Going Left, Right or Nowhere Demystifying Sri Lanka’s party politics
By Arjuna Ranawana-2017-12-31
There was the United National Party – the creation of our founding fathers, firmly to the Conservative Right but attracting minority support most of the time.
Then there was the Sri Lanka Freedom Party – slightly to the Left and tinged with Sinhala nationalism, harnessing the majority community's powers.
Both are essentially centrist, although the UNP was pro-business.
On the Left there were the various, raucous Communist Parties, divided along allegiances to international power blocs, the Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party and off-shoots such as the Nava Sama Samaja Party.
Later of course, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna came along to claim the extreme Left spot.
Regional or Communal politics were represented by Tamil parties and that remains the same although there is a confusing mix-up there as well.
The Muslim Parties – a creation of the 1980s – are also fragmented with several parties claiming the crown.
Alliances, alliances
But look at the alliances that are presenting themselves at the LG elections.
There is the UNP and its allied parties, some of whom, like Mano Ganesan's Tamil Progressive Alliance, is contesting in a number of districts on their own. Ganesan is also including non-Tamil candidates he says.
Huh?
As far as the SLFP is concerned, confusion has reached new heights. It looks as if there are two of them, the faction led by President Maithripala Sirisena and the other by former President and current SLFP Kurunegala District Parliamentarian Mahinda Rajapaksa.
And adding to the confusion is the United People's Freedom Alliance which brings in other former SLFP allies.
The third major formation is the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, where the so-called Joint Opposition led by pro-Rajapaksa politicians has found space.
Their campaign will be led by Rajapaksa although he is a member of the SLFP.
They have wrought together a coalition that has brought together parties as widely diverse as the National Freedom Front led by the openly racist and anti-devolution polemicist Wimal Weerawansa and the Makkal Thamil Viduthalai Puligal (Tamil People's Liberation Tigers) led by Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan, who is better known by his LTTE nom de guerre Karuna Amman. Added to this mixture is the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya which of course, advocates Sinhala supremacy.
Strange bedfellows indeed, but that is politics.
Poster war
The biggest compliment that has been given to Rajapaksa in the fragmented confusion of the SLFP's and SLPP's identity, is that he appears on the posters and leaflets of the SLFP, the UPFA and of course the SLPP.
So, if you are an MR fan which party would you pick?
Voters will also scratch their heads at the picture that appeared in Ceylon Today earlier in the week where the leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party, Douglas Devananda was seen taking the oath at the launch of the UPFA campaign launch ceremony in Colombo alongside President Sirisena.
At the same time it is an open secret that his most senior lieutenant on the Jaffna Peninsula and former head of the EPDP's Maheswari Foundation is the chief organizer of the SLPP in the North.
This brings us to the convoluted politics of the North where there is a completely different development.
For many decades, politicians in the North vied to criticize what they called the 'Centre' orhe Sinhala dominated government in Colombo.
This time around things have changed.
If the South is confused, just think of the poor Northerners.
Northern blues
The dominant party is the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) or in more prosaic terms, the current avatar of the Federal Party which is, just to add to the confusion, referred to as the Tamil National Alliance.
The ITAK's leader is FP veteran Mavai Senathiraja while the TNA is led by R. Sampanthan, the current Leader of the Opposition in Parliament.
In Parliament, the TNA comprises the ITAK, former militants - Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) led by Suresh Premachandran and People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam led by Dharmalingam Siddharthan and the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization headed by Selvam Adaikalanathan.
Premachandran has now left the TNA and in the LG election, will join the old Tamil United Liberation Front which is led by V. Anandasangaree, veteran of the struggle. This group is contesting as the Tamil National Front.
This has left Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam who sought an alliance with Premachandran on his own.
As Ceylon Today's Northern affairs columnist Manekshaw wryly commented last week, this time, the Tamil parties will concentrate on attacking each other rather than the Centre.
So, across the country, where do these parties and their leaders stand? Are they Socialists or Capitalists? Nationalists or Liberals?
Nothing is clear and Political Scientist Dr. Suren Rāghavan wants to blame it on the Berlin Wall.
"After the wall collapsed, global political ideology was pushed into liquidization and there are no standpoints."
He reminds us that as far back as 1994 when the long-time Socialist Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga campaigned for a second term she said we cannot give up Capitalism: "We can only give it a human face."
Confusion
Well, now we know we can't figure out who's Right or Left.
If that isn't bad enough, this new election will be held under the new 'Hybrid' system where 60 per cent of councillors will be chosen under the 'first-past-the-post' system and the rest through the party list.
The process of elections will be all new and Rāghavan warns that without proper public education, there would be many mistakes and rejected ballots.
There are more than 56,000 candidates vying for the around 8,500 seats on offer – at a ratio of 7 to 1 – and how will they be heard by the voter and how will we choose?
Like many others Rāghavan says voter turnout will be low at the LG polls. "Winning will be by default," he predicts.
But he is not entirely pessimistic.
He says the results of the LG polls will prove to the people of Sri Lanka that solutions to their problems and the issues that plague their lives will not come from the political leaders.
Instead he says like in India and Bhutan and to some extent in Bangladesh, "people will seek thematic solutions such as through environmental groups, social movements against corruption and such like."
Optimistic indeed, but in the meantime the voters should try their best to navigate the LG elections as best they can and look for local solutions to their everyday issues.
