Columns

The shifting Sri Lankan political landscape has many implications for the country—right now and in the future. Right up to 1956 the United National Party (UNP) dominated the polity with the left parties such as the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and the Communist Party functioning as the ideologically strong but numerically small political parties.

With the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) sweeping the hustings in 1956, the country took the form of a bi-polar political structure. Right up to 2015 the UNP and SLFP took turns to govern the country until the political dynamics took a different turn in 2015 with Maithripala Sirisena becoming the common Presidential candidate and eventually the President.

The SLFP split early into the Yahapalana rule and the breakaway group headed by Mahinda Rajapaksa formed the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). A similar fate awaited the UNP with the party breaking into two, prior to the 2020 Parliamentary Elections with Sajith Premadasa heading the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB).

Both the SLFP and the UNP were in a sense victims of the differences that emerged between President Maithripala Sirisena and the SLFP on one hand, and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the UNP on the other. As a result many of the positive achievements of the Yahapalana Government were lost on the people and the negatives of the Yahapalana regime were highlighted not only by the SLPP and the forces surrounding it, but even sections of the SLFP who were not aligned to the Yahapalana regime.

The more positive features of the Yahapalana administration including the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe shared legacy of the 19th Amendment and the strengthening of the democratic space was brushed aside in the Presidential and Parliamentary election campaigns. Instead the Yahapalana Government’s governance failures arising from the differences between the two segments of the Government and the indecisiveness arising there from contributed greatly to the victory of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the SLPP Government.

Today it is apparent that the remedy is worse than the disease. Governance is in shambles and the country is saddled with a host of issues that have impacted the daily lives of people. The Government is unable to find answers for these problems.

The Yahapalana administration was hamstrung by indecisiveness because of the two centres of political power (not a justification for such a situation) but the present Government’s ineptness and flip-flopping on vital issues cannot be explained away by such political differences. The SLPP administration is exclusively a unipolar political formation with like-minded allies and is not in any way hamstrung by political differences.

The only explanation for the failures of the present Government are its own lack of capabilities and wrong decision making.

In such a context, the role of the Opposition in keeping the Government on its toes and ensuring that national needs are met has fallen on the SJB and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). However their capacity to do so is largely limited by their numbers in Parliament as well as the COVID-19 pandemic that has prevented mass mobilisation of people on national issues characteristic of vibrant democracies.

The role of the SLFP as the main coalition partner of the Government therefore assumes a greater significance. Despite having 15 Parliamentary seats, the SLFP has been content to play the role of a sleeping partner in the coalition with its voice hardly or never heard on the major issues facing the country.

The SLFP will have to stir itself to be more vocal and influence the course of the Government’s trajectory not in its own political interest but in the larger interest of the country. That playing a more active role may benefit it politically is only incidental but irrelevant. The SLFP owes it to the country to play the role that history has destined for it.

Prior to the Presidential elections the SLPP entered into several agreements with the SLFP to enlist its support for the election campaign. After the elections SLFPers have been given the ‘‘karapincha’’ treatment both at the national level and the constituency level.

Even nominations for the Parliamentary Elections based on the agreements between the SLPP and SLFP were denied to the latter. Consequently the SLFP had to contest some districts including Kalutara and Jaffna on their own.

Even fundamental decisions at the national level are taken by the SLPP without any consultations or participation of the SLFP leadership. However the SLFP as the major coalition partner has to share the responsibility for such decisions and their consequences.

During the latter days of the Yahapalana administration President Maithripala Sirisena was in the habit of stating that after the subsequent Parliamentary elections, the SLFP would have the remote control which powered the Government, in its hand. His prediction has come true and indeed the SLFP has the remote control in its hand. The question SLFPers ask is whether the batteries in the remote control have been removed or whether the remote control is defective.

It is not enough for a few SLFPers when they are confronted with a question to give a voice cut stating:“Yes there is a fertiliser crisis” or “oil prices should not have been increased.” The SLFP needs to assert itself using its political bargaining power in the interests of the people.

Otherwise they too would be guilty of what President Maithripala Sirisena accused SLFPers who refused to take a stand on major issues, namely “wahal manasikathwaya” or “a slave mentality.” (javidyusuf@gmail.com}