By Kassapa
If being the leader of the government is difficult, leading an opposition is harder. Former Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa is learning this the hard way- and making an absolute mess of it. If he is not careful, the party he leads, the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) will implode and self-destruct soon after the general election.
To give credit where it is due, Premadasa did a decent job of leading the SJB at the August 2020 general election. The SJB had only just been formed, Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) were keen into cash in on their presidential election victory and the Covid-19 pandemic at the time prevented mass scale campaigning. To emerge with fifty-four seats at the general election and become, by far, the single largest opposition party, was a creditable achievement.
At the time, most people who called the United National Party (UNP) their traditional political party but couldn’t see a way forward with Ranil Wickremesinghe as its ‘permanent’ leader, heaved a sigh of relief. They believed that in Premadasa and the SJB, they had found a new home, with much the same ideals as the UNP but with more popular appeal.
We now know that was an illusion. The SJB is to Premadasa what the SLPP is to the Rajapaksas: a political project that was conceived and designed, not subscribing to a particular philosophy, ideals or principles but with the sole intention of propelling a particular person into power.
The SLPP succeeded in parachuting Gotabaya Rajapaksa to the Presidency, largely because of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s role in winning the war against terrorism and Maithripala Sirisena’s follies as President but the project stalled and exploded when Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s incompetence was exposed. In contrast, Premadasa never got to the top and his SJB is likely to perish in the same way that the SLPP is dying a slow death now, despite Namal Rajapaksa’s efforts to revive it.
The embers of discontent that were burning slowly during the presidential election came to the surface soon after the poll, when the campaign for the general election began in earnest. Premadasa should know that his parliamentarians would probably be keener on this election than the presidential poll- they are fighting for their own political careers and not Premadasa’s. His actions however show insensitivity and callous disregard of a degree that would make Ranil Wickremesinghe blush.
In the run up to the poll, Premadasa antagonised Patali Champika Ranawaka who alleges that his United Republican Front (URF) wasn’t allocated sufficient places on the SJB’s nomination lists. Ranawaka left in a huff and the SJB-led alliance was deprived arguably of its most astute and attractive political speaker. There is conjecture that Premadasa wanted Ranawaka out, fearing the latter’s leadership ambitions.
Also in the lead up to the election, we saw Harsha de Silva have a tantrum at a media briefing claiming there was a conspiracy to keep him out of the next Parliament. Such a conspiracy can only come from within and, unless it has the blessings of the party leadership, should have been nipped in the bud. Again, rumour has it that Premadasa was apprehensive of De Silva who was being mentioned in the media as a potential leader of the SJB, following Premadasa’s second successive defeat at a presidential election.
Then came the fiascos associated with nominations. Attracting much media attention was actress and activist Damitha Abeyratne who turned up at the Divisional Secretariat at Ratnapura to sign her nomination papers only to find that her name had been struck off. It is unthinkable that this would have been done without Premadasa’s knowledge. We are not particularly enamoured with Abeyratne’s brand of politics but it is beneath common courtesy not to inform a candidate that their name has been struck off and speaks volumes for Premadasa’s people skills. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned they say and Abeyratne has already vowed to take legal action. Her outbursts in the media will certainly not help the SJB to win more votes.
Another lady who is not happy is Hirunika Premachandra. She withdrew from the leadership of the Womens’ wing of the SJB shortly after handing over her nominations for the Colombo district. Premachandra has her faults but is one of the few SJB politicians who can attract a following. It is quite possible that she may look at ways other than the SJB to further her political career after the election.
The unkindest cut of all possibly went to Ajith Mannaperuma from the Gampaha district. Shortly after signing his nominations papers and handing them over he returned home to the news that he had been stripped of his post as Chief organiser of the Gampaha electoral division. Taking his place was Varuna Rajapaksa who campaigned for Ranil Wickremesinghe at the presidential election!
Visibly Angry, Mannaperuma told voters not to vote for him and revealed to the media how Premadasa was not returning his calls. Premadasa has done this to Mannaperuma, a man who represented him at a television channel where he didn’t want to appear on a one-to-one talk show before the presidential election and took many a verbal bullet on his behalf. Mannaperuma said that he felt a sense of repulsion in being in Parliament from a party led by a person such as Premadasa who he claimed was acting like a ‘child in a Montessori’.
The frequency and similarity of these incidents suggest that they are not isolated events. Rather, they suggest a pattern which reflect the insecurities, incompetencies and inferiority complex Premadasa suffers from. That, coupled with his myopic vision that people will vote for him if he promises handouts of some form or the other and simply because he is Ranasinghe Premadasa’s son, spells doom and gloom for the SJB. Party insiders say the SJB is run not by Premadasa but by an influential clique of his close associates, led by Lakshman Fonseka.
The UNP, the SJB’s parent party went from losing government in 1994 to one seat in 2020 under Ranil Wickremesinghe’s leadership. He still refuses to part with the leadership. If Premadasa, who quit the UNP and formed the SJB also refuses to give up the leadership of his party, the SJB will suffer the same fate as the UNP, or even worse. This is what the second-tier politicians of that party must think about, act and act fast too.
