Former President Maithripala Sirsena, MP has been working according to a well-thought-out plan to rebuild the SLFP to further his personal interests; he is making the most of the SLPP’s trouble while being part of it. He has been able to prevent the SLFP from being dissolved in the SLPP by holding his parliamentary group together and being critical of some of the government’s key policies including that on green agriculture. He has taken up the cudgels for the farmers affected by the current fertilizer shortage, and opposed the controversial deals which threaten vital state assets such as power plants, land and ports. His strategy has apparently yielded the desired results so far. He has been able to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds; the public does not hold the SLFP responsible for the mess the country has got into under the present government. But he has run into an obstacle in his path.
Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (CBK) is rallying support to throw Sirisena out of the SLFP! She made no bones about her intention when she spoke to the media on Thursday (20) after appearing before the presidential committee tasked with implementing the recommendations of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, which probed alleged instances of political victimization under the yahapalana government. She, true to form, went ballistic, when she spoke of Sirisena.
CBK declared that Sirisena had reduced the SLFP to a mere junior partner of the ruling SLPP coalition, and therefore he had to be ousted for the party to be revitalized. She is sure to go ahead with her plan as she has no other way of remaining relevant in national politics. At 76, she thinks she still has some more years of politics left in her, and it looks as if she sought to make a comeback or have someone malleable installed in power through the SLFP so that she could become the power behind the throne. In fact, that is what she tried to do in 2015, when she joined others in making Sirisena the President.
Cause CBK’s ire
CBK expected Sirisena to be putty in her hand, and so did the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, when they had him elected President. They did not know Sirisena, who had other plans. President Sirisena refused to be manipulated, asserted himself and consolidated his power both in the Yahapalana government and the SLFP, which he took over after winning the presidency. CBK has since been bitterly critical of Sirisena and all out to have him thrown out of the SLFP. She opposed the SLFP’s decision to coalesce with the SLPP, in 2018, but Sirisena not only overruled her but also removed her from the party’s Central Committee, she has said. Hell hath no fury like Chandrika scorned, one may say.
Sirisena has shown that he could get even with anyone if he chooses to do so, as evident from the way he took on the Rajapaksas at the height of their power. CBK could be equally ruthless in fighting her enemies. She worked relentlessly for ten years to bring down President Mahinda Rajapaksa, having failed to prevent him from securing the presidency in 2005. She also had her own brother Anura thrown out of the SLFP in early 1990s, compelling him to join the UNP before returning to the party’s fold years later on her terms.
How much CBK despises Sirisena could be seen from her utterances against him in her recently-launched fawning biography (in Sinhala), Chandrika, written by an author named Tharindu Thotawatte. The book casts him in a very unfavorable light, and the timing of the book is of significance.
CBK’s role in ruining SLFP
Is Chandrika free from blame for what has befallen the SLFP? This is the question one asks when one listens to her berating Sirisena. She has a history of breaking away from the SLFP, and forming different political parties. But the fact remains that she revitalized the SLFP in the early 1990s, and enabled it to return to power after 17 years. She became the Chief Minister of the Western Provincial Council in 1993, and the SLFP-led People’s Alliance (PA) won both the general election and the presidential polls in 1994, under her leadership, ending the SLFP’s prolonged stay in the political wilderness from 1977. Her rise to power was meteoric. She became the Western Province Chief Minister, Prime Minister and President in about one and a half years. But she has always subjugated the SLFP’s interests to hers.
In 2005, Chandrika as the President and SLFP leader went out of her way to queer the pitch for Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was running for President, as she hates the latter, who sided with Anura against her and tried to prevent her from rejoining the SLFP. She first tried to make Anura the presidential candidate in 2005, and when her plan failed, she campaigned against Mahinda. Sirisena himself has revealed this.
When Chandrika joined forces with the UNP, etc., and brought about the 2015 regime change, the SLFP-led UPFA had a two-thirds majority in the parliament. It was at her behest that Sirisena sacked that administration and appointed Wickremesinghe Prime Minister, bringing the UNP back to power. She also backed President Sirisena, who prevented the UPFA from winning the 2015 general election so that Rajapaksa would not be the Prime Minister. He even addressed the nation on the eve of that general election and hinted that he would not appoint Mahinda Prime Minister even if the UPFA won the election and thereby discouraged the SLFP voters who wanted to see Mahinda in that position. However, the UPFA, managed to obtain 95 seats as opposed to the UNP-led UNF’s 106.
Downfall of SLFP
The downfall of the SLFP began the day Sirisena joined the UNP to form a national government. This arrangement had Chandrika’s blessings. That political marriage of convenience proved to be the kiss of death for both the UNP and the SLFP; they suffered debilitating splits as a result and lost their ability to win elections. If the SLFP had given in to Chandrika’s pressure and refrained from breaking ranks with the UNP in 2018 and joining the SLPP coalition to contest the 2020 parliamentary election, it would perhaps have faced the same fate as the UNP, which has been left with only a single seat in the parliament. Sirisena’s decision to coalesce with the SLPP enabled the SLFP to secure 14 seats in the parliament and remain a force to be reckoned with.
The ongoing battle between Sirisena and Chandrika is bound to get dirty and will be a godsend for the SLPP in trouble. That the SLFP was trying to eat into the SLPP’s support base was obvious; Sirisena even had a couple of rounds of talks with the SLPP dissidents, and publicly declared his intention of forming a new political alliance to contest future elections. A divided SLFP will not pose a formidable challenge to the government in case of a breakaway. The SLFP’s internal problems, however, will not save the SLPP, for there are other parties recovering lost ground on the political front, such as the SJB and the JVP; they will pose a challenge to the SLPP. How strong the Opposition has emerged thanks to the government’s bungling would have been evident if the SLPP had not postponed the local government polls.
It is a supreme irony that Sirisena and Chandrika are trying to rebuild the SLFP severally, having ruined it jointly in 2015 to achieve their political goals.
What’s up CBK’s sleeve?
CBK keeps saying that the future of the SLFP lies in the hands of the country’s youth. What is her game plan? When she was in power, she did not practice what she is preaching now. Is she trying to prepare the ground for the entry of a younger member of her family into the SLFP? Sirisena has already done so by having his son, Daham, appointed the Chairman of the SLFP Youth Council in Polonnaruwa. A new political dynasty is in the making. Speculation is rife that he is planning to field Daham as the SLFP’s chief ministerial candidate in the North Central Province. His daughter Chathurika has also been politically active, and she is also likely to enter politics.
The power struggle is getting interesting with CBK trying to play a very active role in politics. She is apparently limbering up for the big show. How the SLPP and the current SLFP leadership will seek to counter her moves remains to be seen.