SLFP shake up and polls rivalry ahead

Saturday, October 21, 2017 - 01:00

The image of carrying on the fight against corruption will also need much more speedy legal action against those accused, charged with, or publicly known for fraud and corruption under the previous government. It also calls for stronger action against the agents or forces of corruption that remain within the present ruling coalition, especially those who came over to the Sirisena camp after General Election in August 2015, several of them after their own defeat as UPFA candidates from the SLFP, under Mahinda Rajapaksa’s leadership

The removal of key SLFP electoral organisers who are in the Rajapaksa camp has led to the biggest shake up in the party since it was established in 1951, and shows the move to major divided party contests in the coming elections to the local authorities, whenever they take place.

Of the two major democratic political parties in the country - the UNP and SLFP – the SLFP has had several breakaways, but never a clean up by the party leadership itself, as one sees today. There were breakaways from the party first led by CP de Silva, which defeated the Sirima Bandaranaike Government, and later the departure of Chandrika Kumaratunga to join her husband Vijaya Kumaratunga’s Sri Lanka Mahajana Party, and the breakaway of Anura Bandaranaike to join the UNP. It did not take very long for both Chandrika and Anura Bandaranaike to return to the party, then led by their mother. The major difference in the current move is that members are being removed by the party leadership, by party leader President Maithripala Sirisena himself, bringing to an end the efforts at party unity through political reconciliation between Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena.

The members being removed have been key supporters of Mahinda Rajapaksa after his defeat by Sirisena in the January 2015 Presidential Poll, and also strong movers in the Joint Opposition, who have been seen as major oppositional activists to President Sirisena. Another aspect of importance is that several of those removed in the current move have been associated with and also charged under the law, on major issues of fraud and corruption. This is certainly a move, even though belated, to show that President Sirisena, as the party leader, is now giving more thought to the pledge given to fight corruption in his presidential bid against Mahinda Rajapaksa, and thus keep the public who opposed the corruption of the Rajapaksa regime with him.

The image of carrying on the fight against corruption will also need much more speedy legal action against those accused, charged with, or publicly known for fraud and corruption under the previous government. It also calls for stronger action against the agents or forces of corruption that remain within the present ruling coalition, especially those who came over to the Sirisena camp after General Election in August 2015, several of them after their own defeat as UPFA candidates from the SLFP, under Mahinda Rajapaksa’s leadership.

Poll delay

The present clean up the SLFP is certainly being expedited with the expected arrival of the Local Government polls, so far unofficially expected to be held in January 2018, but with new indications it will be further delayed, due to the change of electoral districts within the Nuwara Eliya District. This delay in the Local Government polls is certainly not helpful to the government, and the official SLFP led by President Sirisena, seen as yet another expression of the government’s fear to face the people at the polls. The government, and especially the Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Councils, have very little cause to justify this further poll delay, as the changes in electoral districts now being envisaged could very well have been done months ahead.

The fact that Minister Mano Ganeshan, leader of the Democratic People’s Front and the Tamil Progressive Alliance is making this demand now shown as the cause for this delay. But there is no reason why these demands could not have been acted on earlier. This once again leads to a major opposition to the government over delays in the polls, where the Minister of Local Government and Provincial Councils stands out as the political/administrative image of delayed polls.
A rival force

Whatever the polls delay, the clean up of the SLFP of forces ranged against President Sirisena’s leadership, will lead to a rival force, other than the UNP challenging the SLFP at the local government polls. This will be the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), formally led by academic and Prof. G. L. Peiris, with his poor electoral record, but in fact led by Mahinda Rajapaksa, with his excellent record of electoral strategy, in more than forty years in politics. His defeat at the last presidential poll certainly moved him away from his role of party leadership, and electoral strategies.
But, his leadership capabilities will certainly be challenged by President Sirisena holding the formal leadership of the SLFP, and being in a position to extend the required official support to the now electoral organisers he is appointing. There is no doubt that politics in Sri Lanka has much to do with the capabilities of those in power to manipulate politics. This was clearly seen in the near ten years of the Mahinda Rajapaksa presidency. The SLPP as the rival force to the SLFP and President Sirisena will certainly have to face this reality.

This situation, as well as the legality of a member of parliament having membership in a different party than what the member was elected from, is why Mahinda has still not announced his leadership of the SLPP. Instead, the organisational leadership has been given to his brother Basil Rajapaksa, who has already claimed the SLPP will win 200 councils in the coming local polls. Basil’s leadership, even temporary, is certainly not in the best interests of the SLPP. Firstly, it displays again the family bandyism of a Rajapaksa leadership. Next, it is no secret that Basil R is not much liked by members of the Joint Opposition, especially those in the SLFP there, who have clearly blamed BR for the defeat of MR in the presidential poll; and also the corruption allegations against BR are among the major contributors to the overall corruption charges against the Rajapaksa Regime. This will not help much in building up popular support for the SLPP with BR’s organisational leadership.

Another issue that would threaten the position of the SLPP is the action the government would be taking against the forces of corruption of the last regime. The indications that new action would be taken to appoint special courts to expedite the indictment of those accused of fraud and corruption, and moves bring to book those apparently protected during the time of former Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, will certainly be a threat to the public appeal the SLPP expects to gain in the current political context. President Sirisena will certainly have to move ahead with the promised action against corruption, which may even be a big challenge to the UNP, for the current political clean up of the SLFP to bear the best results.

Constitution debate

As the parliamentary debate on the Steering Committee Report on proposed constitutional reform approaches, the debate on the report is getting much heated, but with little substance on the material of the debate. There is growing opposition thinking to the very idea of any constitutional changes, with the latest comment on this coming from the Joint Council of the Malwatta and Asgiriya Chapters of the Siyam Nikaya, stating the country does not need a new constitution. They also want the Executive Presidency to be continued, and expresses concerns that a new constitution may create divisions among communities.

This is largely supportive of the propaganda against the Steering Committee proposals which make it out as a draft of a new constitution, and not a report for public and parliamentary debate before any draft of a new constitution is prepared. The parties of the Joint Opposition are also in this position, and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has also taken the position that no new constitution is needed.

This is a major reversal from the public position which led to the election of President Sirisena in January 2015, and also the continuous demands for a new constitution, with clear removal of the Executive Presidency, that was supported by the SLFP, and its allies in the UPFA through more than the past decade, and the SLFP and the People’s Alliance, for nearly a decade before that. The opposition to a new constitution is carried with allegations that the new proposals would lead to a federal state, with the possible division of the country in the future, and also a claim that the new proposals in the Steering Committee Report threaten the present position of Buddhism in the Constitution.

As the public debate, led by the political parties in the JO, sections of the Maha Sangha, and civil society and professions groups that have a largely majoritarian point of view on constitutional issues make headway, the government is certainly faced with a major issue of winning public support for any constitutional changes that could help in building a better democracy in the country. It will certainly need a much more active publicity and organisational support by the government to bring about a new constitution that the people voted for in January and August 2015.