Daily News Editorial

SLFP at a crossroads

03 September 2016

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), one of the two main political forces in Sri Lanka turned 65 yesterday. In a remarkable coincidence, the man who now heads the SLFP, President Maithripala Sirisena, also turns 65 today. Born in the same year, the leader and the party have now embarked on a new journey that has never really been previously experienced in Sri Lanka – a journey of unity with main political rival the United National Party (UNP), which is itself turning 70 on September 6.

This convergence of ideologies would have been unthinkable 65 years ago, when S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike broke away from the UNP to form the SLFP. It really gained momentum by 1956, when SWRD successfully rallied the five forces Sanga, Guru, Veda, Govi and Kamkaru (Bhikkus, Teachers, Physicians, Farmers and Working Class) in a massive socio-economic transformation that resonates to this day. His tenure as Prime Minister was cut short by assassin’s bullet in September 1959. His widow Sirimavo Bandaranaike was then thrust to the political limelight and SLFP leadership. Riding on a wave of sympathy and popularity, she became the world’s first woman prime minister in 1960. Her periods of rule, especially 1970-77, is well known for being the golden age of Sri Lanka’s international relations.

It was inevitable that their offspring would follow them on this political journey. Both Chandrika and Anura (though not Sunethra) entered the political arena and the former had a meteoric rise to become the country’s first woman Executive President by 1994. Near the end of her 11-year rule when a party stalwart suggested that she retain the SLFP leadership for the rest of her life, she flatly refused saying that would go against the SLFP’s democratic traditions. She pointed out that it was not a “family party”. It is that democratic tradition that allowed Mahinda Rajapaksa to become the leader of the SLFP and also contest the Presidential Elections of 2005, which he won by marginally beating the incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. However, Rajapaksa had other ideas and virtually turned the SLFP into a family kingdom helmed by his brothers, relatives and sons. There was a growing frustration among genuine SLFPers that the party was veering away from the democratic ideals cherished by its founding fathers.

Matters came to a head when he got the 18th Amendment passed to abolish the two-term limit for the President and indicated his desire to run for an unprecedented third term. Among those who were alarmed by the danger posed to democracy through this action was none other than Maithripala Sirisena, the then General Secretary of the Party. This set in motion a process, shrouded in secrecy, to pose a challenge to that dictatorial tendency. Much to the surprise of Rajapaksa, it culminated in Maithripala Sirisena emerging as the Common Candidate at the 2015 January Presidential Election and the rest, as they say is history.

In Maithripala Sirisena, we have an astute politician who is almost diametrically opposite to Mahinda Rajapaksa. A son of a farmer and an agriculturist himself, his greatest trait is his willingness to work with his political rivals for the betterment of the country. Hence the idea of a Government of National Unity that many thought would be an impossible dream. His commitment to achieving lasting peace and reconciliation, two concepts that Rajapaksa eschewed, has been proved by recent actions in this direction. Since the National Unity Government came to power, Sri Lanka has also been able to extricate itself out of the quagmire of international isolation.

President Maithripala Sirisena has epitomized the SLFP’s “common man” identity, but there is a faction within the SLFP that is not prepared to accept his leadership. Stung by defeat and fearful of the investigations into acts of corruption, Mahinda Rajapaksa and some of his faithful have cobbled together a so-called Joint Opposition (some of whose leaders are not even SLFPers) that has publicly pledged to topple the Government even before 2020 if possible and bring the Rajapaksas back to power. They are vague about how exactly that can be done in the absence of a General Election, but it is a direct threat to democracy.

It would be churlish to say that the SLFP is not already divided, but the challenge is to avoid further fragmentation which could leave the party members confused and helpless. President Sirisena has thus started a campaign to cleanse the party of elements whose actions have been detrimental to its interests. The SLFP, and indeed the UNP, are not parties based on a single person’s personality and ideology which is a factor that Rajapaksa seems to have forgotten. As the SLFP Ministers in the Government have said, it is not too late for JO members to come around or else they face the danger of being on the wrong side of history. As both the President and the SLFP look forward to their 66th year, the party’s future clearly lies in democratic pluralism that eschews personality cults.