using tear gas and hose pipes to split up demonstrations in Colombo this week. Adding to the confusion some buddhist monks have started a hunger strike in protest about signing the Joint Mechanism Agreement. See More monks join Colombo fast.

If you are wondering what the Joint Mechanism Agreement is all about the simple answer is sharing aid with the Tamil controlled areas within Sri Lanka. The issue is complicated by the contents of the Joint Mechanism Agreement being kept secret, even from parliament, although it looks like that is about to change, see SLFP distributes copies of Joint Mechanism agreement, seeks public support. The main objection to the Joint Mechanism Agreement appears to be concerns that this will be the first step in setting up a Tamil state within Sri Lanka.

To me it just looks like a shambles all round. Why can't people just bury the hatchet and move on?