At last, has Sajith got it right?

 By Kassapa

There was nothing surprising in having the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution approved in Parliament last week. It required a two-thirds majority but the government had a two-thirds majority and then some on its side, so there was never any doubt that this would happen, especially after the Supreme Court ruled a referendum was not necessary. In fact, insiders say the government was prepared even for a referendum if that was required, but it was not.

There was some speculation, especially on social media that there were a group of ‘rebels’ in the ruling party who would oppose the Amendment. There were even suggestions that Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya would lead this group. As it turned out, this was probably the work of mischief makers in the opposition, trying to create an impression that the National Peoples’ Power (NPP) was cracking at last. Alas for them, that was not to be.

However there were some surprises in store, both in the vote in Parliament and on the roads outside. At the vote, three opposition parliamentarians, Nayana Wasalathilake, Faiszer Musthapha and Ravi Karunanayake avoided voting. Wasalathilake, the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB)’s Badulla district parliamentarian is notorious for meeting only bare minimum attendance requirements to retain his parliamentary seat, so it is hardly surprising that he didn’t turn up. The cases of Musthapha and Karunanayake, both elected from the New Democratic Front (NDF), were however curious.

It was Musthapha who had previously presented a Private Member’s Bill to do precisely what the government was now doing, raising the retirement age of superior court judges. So, his avoidance of the vote was understandable.

In contrast, Karunanayake, who maintains that he is still a member of the United National Party (UNP) raised many eyebrows. It will be recalled that when the NDF was allocated two National List seats, Karunanayake appointed himself to one of them through the party’s secretary and his loyal associate Shyamila Perera before one could say ‘National List’. Now, he is demonstrating once again that he doesn’t really care about the UNP because party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was at the forefront of co-ordinating a ‘joint opposition’ response against the 22nd Amendment and the UNP committed itself categorically to that cause.

However, that was not the greatest surprise. There were several rounds of discussions between opposition parties about staging a joint protest near Parliament on the day of the debate on the 22nd Amendment. Initially, the SJB played along tacitly implying that it would be part and parcel of such a protest. It was, after all, the largest opposition party, had a strong vote base especially in cosmopolitan Greater Colombo and would have been expected to bring the largest crowd to any such protest.

It was then that its Colombo district parliamentarian S.M. Marikkar dropped a political bombshell. He held a media briefing and said that, while the SJB would invite the UNP to join them, it did not wish other parties to do so. The SJB opposed the 22nd Amendment on principle but did not wish to align with others who oppose it “to escape from the law”, he said.

Marikkar is known as known as a close associate of SJB leader Sajith Premadasa. In any event, he wouldn’t make such a far-reaching statement without Premadasa’s blessings. The remark about attempting to “escape the law” was a thinly-veiled reference to the Sri Lanka Podujana (SLPP) whose leaders, including its National Organiser and de facto leader Namal Rajapaksa, are facing a plethora of court cases. This statement made it clear that, even if the SJB and SLPP had joined in some protests until now, the SJB was now going its separate way.

It is learnt that the SJB was getting some flak at the grassroots level. The feedback from its network was that voters did not want a party seen as the alternative to the government aligning itself with the SLPP. The latter’s credibility is at a low ebb and could take further hits as several court cases proceed. The SJB should distance itself from the SLPP as much as possible, many of its supporters have suggested. This is exactly what happened last week. It was also a return to the status quo that the party maintained in the 2020-2024 period when the SLPP was in government and the SJB was still the main opposition party, the latter severely criticising the former.

In returning to this stance, the SJB is also sending a strong signal to the UNP. In the lead up to legislation being presented in Parliament on the 22nd Amendment, it was UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe who was liaising extensively with former minister G.L. Peiris to try and make a joint opposition response a reality.

Nevertheless, while Premadasa and the SJB kept the door open for the UNP to join it in protesting against the 22nd Amendment, it clearly indicated its dislike of other opposition parties. It was a stern message to the UNP: in any potential UNP-SJB alliance in the future, the SJB will be the dominant partner notwithstanding the UNP’s longer history and any ‘deals’ the UNP enters enter into with the SLPP will mean that the SJB will keep away from any partnership with the UNP as well.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, they say, and all this boiled down how successful the SJB’s demonstration would be. Indeed, it was a success with a large gathering attending despite the inclement weather. The rowdy scenes witnessed at the SLPP’s recent rally at Anuradhapura were not seen. Later, Premadasa even held a meeting to thank the organisers of the protest, buoyed by this show of strength.

If Premadasa was politically astute, he shouldn’t be complaining about the 22nd Amendment, he should be all for it. It is mostly the SLPP stalwarts including likely rival Namal Rajapaksa who are being currently prosecuted, so why place obstacles in a system that allows for this?

Whether this was Premadasa’s thinking in ‘uninviting’ the SLPP, we do not know. However, he appears to have made a politically correct decision at long last.